Providing comfort, one bag at a time

Comfort packs consists of several items including a rape survival guide for children.

A Summer Greens woman wants to bring some comfort to children who have survived the horror of rape.

Feerouza Kruger makes up comfort packs for the children. She started donating the packs two years ago after learning about Matla A Bana, a non-profit fighting child abuse.

The organisation creates child-friendly reporting facilities at police stations, courts and hospitals and supplies comfort packs to children when they report crimes.

“That year we managed to fill 30 comfort packs,” said Ms Kruger.

They were handed to the Milnerton Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit along with a number of extra items for Matla A Bana to fill extra packs.

Earlier this year, Ms Kruger was in the running for Mrs Universe South Africa and chose to help Matla A Bana as part of her duties as a pageant finalist.

She wants to collect 100 comfort packs for Matla A Bana by the end of the 16 Days of Activism for No Violence Against Women and Children Campaign.

Each pack cost R200 and includes, among other things, colouring-in books, crayons, a face cloth, soap, tissues, panties, a tooth brush and a teddy bear.

One of the items is a survival guide printed by Matla A Bana. It is available in English, Afrikaans, Xhosa and Zulu.

Matla A Bana project co-ordinator Sandra Nieuwenhuizen said Ms Kruger’s help so far was appreciated, especially her assistance with collecting costly toiletries.

Ms Nieuwenhuizen said the packs “bridged the gap between the child and the police officer” and gave the children something to occupy themselves with. The packs also hold biscuits and energy bars.

“It takes between four to 12 hours to process a child through the system. When was there last meal?” she said.

Ms Kruger said she had already handed over 43 packs but needed several items to complete her target of 100 packs. She is looking for 50 packs of biscuits, nine packs of pencil crayons, 36 face cloths, 34 toothbrushes, 37 toothpastes, four soaps, 31 small notebooks, 25 pens, 50 small juices, 11 energy bars, 48 powdered soups, 20 panties for nine to 10-year-olds, 25 panties for 11 to 12-year-olds, 26 panties for five to six-year-olds, 31 panties for seven to eight-year-olds, six packets of pocket tissues, 25 thin colouring-in books and 56 survival guides. If you would like to help Ms Kruger with items to complete her comfort packs contact her at 083 354 1225 or fkruger.mrsuniversesa19finalist@gmail.com

For more information about Matla A Bana go to http://matlaabana.co.za/

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