A thousand bags filled with hope
Some of these children live in extreme poverty and rely on their schools to give them at least one meal for the day.
Almost 2 000 orphans and vulnerable children from two schools each received a grocery bag filled with food items as part of Africa Food for Thought’s (AFFT) 67 minute Mandela Day initiative.
Each child’s bag contained maize meal, samp mielies, jam, soya, rice and baked beans, which was donated to the AFFT.
The AFFT team together with volunteers of Beaulieu Preparatory School in Kayalami handed out the bags to the children at Lesego Primary School and Durban Deep Primary School.
It is overwhelming to see the need of these children. Some of these children live in extreme poverty and rely on their schools to give them at least one meal for the day.
AFFT has been helping vulnerable children with nutrition for just over six years.
They formalised this by registering as a non-profit organisation on 17 January 2006. They also are registered as a public benefit organisation so their donation income is tax exempt and companies can claim back for all donations made to them. Almost 100 per cent of their beneficiaries are black children, allowing their sponsors to obtain BBBEE points for any sponsorship.
Their mission statement is feeding children, bringing hope.
They have seen very rapid growth in their organisation; they started feeding just 50 children in one informal settlement in 2004. They currently support feeding projects at 12 schools and nine child care centres across the West Rand and in Soweto.
This amounts to almost 11 000 children being fed, mostly on a daily basis.
They have four main pillars: their schools programme, early child development centres (ECDs), OVC (orphans and vulnerable children) programme and community projects.
