Communities asked to help meet the need
NG Welfare launches Helplift Network
The air in the NG Church Culembeeck’s hall was filled with expectation yesterday afternoon (22 June) when a new concept to help communities in need was explained.
The church, in conjunction with the NG Welfare Witpoortjie, hosted social workers from various schools and organisations in the community, old age home coordinators as well as other community leaders to introduce a Helplift and Meet the Need Network.
The Helplift Network was founded in August 2008 and used successfully in Pretoria. It has grown into an effective and practical network that links the resources of givers to the needs of the community on a local, regional and national level.
This type of network is being used as an internal tool by the church itself, and according to Yolandi, it is working beautifully. “But, we would like to share this with the broader community, to see if we could help each other out in this way,” she said.
She explained the process as follow, “We work on gifts and needs. If we have baby clothes for a girl of between three and six months old (gift), but do not have someone in our church to donate it to (need), we would like to be able to connect with organisations outside the church that have this need. The same goes for your organisations. But, we will not only have gifts and needs on this group, you could also offer your professional services on it. This way we will be able to help meet the need,” she said. Yolandi added that the network could also be used to advertise workshops, fundraising projects, community outreaches and many other activities.
Everyone present was very excited about this project, and decided that the network will be in the form of a WhatsApp group on which their different gifts, needs and services will be communicated.
Yolandi urged organisations that are interested in joining the network to contact her on 079 354 7902 or send an email to dsyolandi@gmail.com.
“Our aim is to support, encourage and celebrate acts of compassion within the broader community,” she concluded.
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