This morning we visited Apple Way, an illegal site of shacks which is home to around 75 families. It is approached by muddy potholed tracks full of litter. Sadly there are plans to demolish all the buildings in around March to make way for a road. There is great uncertainty as to where these poor families will be relocated. Pastor Jackie has been working closely with two other missionaries to support the families involved. They have a short term strategy to help them survive through the winter by repairing leaking roofs, sawing and chopping their wood together with purchase of essential medication.
Many of the families do not have bulletins (ID's) and hence the state will have no obligation to help them. Liaison is taking place with the Forester in allowing the residents to take all the dead wood from the adjoining forest. Jackie and friends are also liaising with the State regarding the provision of land on the outskirts of the city. Please pray for favourable outcomes to these discussions.
Today we visited several families - each with a different heartbreaking story to tell. Included in our visits was expectant mother Claudia, aged just 20 and her 3 children. Her home had burned down in April and the charity had provided funding to help build another one. Today she was hungry like most of the other families on site and we distributed a supply of cakes/sweets which had been donated by Alan Penrose's Foundation from Cardiff when he delivered our shoeboxes etc.
I hope the pictures give an indication of the desperate lives of these poor people. The little building on its own is home to a family of 10.
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