The daily provision of critical food hampers to needy people in the rural areas surrounding Verulam,
severely compromised by a charitable organisation’s vehicle having to be removed from the road, is
back on track thanks to the South African Muslim Charitable Trust’s (SAMCT) recent R380 000
sponsorship of a new truck.
The Verulam-based charitable and humanitarian organisation, Serving the Needy, has, since
inception in 2014, provided the vulnerable in the town and surrounding rural areas with daily feeding
schemes, monthly grocery hampers and regular clothing drives. However, its old, unreliable vehicle
was recently deemed unroadworthy and had to be removed from the road, forcing Serving the
Needy to curtail its vital food provision, leaving many it serves hungry.
Mr. Gaff Osman, a representative of the SAMCT, said of the organization’s vehicle donation: “Hunger
is a growing problem in South Africa. Poverty and hunger go hand-in-hand and is a vicious cycle from
which it is extremely difficult to escape. The food and hamper programme operated by Serving the
Needy in the broader rural Verulam area, where poverty is rife, is absolutely critical – but wholly
dependent on tough and reliable transport for its success.”
He added: “Learning of the organisation’s desperate need for a replacement vehicle, the SAMCT was
quick to respond, funding the purchase of a new truck, so ensuring the resumption of Serving the
Needy’s daily food and clothing runs to the region’s impoverished and, especially, children facing the
energy and strength-sapping consequences of acute hunger.”
Serving the Needy provides meals to the vulnerable on a daily basis and conducts grocery hamper
distribution drives each month. It is further actively involved in regular clothing and Winter warmth
initiatives, disaster response and the loan of medical equipment to the disabled and elderly, whilst
also providing partial bursaries and rendering both life coaching and counselling services.
“This is an organisation that recognises that many children, families and communities in the area are
in crisis, living in abject poverty and facing hunger on a daily basis. These people are desperate for
assistance to break the poverty cycle, but with high levels of unemployment and inflation and low
skills levels, it is becoming increasingly difficult for families to provide even the basics necessary for
survival. In such circumstances, it is the children who suffer most. Serving the Needy works to lighten
the burden on these deprived households and communities, which is why we pledged our support of
this most worthy organisation,” Mr. Osman said.
The SAMCT was created in 2008, the result of a partnership between Old Mutual Unit Trusts and Al
Baraka Bank, for the creation, marketing and distribution of a suite of Shariah Funds. The
organisation provides funding, services and other resources for the improvement of the lives of the
vulnerable, deprived and disadvantaged. It has been singularly successful in delivering sizeable
assistance solutions throughout South Africa – irrespective of race or religion – and continues to work
to support needy organisations in the fields of healthcare, social development, poverty alleviation
and education.
“Serving the Needy strives to alleviate poverty by aiding the poor, needy and disadvantaged, and set
out to, especially, ease the suffering of children from disadvantaged homes and communities. In
particular, its hunger alleviation work in Verulam and its environs is vital and it is our fervent hope,
therefore, that our vehicle sponsorship will help the organisation both resume and expand its
outreach operations in support of hunger alleviation in this especially vulnerable region,” Mr. Osman
said.