Ricky Asher

South Africa, I need your help. I started this Back-a-Buddy campaign for my neighbour, Sibongile Babaleka. She is a renal patient and a single mother. For years she has struggled along as a single mother of three of the brightest children you've ever met, relying on handouts from her church to feed her family and her meagre salary to pay for the rest. But this year, a mountain of debt and her renal failure reaching stage five (the final stage), became too much to bare. One night a few weeks ago I heard a wailing cry and when I went to investigate I found the front door open and her leaning against a wall in their unlit foyer, surrounded by her worried children. Her head was buried in her arms and tears flowed gushed through fits of incontrollable sobbing. Kungao, her concerned 8-year-old nephew (for whom she also cares), held out a glass of water, but in that moment Sibongile was in a place so dark, her children's voices could not reach her. She and her ex-husband reached the point where they were forced to sell the flat as neither could cover basic expenses, never-mind the bond expenses. In the weeks since I heard the children speaking amongst each other that Schaba, her matric son, would not be able to get his matric certificate because they owed R11,000 in school fees. He is exceptionally talented with woodwork but his dreams of doing a 12 month course in carpentry next year are becoming a fantasy. He and his 16-year-old sister, Nhlahla, have to take care of their household some nights when their mother is in hospital. The lights in the house stopped working years ago due to a water leak which got into the electric conduit and getting an electrician is beyond their means. Sibongile owes R192,000 in levies and R40,000 in rates and taxes. Nhlahla's school fees at Curro are expected to be R3,425 per month from next year. Schaba's college program with res expenses is expected to be around R55,000. Kungao's school fees for next year are expected to be R10,800. Sibongile was medically boarded last year and receives 75% of her salary, which amounts to R13,700 per month. That money barely covers the following: - R3,400 for her car - R3,200 for her medical aid which is a Discovery Coastal Savings Plan - R3,425 for Nhlahla's school fees - R550 for insurance - R400 for blood transfusions which is mostly covered by her medical aid - R2,000 for thyroid medication which she has to buy cash. As you can tell, there is no money for rent (which they will soon have to pay), electricity, water, and food. We hope to cover her outstanding debts after the sale of her house and to cover the schooling expenses for the children for a year which would give this family a fighting chance. To quote Sibongile, "If I don't have these debts I can focus on getting a transplant and I can get back to work. It would give me some breathing room to figure out how to make ends meat until then". She has been waiting for a kidney transplant for a long time and there is a slight possibility that her daughter's kidney's may be a viable match, but she'll cross that bridge when they get there. Here is the campaign link below, but if you want to donate to her directly I'll send you her banking details. backabuddy.co.za/sibongile-b…