Emergency Aid Fund

The Emergency Aid Fund supports people and families facing sudden hardship.

This fund is restricted to beneficiaries living in the Mandeni Area

When illness, a house fire, loss of work or another sudden crisis puts a family in urgent need, the Brotherhood of Blessed Gérard’s Emergency Aid Fund can respond in the greater Mandeni area. Our social worker visits people and assesses their circumstances so that help reaches those who need it most.

Support may include food, clothing, blankets, medicine or medical aids, and practical help after a fire or flood. Each case is considered individually. The fund also helps families bridge other unforeseen emergencies.

Our aim is to offer timely, practical assistance with care and dignity. The reports below describe examples from earlier years.

Read Emergency Aid stories

Emergency Aid Fund – Help when it is needed most

Please note: Once you watch the video, data will be transmitted to Youtube/Google. For more information, see Google Privacy.

Help after a devastating house fire (1 October 2024)

The family home damaged by the fire in October 2024 — The family home after the fire. Photo: Newsletter No. 43/44 (2025), p. 13.

On 1 October 2024, a fire changed one family’s life in an instant. It started on the upper floor of their home and destroyed their belongings, including important personal documents.

The parents and their two children suddenly lacked essentials such as food, clothing, blankets and household items. One of the children was still at school.

The Emergency Aid Fund responded with food parcels, clothing, blankets and household goods. Staff also offered counselling and continued to support the family as they found a way forward.

This story shows how timely, practical help can make a difference when a family loses its home. Source: Newsletter No. 43/44 (2025), pp. 13–14. Read the newsletter (PDF)

Support after losing a home (18 September 2024)

Emergency Aid Fund staff visiting a young man — Emergency Aid Fund staff visiting the young man. Photo: Newsletter No. 43/44 (2025), p. 13.

A young man came to the Care Centre after losing his accommodation. While working away from Mandeni, he had hoped to secure a home. Because he was very young, local community leaders had asked him to apply together with an older person, and his mother applied for the RDP house while he was away.

In September 2024 she told him to leave because the house was registered in her name. With no job or other accommodation, he moved into a small shack that he had once used as a kiosk.

Our social worker listened, offered counselling and provided a food parcel. The team continued to support him as he looked for a safer and more stable place to live.

Source: Newsletter No. 43/44 (2025), p. 13. Read the newsletter (PDF)

Food aid after the floods (4–5 May 2022)

A food parcel is handed to a family with children after the floods in Hlomendlini — Food assistance for a family affected by the floods in Hlomendlini, 4 May 2022 (newsletter no. 42).

A food parcel is handed to a family affected by the floods in Ngulule — Food assistance for a family in Ngulule, 5 May 2022 (newsletter no. 42).

After severe flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, the Emergency Aid Fund brought food to a family in Hlomendlini on 4 May 2022. Ms Mkhumbuzi lived there with her two children. The floodwater had soaked their food and clothing.

The following day, the twelve-member Manqele family in Ngulule also received a food parcel. Both accounts show how practical assistance can ease the first days after a flood.

Source: newsletter no. 42 (2023), p. 7 (PDF).

House destroyed by fire (25.8.2020)

Man stands beside a burned roundhouse — Ruins of a roundhouse in Mandeni after the fire on 25 August 2020; original photograph from newsletter no. 39/40 (2021), p. 19.

On 25 August 2020, a fire destroyed Lungani Fakude’s round hut near Mandeni. His bed, clothes, blankets, refrigerator and identity document were lost. He moved into the main house shared with his sister and her son.

Social worker Nana Masikane visited the family the next day. The Emergency Aid Fund provided food, cooking utensils, clothing and blankets to help them through the immediate crisis.

Source: Newsletter No. 39/40 (2021), p. 19.

Fire disaster (4.9.2019)

Small rural dwelling with laundry hanging outside — Family home pictured with the report on the 2019 fire (Newsletter No. 39/40, p. 19).

On 4 September 2019, a fire spread from a nearby forest and destroyed five round huts belonging to the K. family. They could not save their belongings and had nowhere to stay.

The Brotherhood gave the family temporary shelter in its Care Centre and Hospice. When they later moved in with neighbours, the Emergency Aid Fund provided clothes, blankets, cooking utensils and food parcels for three months.

Source: Newsletter No. 39/40 (2021), p. 19.

Help for two brothers (2016)

Archive heading of a 2016 aid report — Heading of the original report in newsletter no. 35 (2016), p. 13; not a photograph of the children.

In the 2016 newsletter, social worker Nomfundo Myeza tells of two brothers whose neighbour asked for help. After their mother died, people nearby looked out for the boys but could not meet all their needs.

Myeza advised the neighbour to report the situation to the social services department so the children could receive longer-term support. The Emergency Aid Fund also provided shoes, clothes and blankets, as well as food parcels for three months. Myeza and the neighbour agreed to keep in touch if further help was needed.

The boys remain anonymous in this account. The newsletter gives no information about what happened to them later. The image reproduces only the original report’s heading; it is not a portrait of the children.

Source: Newsletter no. 35 (2016), p. 13: “No Chance to Receive Support?”.

Support for a family in need (2015)

The 2015 newsletter tells of a family facing illness, missing identity documents and severe material hardship at the same time. The names in the report are pseudonyms. Social worker Myeza helped arrange medical care, obtain documents and make school attendance possible for the children.

Food and clothing met the most urgent needs. Advice and reliable follow-up also helped the family access further support. Their experience shows how the Emergency Aid Fund and social work at the Care Centre can work together.

The newsletter photograph shows a domestic setting as an illustration; it is not identified as a photograph of this family.

Source: Newsletter no. 34 (2015), p. 3: “When you’re lacking the essentials of life”.

A piece of Africa as no tourist knows it (1993)

In her article "A piece of Africa as no tourist knows it" Diane von Wrede writes:

"With Father Gerhard, I visited an old man one afternoon who was suffering from a bad skin disease that caused him constant itching.
Although he could be treated successfully several times in the hospital, it was extremely problematic to follow the medical instructions - wash thoroughly four times a day and apply an ointment, in addition always clean clothes and bed linen well - in his bush dwelling; the nearest water point is about 10 kilometres away.
Thus he became infected again and again.
Donations from the Brotherhood were used to build a water tank right next to his house, from which he can now always draw water.
Only through this relatively "trivial" measure could his illness be brought under control.