When residents take care of each other a community can thrive.
One woman who has dedicated here life to serving her neighbours is Rose Foster of Bokmakierie.
The 85-year-old now runs a seniors’ club but her community work goes back decades and she holds certificates for various courses she has completed, including first aid, tuberculosis and HIV/Aids, health education, substance abuse counselling, conflict management, and social security training.
The second eldest of six siblings, Ms Foster grew up in Brooklyn with her parents.
Under apartheid’s Group Areas Act, they were forced to move to Elsies River.
At the age of 22 she went to live with her aunty in Surrey Estate and four years later got married and moved to Belgravia. Soon after she moved to Manenberg.
In 1986 she and her husband moved to her current house in Bokmakierie and a year later he died. Together the couple had four children. She now also has two grandchildren.
Her community work started when she lived in Manenberg as she and four other women cooked food for the underprivileged and delivered it to their homes. This was made possible by donations.
In 1992 she started a soup kitchen in Bokmakierie after she was approached by the staff of Build a Better Society (BABS).
“People from different areas came to the soup kitchen even as far as Langa. At the same time me and other women trained to become home-based care nurses. Nurses at Karl Bremer Hospital had approached me to start a health committee in the area. We volunteered at the hospitals where they needed us and they sent us to different homes in Bokmakierie where we washed, groomed and offered (residents) a shoulder of support “ she said.
During this time Ms Foster also served as a volunteer at the different police stations’ trauma rooms, where she counselled victims of sexual assault and resolved matters involving children who had bunked school.
After 28 years she retired from these duties but her community work didn’t stop.
One of the projects she embarked on was to invite two to three children from the Garden Cottage residential care facility to have lunch with her and her family for Christmas every year.
At the same time she chose eight women from the care facility to receive a gift box, which comprises a bag, perfume, summer hat and necklace, and has been doing so every year since 1987.
“Although I don’t volunteer at SAPS anymore, the women still come here for my help. They go the police station and ask for me and then I see to them here at my house. I also help the elderly to apply and collect their pension payouts,” she said.
Now, Ms Foster has 14 members in her seniors’ club. She takes them on regular excursions around Cape Town so they can get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors.