Community
officials of Newcastle Luthando Hospice Association saw their days of agonising
coming to an end on Tuesday, December 04, 2012 when they received a vehicle to
use when travelling to take care of the ill at their homes.
A
portion of R500 000 the hospice received as a sponsorship from Lotto
Distribution Fund in March this year, was used to acquire the brand new sedan.
According
to the manager of the association, Ntombi Khumalo, working without a vehicle
has been an obstacle that prevented them from regularly visiting the sick
people in need of care.
She
said now that they have a car, they will be able to help more people and be
available when they are needed.
“We
are very thankful to Lotto. This car
will help expand our services to the community,” said Mrs Khumalo.
The
association which operates near the Newcastle train station takes care of 104
people around Newcastle. It voluntarily
gives help to people who live with disabilities, HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and
other diseases.
Khumalo
expanded on some of the challenges they were facing when they needed to visit
people they are looking after.
“We
found it hard to walk to some of the homes, sometimes we would even not find
some of them,” explained Mrs Khumalo.
An
assistant manager Thembi Maphalala said it felt good when someone was thriving
whom she had helped.
“It
becomes painful seeing someone suffering and one has no means of helping them
but since we’ve been given this car I know we’ll do more,” Ms Maphalala
optimistically said.
Ms
Maphalala further explained although they had received donations from various
instances but financial burden never diminished, as funds are always necessary
to keep the hospice up and running.
