EMERGENCY FOOD PARCELS - FIRST DELIVERY!

Thanks to our amazing donors and a GoFundMe matching donation challenge, Wild Tomorrow Fund was able to quickly raise funds to make our first delivery of COVID19 emergency-relief food parcels for families living nearby our wildlife reserves in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Read more in our story and video below.

Wild Tomorrow Fund’s Clinton Wright delivered 30 parcels of food to the Makhasa Nduna (tribal leader) and Silethukukhanya Creche Principal Agrineth Thela.

The COVID19 crisis has deeply impacted the vulnerable communities we work with who live next door to our two wildlife reserves in KwaZulu-Natal South Africa. The economic impacts of South Africa’s strict 5-week lockdown are being felt on the ground in our rural community, posing a threat to both people and the protection of wildlife. Similar to the situation unfolding in the United States, many people have lost their jobs and incomes, driving already poor families into deeper poverty and hunger. Community members who were working away from home in the city have returned for the lock-down, putting more pressure on families and their resources. Children in particular are at risk as many depend on a daily meal from school, which has been closed.

As part of Wild Tomorrow Fund’s Community Support program, we quickly sprang into action to organize an emergency hunger relief program. Thanks to our ongoing GoFundMe #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, we raised enough funds for our first delivery this week for 63 families in need.

Together with the Africa Foundation, we worked directly with the traditional community leadership (the Ndunas) to help identify the neediest families, together with the children and families of the two schools and orphans that we already support. Each food parcel contains essentials such as rice, flour, oil, maize meal and canned fish, which will keep families from going hungry for a month. Each parcel included a note from Wild Tomorrow fund with a Zulu saying "Umuntu ngumuntu ngabuntu" which translates to "A person is a person because of people", a message of solidarity and our shared humanity in this difficult time. 

A little girl from the creche watches the delivery with her soft toy Wild Dog, donated by the Reclaimed Earth Volunteer Group in September, thanks to the Miami Zoo Foundation.

Our first delivery was made this Friday to the Makhasa Tribal Authority. We loaded up our WTF bakkie with over 30 food parcels for the people that live alongside our Mfuleni wildlife corridor, including the families of the children who attend our new Thelelulwazi Creche. Then on Tuesday, we made a second delivery of 30 food parcels to the families of the children of the Silethukukanya Creche. We also donated hunger relief funds to Habanathi EC Charity to enable Pastor Bonga to purchase food package for all 25 families who care for orphans, including several child-headed families.

Wild Tomorrow Fund could not have made these much needed deliveries without the help of every single donor who contributed to our campaign. Thanks to you, a total of 88 amazing families & their children in our community will make not go hungry this month. Thank you to all who donated. We hope you watch the video to see the people and children you’ve helped.

With the end of this crisis not yet in sight, we know this families will need another food delivery next month. Let’s show them our continued support. If you’d like to help contribute to our June hunger relief delivery, please donate below. You can choose to support one household or many. Every contribution matters.