15 Apr 2020

Over 2 000 households, which were in dire need of food baskets have been assisted, the Kweneng District Council secretary has said.

Speaking in an interview, Mr Goleba Kgari said the number was from the 4 388 households, which had been assessed in the entire district adding that the households needed urgent assistance.

Further, he said over 6 000 children had been provided with food, which was given to schools.

The council secretary said these were the children who had been adversely affected by closure of schools as they depended on the school feeding programme.

He explained that the households were not under any government programme but were led by people who had various sources of income, which had been affected by the lockdown.

Mr Kgari said they had engaged 70 social workers to undertake the assessment exercise, adding that their intention was to have at least one social worker in every village.

He said they were working with the district commissioner and the agriculture ministry in ensuring that food would be sourced from local farms.

Mr Kgari said they could not complete within the stipulated time and therefore they were continuing with their assessment.

“Social workers are to go house-to-house assessing the number of households that would require assistance from government as a number of families have been affected by extreme social distancing which was an answer to COVID-19.

They are to collect the number of people per household, education and employment status.

Where the situation is urgent, the families are assisted immediately. Ends