Buffalo City Metro donates R1.4m to NPOs

BUFFALO City Metro has allocated R1.4-million to support 271 non-profit organisations (NPOs) in its area of jurisdiction.

Yesterday executive mayor Xola Pakati handed over cheques to the NPOs at a ceremony held in the East London City Hall.

He said the metro had been inundated with applications from NPOs asking for financial assistance and that BCM’s grants-in-aid committee, which assists in choosing NPOs to be funded by the metro, had scrutinised all the applicants and selected the deserving organisations.

“I urge all beneficiaries to implement effective and efficient financial management. As the city, we humbly request that the grant be exclusively utilised for the purposes intended in the agreement reached,” he said.

“The average amount we would allocate to each NPO is about R10 000 so as to ensure each organisation benefits and can carry out their work efficiently.”

Pakati said the centres which received the funding included child and youth centres, HIV/Aids centres, social and welfare organisations, homebased centres, early childhood development centres, arts and culture organisations, disabled and old age centres, support groups, and alcohol and drug centres.

“We do recognise the sterling work done by NGOs and we also acknowledge the fact that these organisations are confronted with serious financial and capacity challenges.

“It is imperative that we constantly provide meaningful support to their work in order for them to assist us as government to address the overwhelming development challenges we are faced with which include education and health,” Pakati said.

Pakati also visited The Little Kids Centre in Duncan Village yesterday.

Centre owner Liziwe Mthetho said they had experienced many challenges, such as not having decent classroom structures as well as running water, in the past four years.

“We still need donations because we are just scraping by. We are still in need of help to turn our place into a decent daycare centre,” she said.

Mthetho was unable to say how much she had received from the grant but welcomed the donation.

NPO Food for Life in Braelyn, which serves nutritious vegetarian meals to needy people in the area, also received financial boost.

Coordinator Bimal Ramnunan said they received R15 000 from the grant aid. “We are excited about the donation, anything will help us feed more people. This money will help us feed close to 1 000 people which is really great,” he said. —