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South Africa: A concerted effort by Ikageng and other South African Organizations to distribute hygiene kits in support of the RB-UNAIDS initiative during the COVID-19 pandemic

16 August 2021

This is the experience of Ms. Carol Dyantyi,  the founder and the Program Manager at Ikageng (South Africa), one of the organizations that benefitted from the donation. Most of the families that received the donation of cleaning materials from Ikageng are hostel dwellers. As such, they would not be able to afford the cleaning materials provided by Reckitt Benckiser. Many of these hostel dwellers are also unemployed, whilst others are too young to be commercially engaged.

“As such”, said Ms. Dyantyi, “this donation gave them hope that finally, they could sanitize, wash their hands – and protect themselves and their families. This donation also meant that they could keep clean and protected against COVID-19. It brought a tear to my eye, just to see that this simple intervention, made such a difference in their lives – and that they were so grateful that there were people out there, who cared about them and their plight. The whole event was very emotional as some of them, out of gratitude, wept and sobbed as a means of saying "thank you", when words were not sufficient.

“Clearly”, said Ms. Dyantyi, “the donation meant that they could finally adhere to regulations and be safe, especially as the donation took place during Level 4 of the Lockdown. I also had to make sure that as families were selected,  that all regulations were observed. We also had to stagger the number of families we donated to, as the process took us three days to finish”.

 “Nevertheless”, she continued, “the process was positive through and through. It was so gratifying to see how much this was appreciated by all recipients of the donation.  The best mechanisms were set up - and we could not have asked for more. It clearly meant so much to our beneficiaries.”

“It still makes me weep when I reflect on how much this meant to these people”, she said.