COLORING THE RAINBOW NATION THROUGH COVID-19

Update:

Thank you all who have helped with the support for the parcels. A number of parcels have been distributed. My dad, Evan had to transfer the funds himself to the program as I could not connect the South African Rotary account to this.  So when you see my dad as the beneficiary it is because he had to withdraw the funds received and transfer it to their account himself.  

See the link to the Rotary club in  Benoni.

https://www.rotaryvanryn.org/post/colouring-the-rainbow-nation-through-covid-19

Thank you to all of you who have helped with this.  We have impacted quite a few lives already and I am hoping we can help more.  See the photos and the messages from the distributors in South Africa.  Thank you Rotary for your support of me during this program and to all the kind supporters.



I have walked Amber over 40km already. :-) 


Thank you
Jonathan



Hi! My name is Jonathan Bath and I am a Grade 8 student at Rockridge Secondary located in West Vancouver. I grew up in South Africa and moved to Vancouver 9 months ago. Covid-19 has had such an impact on all of our lives. I would never have imagined not being able to go to school or see my friends.  The one thing that has stood out for me during this crisis, is how lucky I am to be a part of a community who cares so deeply about each other. They have really worked together to help each other through this time.

I am wondering whether the community of Vancouver could reach out 16 000km  to a lesser fortunate community in South Africa. I have been researching the impact of the Coronavirus lockdown on the communities in South Africa. As you know South Africa has 56 million people with many unaccounted immigrants making this number even larger. The vast majority of the community lives in high poverty conditions under normal circumstances and many jobs are informal jobs. With people being locked down, so many families do not have access to any food. Most families rely on some form of support and during this time it must be extremely difficult for them. I have read that some children are struggling to get even one meal a day. Most articles I have seen are saying that the poverty levels have increased a lot and people are getting more and more desperate.

My grandfather is a Past President of the Rotary van Ryn Club and I reached out to him to ask if he had heard of any desperate plights in South Africa. He said that as many as 23 families have already reached out to the Rotary Club for support. I would like to invite those who can, to help me raise funds for these 23 families. My target is $3000. These funds are needed as soon as possible, as South Africa is already in their fourth week of lockdown. All funds will go to the Rotary van Ryn Club where it will be ensured that the funds are distributed equally between these families.

I have a dream of building a link between our beautiful West Vancouver and the informal townships in the Benoni City of Gauteng. For every $10 donated to the fund, I pledge to walk 0.5km with my dog, Amber.


Meet my mascot, Amber!