Pretoria - Ten families from Warden, Free State, are likely to never forget this year's 16 Days of Activism for No Violence against Women and Children campaign.
As the campaign drew to a close on Friday, the families - most of whom can relate to issues the campaign seeks to address - had reason to celebrate as they were given their own houses.
MEC for Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements, Mosebenzi Zwane, officially handed over 10 houses to child-headed families, the disabled and others who were living in abject poverty.
Forty more houses are still to be handed over to other families.
Nesta Mosia was one of those given a new house. The 30-year-old is unemployed and takes care of her four siblings and her child.
They survive on the grants of her four siblings and had to make do with a one-room house inherited from their parents, who have since died.
Mannini Makgalemele also had reason to smile after she got her new home. At 22, she is the head of the family, caring for her two teenage siblings and her 3-year-old child. The family has been struggling to survive after Makgalemele's grandmother died in 2008 and her pension grant, which had supported the family, stopped.
Mme Mthembu went from renting a one-room shack to having her own house. The 86-year-old will move into the new house with her two children, five grand children and three great grandchildren.
Unfortunately for Mme Mrolota, she never got to set foot in her new house. The 48-year-old, who was blind, died while her home was being completed. Her children will now take ownership of the house.
Apart from the houses, the families also received food parcels as part of government's programme for poverty alleviation.
Home Affairs officials are also expected to visit the area to ensure that the residents register their children, which help them when applying for grants.
Houses for other needy families are also being built in Hobhouse and QwaQwa.
