There is something really cruel about stealing from those who serve the poorest among us.
In a country numbed by daily reports of theft and vandalism, the SA Red Cross Society in the Eastern Cape break-in is a new low.
Fridges, laptops, microwaves and mattresses were among the items stolen at the Richmond Hill premises last month.
The recent break-in is a major setback for the humanitarian organisation after 91 years of serving the broader Eastern Cape community.
They are now in dire straits, with critical programmes facing closure.
From disaster relief in flood-ravaged areas to feeding schemes, school programmes and support for abused children, its reach extends deep into communities that are already stretched to breaking point.
Now, in a matter of hours, much of that work has been thrown into jeopardy.
The theft of fridges, stoves, food supplies and even a generator that keeps a soup kitchen running is not just financially devastating.
It is operationally crippling.
Thieves did not only take high-value items.
They stripped the facility of cups, plates, dignity packs and plastic bags.
The Red Cross in the Eastern Cape was already struggling before this.
Like many non-profit organisations, it has been squeezed by dwindling donor funding, rising operational costs and increasing demand for its services.
Global funding has tightened, and the consequences are now being felt at a community level.
That is the reality we face and the reality for the foreseeable future.
Feeding schemes are scaled back. Volunteers go unpaid. Outreach programmes shrink.
Then a break-in hurts such organisations even harder.
The Red Cross has put a figure to its recovery of R500,000.
A modest sum in the grand scheme of things.
However, when a soup kitchen stops, and a community lifeline collapses, the real loss is not measured in rands and cents.
It is measured in the lives left with nowhere else to turn.
If organisations like this are not allowed to operate, or worse, are left exposed and unsupported, it is not only they that fail.
It is all of us.
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