WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING?

In a slum on the outskirts of a South African city, a community group reached out to a school to support girls who were victims of violence.  This modest beginning has since grown to include programmes for boys to give them hope of a life outside criminal gangs by offering career guidance and vocational training. They increased its capacity to include more schools and now runs a soup kitchen and supports overstretched and underfunded local clinics.

Crossroads’ first shipment to this group impacted this community at many levels: from the provision of hospital beds for a clinic serving 370,000 residents, to shoes and blankets that provided a welcome boost to vulnerable individuals.

For this shipment, they have particularly asked for appliances such as sewing machines, fridges and microwaves to start a skills training project for widows as well as school furniture, computers – and of course, as many shoes, clothes and household goods as we can fit into a container.

As well as helping to build and equip larger organisations such as schools and clinics, Crossroads’ partners also help individuals and families in need.

Below: Mama Tiny is a widow recovering from a severe stroke.  All her possessions were sold from her home to cover hospital bills. She received new furniture, appliances and a blanket out of Crossroads’ previous shipment to her community.

The director of a drop-in centre that received boxes of new toys was almost in tears as she explained that this event was an “early Christmas” to many of the children who attend because they had never had any toy to call their own before, let alone a brand new one!

Crossroads is grateful to be able to assist this project in its work for the poorest people in South Africa. 

Living conditions are challenging in the areas covered by the project.

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After the end of Sierra Leone’s extended civil war, a group of people who wanted to help the country rebuild decided to provide educational opportunities for children in their own communities. They raised funds to build simple school buildings and to pay teachers’ salaries.  As the schools became established, our partners realised that students and their families also needed basic health education and medical services, and later employment opportunities for those in remote areas. This led them to start a clinic, with a travelling health clinic team, and establish village bakeries.

They are planning to build and equip dormitories for senior secondary school students, open a micro-finance office, and provide simple poverty relief supplies such as shoes and clothing.

This shipment will include items ranging from mattresses and kitchen supplies for dormitories to office furniture, computers, and clothing.

Benjamin’s story

When our partners opened a primary school in Benjamin’s district, he became the first person in his family ever to attend school. Despite a 6 km walk between school and his family’s farming plot, he excelled at his studies. Benjamin not only finished primary school but also secondary school and then graduated from university with a teaching degree. As a teacher, he enjoys being an example and a source of encouragement for children who come from similar backgrounds.

Esther’s story

When Esther’s family moved to a small village, she was afraid that her schooling would come to an end. She was delighted to discover our partners’ secondary school there with “diligent and knowledgeable” staff.

When a nurse visited the school to give lessons on health and hygiene, Esther immediately knew that she too wanted to become a health professional. She is now in her second year, studying nursing at university.

This modest, 5-room school is built and staffed by our partners. It is the only secondary school in this district of northern Sierra Leone.

This shipment will include stationery, books, furniture and other school supplies to provide educational opportunities for many others like Esther and Benjamin.

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Crossroads’ Ukrainian partner has, for many years, been working to bridge the gap between rapidly developing cities and rural communities that are among the poorest in Europe. Before the Ukraine conflict began last year, we sent multiple shipments of items including hospital beds and equipment, school furniture, computers and electrical appliances that have been much used and well cared for.

Since the conflict began however, needs have changed as villages in the west of the country find themselves hosting large numbers of internally displaced people – mostly the elderly, women and children – in whatever rooms they can find. Spare classrooms, barns and clinic waiting rooms are all pressed into service in communities which scarcely have enough resources for their own people. We are delighted to be able to assist our partners by sending a second container of household furniture, bedding, clothes, and toys to benefit both the original village inhabitants and the many displaced people now sharing their space.

What has encouraged us most is your efforts to make this container possible in such difficult times for us. –NGO worker

After days of sleeping in open fields or on basement floors in bombed-out buildings, this mother and son delights at having a real room, bed, mattress and covers!

This shipment will contain many more such household necessities to help villages with few resources host their countrymen who have escaped from war-torn areas.

Vanya’s story

For an autistic child like 7-year-old Vanya (above), the disruption of routine involved in being forced out of one’s home and into a succession of strange places is even more traumatic than it is for neurotypical children and frequently results in sensory overload and meltdowns.  His mother reported that the play-doh set he received from our previous shipment has led him to become much calmer as he enjoys the texture, colours and being able to model little figures.

Below, an all-too-common scene for our partners as they drive through villages previously occupied or bombed.

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Low-lying Bangladesh is particularly vulnerable to climate change, with the poor pushed to live in the lowest-lying areas.

Because of the unrelenting hard work needed just to keep a family housed and fed for most people in Bangladesh, people who are seen as unproductive are often left to their own devices to try and survive. These include the handicapped, daughters whose parents cannot afford a dowry, refugees, and others.

Crossroads is shipping to a well-established organisation which began by providing accommodation, therapy, and training to physically handicapped people. With the expansion of their programme, they launched initiatives that provide nutrition, health, and behavioural education for teenagers. Additionally, they also offer vocational training courses, as well as community sanitation and housing provision. These programmes are provided for both local people and for the Rohingya refugee population in Cox’s Bazaar.

This shipment includes medical equipment, electrical appliances, and furniture to assist our partners in expanding their medical work.

Mr G’s story

Although Mr G is a social worker and receives a modest salary, he spends much of that money in assisting his clients, so much so that he was unable to afford decent accommodation for himself and his family.

Our partner organisation has gifted him with a small house with its own toilet (a luxury in that neighbourhood), as the first home of a local sustainable housing project.

His reaction on moving in was, “At last I receive my own house – long live the providers!”

This shipment will help our partners assist many more people to help even more people who live on the fringes of society.

Miss N’s story

Miss N is a member of a social class despised in her community and during Covid she lost even the menial employment she was able to obtain.

Our partners not only provided her with food parcels but also gave her a place on a tailoring course. When she graduated, she received a sewing machine as a prize.

She said, “I want to open my own fashion house where people like me will be welcomed and served with dignity.”

Provision of physiotherapy to stroke victims and people with congenital handicaps is an important part of our partner’s work.

Nursing supplies, heaters, lamps and other items in the shipment all contribute to an improvement in care for the disadvantaged people of the area.

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WHO IS THIS SHIPMENT HELPING?

The conflict has been ongoing in Cameroon between the French and English-speaking populations since 2016. Tensions and violence have forced more than 160,000 people to flee their homes, becoming refugees or internally displaced people. Our partners in Cameroon are working hard to continue to support health, education and human rights amidst the often-chaotic conditions faced by their communities.

We have shipped to these partners on three previous occasions, and all shipments have been highly strategic in their efforts to improve living conditions in their communities. Some of the impact from these past shipments include the following:

• Increasing the exam success rate at schools, by providing improved school furniture to ten institutions
• Better service and patient comfort levels at a rural health centre, after receiving medical supplies and equipment
• Upgrading head office and other facilities using furniture, appliances, and office equipment, helping them administer projects more effectively and retain staff
• More than 100 aid workers and other key stakeholders given training in use of equipment received
• toys and educational aids which have brought joy to children.

This shipment will include:

• Educational supplies, computers and stationery
• clothing, footwear and babycare items
• nursing and hygiene supplies and hospital beds
• blankets, bedding and household accessories

Grace’s Story

Grace was violently attacked and left for dead after armed men broke into her home and she did not have the money they demanded. This left her unable to care for herself or her children. Our partners provided her with intensive counselling as well as medical help, a safe space for her family, new skills training, and a microloan to assist her in starting her own business. She has now moved from home-cooking and selling bean paste to opening her own village shop.  She has also rented a home and is able to feed and send her children to school.

Goods in this shipment include provisions for expansion of this work that assists many more women like Grace.

Refrigerators from Crossroads’ previous shipment were distributed among regional hospitals and are being used to store vaccines and medicines. Within a year, this provision allowed vaccination against, and effective treatment of, tropical diseases and other infections for more than 30,000 people.  Staff expressed great relief that they no longer needed to worry that medications had degraded because of unsuitable storage conditions.

Reference No: S3318C