Big Favour turns despair into delight for a deserving family

In case you missed Thursday's Big Favour with Damon Beard, take a listen to the podcast, then read more below:

This family has been going through the most difficult time and it all started three years ago when Debi’s car developed a major fault and cost her in the region of R 60,000 to repair.

Having to drop-off and fetch her two boys from school every day, and then get to work, the family had no option but to repair the car and try to save on other things. Sadly, things went downhill from there.

With John working but business slowing down fast, he then had no choice but to go on his own and start a small handyman business.

The family has really been battling for the past three years, especially with the high cost of living.

Debi's boys are in Grade 8 and Grade 2, so school uniform and stationery is imperative. With only one school uniform each, Debi was washing the garments every night. Groceries were a luxury. No electricity and no fuel - it's safe to say life was not a walk in the park for this family.

Read: The gift of clothing thanks to the Big Favour

In fact, when I met with John and Debi, they didn’t have enough money for fuel, so Debi’s car had broken down at a shopping centre close to East Coast Radio. Even putting the bare minimum into their pre-paid electricity meter was a struggle.

Having pawned their wedding rings and the children’s bicycles, Debi and John wrote to me in absolute desperation.

I always say that the people of KZN are the most giving, and once again I’ve been reminded of this.

Somayya Maula, a listener, wrote me an email saying that she’d like to help ‘someone, anyone’ on the Big Favour. So when I called her to tell her about Debi and John and their two boys, she immediately jumped at the opportunity to change their lives.

Read: No space? No problem! The Big Favour comes to the rescue

Somayya is the Regional Business Manager – KZN for FUNDI (031 201 5699) and she and her team decided to arrange school uniforms for Debi and John’s kids. The boys now have more than one uniform each and even Debi’s oldest boy in Grade 8 now has his blazer already for next month.

Not only school uniforms, but all the stationery they need for this year is also sorted.

Somayya then rallied around and roped in the help of Aveshan and his team at Best Before, Celeste at AmaSigns, and Sandeep at RAHLAI Construction, who between them arranged R2,000 in electricity vouchers.

On top of this, groceries, groceries, and more groceries were organised, and even a remote controlled car for the youngest of the boys.

Read: Back to school made merry with The Big Favour

The grins on their faces when we packed their car with groceries made all of this so worth it. This Big Favour made me realise that there must be so many people in the same situation as Debi and John.

Isn’t it true that we never really know what someone is going through until we actually walk in their shoes?

A huge thank you goes out to all the sponsors who came on board to make this possible.