BY OWETHU DLAMINI
MBABANE– A ray of light in the midst of darkness.
A young 24 year-old man will finally be able to take care of himself and his grandmother through the help of Baphalali Eswatini Red Cross Society. This was according to a statement shared by the organisation on their social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter), sharing Bheki Ntshangase’s story.
According to the organisation, the young man from Lunkuntfu community has gotten the chance to be one of the Cash Transfer beneficiaries. This is a project supported by European Union Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), Finnish Red Cross and the Belgian Red Cross.
Ntshangase, according to Eswatini Red Cross has lived with a disability since he was 14 years old after being struck by a rare disease. He shared his sentiments with the organisation where he mentioned that seeing his peers going to work to support their families pained him as he wished he could do the same but could not due to him living with a disability.
“Being a cash transfer beneficiary gives me great pleasure as at least we will no longer go to bed hungry with my grandmother,” said Bheki through Eswatini Red Cross.
During an interview with Nontobeko Mbuyane, Public Relations Officer (PRO) at Eswatini Red Cross, it was mentioned that the project was aimed at alleviating the suffering of the most vulnerable communities and the beneficiaries of the programme were selected based on their food insecurity level.
“This was done using a community-based targeting approach, which considers community leadership, relief committees and the community. We investigated those with completely failed (zero per cent) harvest in the 2021/2022 harvest season, those with at least 50 per cent of household assets already depleted, and those with very low household income, and also looked into access to food, which includes the number of meals a day, adult consumption and the type of food they have access to,” said Mbuyane.
The PRO also shared that the disbursement of funds to the households would be done between October this year and February 2023.
“The project, valued at around E30 million and will run for a period of three years,” she said.
Mbuyane finally added that Bheki was a beneficiary just like other vulnerable community members in Lunkuntfu and other communities, including Hosea, Sigwe, Lubulini and Nkilongo who would be receiving monthly cash grants of E800 per household.
