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“You don’t need to have a child to be part of our group. All you need to have is a heart of a mother, who is willing to help her child and that of others.”
These were the words of Venessa Avriaanse, spokesperson for a newly established group called Mothers for Justice, to a group of women from Cathkin Village in Heideveld last Thursday.
Avriaanse explains the new group, which aims to assist residents with their needs, was launched earlier this month after a visit from City of Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille (“Mayor stops in Heideveld,” Peoples Post, 4 September).
“We have always been on our feet to ensure that assistance is rendered in our community, especially to our women and children. With the mayor’s visit, we just decided to take things a bit further and to establish a proper structure for our people,” she explains.
“Our group consists of various organisations in the community that have come together to form one Mothers for Justice group. We consist of both young and old women who have taken up the challenge to take things into our own hands.
“We are here to let our mothers know that they will no longer fight alone and that we will not tolerate further violence against women and children. We have come to that point where if we hear loud screams, we make our way into homes to ensure they (women and children) are not abused by men.”
She says the group aims to get into households with the purpose of identifying the social needs of families in the community and have already taken up several tasks.
“We are losing most of our men in our homes, and this is due to substance abuse and gangsterism. They no longer come home to their families to provide food on the table. Our families now look up to us mothers to provide for them.
“Heideveld has many challenges and it is being overlooked by the government. We as mothers will take the first step to go a bit further and help our community, because we are the people who sit and live with these issues daily.”
De Lille donated two containers to the mothers, which are set to be placed within Cathkin Village, a settlement established last year, due to the reported lack of housing and service delivery.
“These containers will be used for office work and other relevant projects to benefit the people of Heideveld.”
