Digging Deep To Save Lives

A charity better known for its work in Middle-Eastern war zones, has recently gone to the rescue of Afrikaner farmers and their workers in the remote, drought-stricken town of Sutherland.

- Susan Segar

It’s NiNe o’CloCk oN a wiNtry Tuesday in June and Billy Joel’s Piano Man is playing loudly as I jump into the Gift of the Givers’ four-by-four driven by Badrealam “Badr” Kazi, the relief organisation’s government and corporate relations manager. I’m joining him on a mission to deliver emergency supplies from Cape Town to drought-stricken Sutherland in the Karoo.

Following us will be two huge trucks loaded with water tanks, food and blankets for the farmers and farm workers of the Northern Cape town – better-known for the deep-space observatory sited in this remote location because of its clear, dark night skies and relative absence of human activity.

It is Ramadan, and although Kazi is fasting, he offers me water and points to a big bag of figs and dates, my padkos for the trip. We stop briefly to see that all is on track at the NGO’s storage facility in Maitland where the trucks are being loaded. Gift of the Givers stores packs of bottled water, water tanks and other emergency supplies here – enough to literally pave fields. This site, formerly the Maitland abattoir, is now owned by the Department of Public Works.

A news update in June issued by Gift of the Givers – also known as Waqful Waqifin Foundation – warned that Sutherland was in serious trouble. It reads:

“Man, animal and the environment are in tremendous difficulty. The area is experiencing its worst drought in 100 years. All 200 boreholes that served the region have dried out. As the water table has dropped substantially, the total sheep count has dropped to 25%, [