The LottoStar and East Coast Radio 100 households initiative continues to provide assistance and hope to five more families during this difficult time. Listen to East Coast Radio each day to nominate a family or household in need of financial relief.

These are the families who received R10 000, today:

Recipient 1, Thandiwe Ngcobo

Thandiwe works for Michelle Harvey who nominated her as one of the recipients of R10 000. She helps with the housework and with looking after Michelle’s children amongst many other things. Thandiwe lives with the Harvey family during the week and has now gone home to be with her family during the lockdown. Although Michelle is still paying Thandiwe, she fears that it will not be enough to get Thandiwe and her family through this difficult time. Michelle would like Thandiwe to be fully taken care of and not have to worry about paying bills and putting food on the table for her family.

Recipient 2 Ameetha Maharaj

Ameetha is a single mother to two daughters, she began a new job last month as she was looking for more stability for her daughters. Ameetha, unfortunately has to look for another place to live as her landlord is selling the property where her and her daughters currently live. Ameetha is struggling to make ends meet and has started selling some of her household appliances to pay for a deposit for a new place to rent. Ameetha was nominated by Prevasha Govender.

Recipient 3, Saras Moonsamy

50-year-old widow and mother to three, Saras has been through “the test of time”. She survived two abusive marriages and has given her testimony about her abusive relationships to broken-hearted women at many functions. She called herself “bent but not broken.” Saras rents a small outbuilding and she feeds the needy from her garden of herbs, mealies, pumpkin, tomatoes and much more. Saras worked for a family in their neighbourhood, cooking cleaning, tiling and painting for them. A week before the lockdown she was told by the family that they would be deducting her wages if she did not work on weekends. Saras does a lot for the community and she has been through many hardships in her life but she is still smiling to the world with Love. Saras was nominated by Angie Down.

Recipient 4, Sandra Samuel

Sandra was nominated by her daughter-in-law as one of the recipients of R10 000. Sandra is a 52-year-old woman who was medically diagnosed with heel spurs on both feet and cervical spondylosis therefore she is unable to work. Unfortunately, there is no cure for her diagnosis and only symptomatic treatment for the pain. She is in chronic pain and finds it difficult to walk due to the heel spurs and she cannot get out of bed due to extreme pain experienced on her spine. In addition to her diagnosis, Sandra takes care of her 76-year-old mother, who has severe deep vein thrombosis and a necrotizing leg. Her only source of income is from her son who works on a part-time basis for an awning company. Unfortunately, her son struggles with a substance abuse problem and contributes the bare minimum to help his mother financially. Sandra uses her mother’s social grant to pay for their electricity and water but they cannot not pay the full amount each month. They struggle to make ends meet and due to the lockdown, their financial situation has gotten worse. Her son isn’t working due to the lockdown and has given his mom R200 to take care of the house financially during this lockdown period but this is not enough. Sandra takes care of her neighbours’ grandchild - she goes to work without any compensation, but she loves the child as her own.