CORONAVIRUS TO HIT SOUTH AFRICA MOST

Most children, the elderly and the homeless are the ones who will be mostly affected by the COVID-19 in South Africa. The novel CoronaVirus has already infected 161 and 61 of those infected are from the Gauteng Province with 31 new cases as of 18 March 2020. The Gauteng Province is the smallest of all 9 Provinces in the country and is the economic hub of the continent of Africa.

The South African government has decreed that all schools be closed as of 17 March 2020 in reaction to the pandemic and thus leaving those learners that depend on school feeding schemes without the much needed nutritious supplement. South Africa has a high number of HIV infected people at 7.7 million (20.4 of the population are infected). 200000 South Africans are homeless and childheaded households stands at 50000. 21% of the households are elderly headed with children aged 0-6.

The closure of schools simply means that most children are likely to be exposed to the CoronaVirus with no adults to monitor them. Of those children that will be exposed, a high number of them are HIV/AIDS orphans in the child and elderly headed households. Orphans and the homeless will be highly affected including the illiterate elderly that have no conception of what CoronaVirus is and the causes thereof. The HIV infected will not escape the scourge of CoronaVirus as well.

Madibaism and other volunteers have taken it upon themselves to help in combatting the pandemic and thus request donations in kind that includes facial masks, gloves, food parcels and education material related to CoronaVirus. We seek to translate these materials into local vernacular to make an impact. We are also raising funds at https://t.co/ITMT1x2FQW to help acquire such material and proper shelter for the homeless in Gauteng. We appeal to the human milk of kindness of all concerned citizens of the world to help us fight the CoronaVirus scourge by donating at https://t.co/ITMT1x2FQW.