The Region G Neighbourhood Watch Association works tirelessly to combat crime in the region going out for night patrols everyday even during loadshedding.
The initiative manned by volunteer patrollers of all age groups, gender and races was started in June 2021 back when the looting affected communities and businesses. .
SA Block NBHW and the Region G NBHW Association’s secretary, Lynn January-Appolis told GLOBE POST: “Our organisation is a combined initiative which includes other neighbourhood watch teams and patrollers such as SA Block NBHW, Mid Avenues Patrollers, Brotherhood Patrollers, 8 Mile Patrollers and some who left our organisation to join the CPF Movement. We saw the need to grow and expand in order to best serve our community from crime, vandalism and drugs.”
She added: “We have +-100 patrollers with 60 active patrollers and others who assist during weekends and/or with funeral traffic control as we saw the need to assist families with traffic direction since we have no working robots which were damaged due to cable theft and vandalism. We assist at the most busy intersections for free. Our equipments and vests are self bought or received from donations and fundraisers. We don’t have a proper base, but gather at designated points for monthly and weekly meetings.”
The association is multi-functional, it has patrollers in vehicles, on foot and on bikes combing and protecting the streets and infrastructure.
The association is led by its chairman, Devin Stride, and a number of other executive members who work hard to motivate and support the patrollers.
Besides, carrying out security work in the community, the patrollers also run a quarterly feeding scheme to provide meals to the less fortunate. They rely on donations/sponsorships and members’ contributions to make the feeding scheme a success. They have also for the past two years collaborated with LoH (Ladies of Hope) to assist with crowd control on their annual Breast Cancer Walkathon and other small initiatives.
The patrollers are trained in fire fighting, basic and advanced first aid which aids them in dealing and handling most emergencies in and around Ennerdale which gave birth to a WhatsApp Group focusing on Assisting and Escalating Emergency Services from various CERT EMS Entities and Stakeholders for the benefit of the community. The group currently has 800+ members from Ennerdale and the surrounding areas.
“We are glad to see some change coming into Ward 7 with 4 security cameras being installed to assist the patrollers in monitoring crime hotspots in the area. We are also trying to further equip our patrollers with much needed two-way radios and protective gear as crime has reached such a dangerous level. Cable theft perpetrators have armed themselves with guns and shoot at our patrollers and other security companies securing the infrastructure and cable ways knowing that we are most vulnerable as we don’t have all the tools for our work. With that being said, we would appreciate any assistance in sponsorships or donations especially equipment and protective gear for the patrollers.”
For EMS call 112 or 10177 You can also download the Namola App.
Ennerdale SAPS contact 071 675 7391.
To make donations or support the patrollers, contact Lynn January-Appolis on 063 732 0393.
