For the Isabel Beardmore Home, the season of gifting has been running year-round as the Pietermaritzburg community and former Pietermaritzburg residents, now living in Australia, have rallied to rehabilitate the facility by making generous donations, including the establishment of vegetable gardens.
The gardens, a project that started in August, were the product of expats Mitzi de Klerk, Glenda Blessie and the Australian Rotary Club, who made a considerable donation to the Isabel Beardmore Home by providing all the items necessary for the establishment and maintenance of vegetable gardens at the Woodlands home for the elderly.
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De Klerk and Blessie have also committed to paying the wages for a gardener, who visits the home and cares for the garden three times a week.
The gardens have, thus far, produced spinach and lettuce, which are being used to prepare meals for the residents.
Newly elected board chairperson Alphonso Jasson, councillor Garth Middleton, and acting manager Theresa Williams said the gardens also provide residents with something to occupy themselves with and beautify the once vacant grounds.
The addition of vegetable gardens and a plethora of other interventions from the Pietermaritzburg community comes after a turbulent time for the home.
In November last year, KwaZulu-Natal’s Social Development MEC Mbali Shinga moved to dissolve the home’s board after finding evidence of mismanagement of funds.
Jasson and Middleton said the MEC’s intervention was a long time coming, as concerns about the alleged misuse of funds had been circulating for at least three years before the board was dismissed.
They said this had compromised the care provided at the home and deterred potential donors.
When Shinga dissolved the board, she tasked the Gugu Dlamini Foundation with running the home until a new board was elected in October.
Since the MEC handed the home over to the Gugu Dlamini foundation to run, new and old donors have been coming to the home in droves, Jasson and Middleton said.
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They said the Pietermaritzburg community has poured support into the home, with roof repairs, repainting, geyser installations, furniture donations, bathroom refurbishments, and the installation of WiFi and biometric systems made possible through the support of residents and local businesspeople.
“The home’s rehabilitation is a testament to the community wanting spaces for the elderly to prosper,” Middleton said.
He added that the home’s rapid recovery from being dogged with scandal was also due to consistent efforts by the KZN Department of Social Development (DSD).
DSD provided considerable guidance to the community and other stakeholders who wanted to assist in restoring the home, as there are laws and regulations that people have to follow when they want to be involved in a facility that cares for the elderly.
Middleton said the provincial treasury department donated an industrial dryer, which went well with two industrial washing machines the Australians had provided.
Williams thanked the gardeners, staff, board, De Klerk, Blessie, and everyone else who had worked to improve the state of the facility.
“When you compare the home now to how it was at the same time last year, it feels like a Christmas miracle,” she said.
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