Aid for fire victims who 'slipped through the cracks'

KNYSNA NEWS - It has been more than a year now since fires ravaged large parts of Knysna and its surrounds, but still there are victims who have not been assisted.

So says Ewan Seton, cofounder of the One Knysna # OK Association (One Knysna Association). OneKnysna is a "legal association" created in September 2017 by fire victims to assist with relief efforts. "The group was established to provide a mouthpiece for fire victims and as a resource for credible information to assist people recovering from the disaster," Seton added.

The group is in the process of putting together a "memorandum of appeals" for the benefit of people affected by fires who have not been able to adequately recover and urgently need assistance. This memorandum will be sent to organisations that according to Seton might still be in a position to assist those victims who might have ''fallen through the cracks''.

The memorandum, said Seton, is specifically designed to highlight the plight of unassisted victims. "It consists of a series of appeals written by the fire victims themselves, explaining the situation they find themselves in.

It is our belief that the overwhelming majority of people affected have managed to recover in some manner or another, but there are specific cases where assistance is still required and where the people concerned find their situation worsening on a daily basis," Seton said.

One Knysna Association is therefore calling on any unassisted fire victim to contact them as soon as possible so that the memorandum can be as accurate as possible before being sent out to the relevant role-players post-haste.