Hundreds of people have opened their hearts and wallets to assist a family who had lost everything after their four homes burnt down.
More than 100 car club members, as well as the community and neighbourhood watch groups gathered on Sunday to hand over goods worth over R10 000 to the devastated families.
Last Tuesday, 13 relatives including a six-month old baby, were left homeless after a fire broke out in The Hague Street, Malibu Village, and destroyed four Wendy houses in a matter of minutes.
Their desperate plea for help was heard by community leaders like Coreen Herman, Norman Lakay and Susan Lakay from the Greater Blue Downs Eerste River Forum.
Together with neighbour Gail Arendse, and Shiraaz Ajouhaar of Militia Car Crew, they collected donations of food parcels, clothing and even shelter in the form of a tent for the families.
Shiraaz, who is the founder of the car club, led a 100-strong convoy to the scene of the fire on Sunday.
“I saw pictures of a place that burnt down on WhatsApp and on Facebook and saw that the area in the image looked like my neighbourhood, and a day later a lady, Coreen Herman, asked me if I can’t ask the crews to donate items whether it be food, clothing or money because the family had lost everything in the fire,” he says.
He decided to hold a collection drive and designed a poster which was shared on social media.
“I was surprised to see all the support we got from car crews such as Sabre Nation, DubCiti, Black Edition MK1’s, Cape Crew, German Stance, Toyota Lunatics, Wolfpack, Polo 9, Outlaws and individuals from different communities all over Cape Town,” says Shiraaz.
Coreen says the response was fantastic.
“The youngest is a six-month-old baby and, it being winter, I knew we had to do something,” she says.
“I made contacted with Shiraaz and we all managed to raise R10 000 worth of goods for them.”
Jacque West, 35, one of the family members whose home had burnt down, believes the cause of the fire was an electrical fault.
“I was at home when the fire started and was on my cellphone speaking to my wife when I realised there’s something burning,” he says.
“The fire swept through to each house within five minutes.
“We want to say thank you to everyone - the churches, mosques, neighbourhood watch, the Greater Blue Downs Eerste River forum, the community."