DreamWorker has set up the Link of Love programme in Hanover Park. Community worker, Amina Burgher has been actively sending people out to work, caring for the elderly, picking up litter, fixing up the schools and planting gardens.

Asa Brink was delighted to be able to help double amputee Boeta Cassiem. She cleaned his home, washed the windows and even cleared the cigarette toppertjies from his front porch! Boeta beamed as he shared some of his story with the DreamWorker team. “ I qualified as a nurse and had the opportunity to go overseas and work in St Stephen’s Hospital. In 1976, when my country was in turmoil, I knew I needed to come home.”

Boeta has lived in Hanover Park for 42 years and despite being completely wheelchair bound, he is an active volunteer in the community. He is a commissioner of oaths, a primary healthcare advisor and registers births and deaths in the area. He counsels young and old, prepares bodies at the hospital to be laid out and even embalms the bodies of refugees ready to send back home. An extraordinary man, who despite his own disability is still working every day in his community. All free of charge!

“My dream is to keep helping people until the day I die” he says. And his advice to the youth…”no matter how poor you are, if you have respect, you have everything”.  What a pleasure it was for DreamWorker to be able to give something back to this wonderful man via the Link of Love programme.




When Abubakar’s wife was diagnosed with cancer, his world turned upside down. As she became progressively more and more ill, he spent more and more time nursing her in their tiny council flat. Eventually, he lost his job owing to high absenteeism. This year alone he has taken her to Groote Schuur hospital no less than 42 times!

Abubakar has spent the past few weeks cleaning up a tiny patch of ground and trying to turn it into a garden for the elderly people of Hanover Park to sit in on a sunny day. Squash plants, carrots, potatoes grow between slips of geranium and gazania daisies. His friend Shahieng, has been unemployed for 3 years and spends his days running errands to the shops for the elderly. “You need endless patience” he beams. “You no sooner get back with the bread than they ask you to go and fetch some milk!” He too has been helping create this little garden of peace. Link of Love was able to give them a small donation for the wonderful work they have been doing in the community. “I dream of getting some plants donated and tools too so that we can really make a lovely garden here” says Abubakar. “This is the only patch of green for the old people. It’s just concrete everywhere.” With his level of enthusiasm, it is bound to happen soon!









When Tricia Esau was just 13 years old, her mother and father died and Auntie Tima (Fatima) next door stepped in to love and guide young Tricia. Today, Auntie Tima (75), her husband Boeta Aitchie (79) and his 90 year old brother are in return loved and cared for by Tricia and Andrew. Tricia has been cleaning, cooking, shopping and caring for the old folks for so long and Link of Love felt it was time for her to receive a few Rand for her absolute dedication and hard work. “I don’t know what I would have done without Auntie Tima” says Tricia, with tears in her eyes. “Me neither” says Auntie Tima, gently taking her hand. A real “link of love!”