Foreign migrants from other parts of Africa are a particularly vulnerable sector of the South African population and have been among those especially hard hit by lockdown. In Hillbrow the Temple Israel Heritage Centre (TIHC), headed up by long-serving SAJBD Gauteng Council member Reeva Forman, has partnered with Africa Awake, headed by Jewish community member Romy Peterson, to provide Congolese and Nigerian refugees/migrants in Hillbrow, Yeoville and Bellevue with food parcels, as well as Ewallet cash and Checkers vouchers.
Some of those in the forefront of the relief effort are themselves foreign migrants. Former Burundi national Pastor Tom Fikiri Masarara of Mercy Church has for the past two years been providing teenage girls in the Tshepisong and Lehae townships with sanitary pads through the unregistered NGO he has set up. With the assistance of the TIHC, a generous donation was received from the Johannesburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, enabling Pastor Tom to distribute food parcels and hygienic materials to needy residents of the two townships, whether South African or foreign born. The Chamber, again with the TIHC’s involvement, also assisted Pastor Paul Makara from the DRC, who works with refugees in Yeoville and Berea.
Photographs show recent distribution of food parcels & sanitary pads by Mercy Church in the Tshepisong and Lehae townships
