UK volunteers and Al-Imdaad Foundation help the needy in Ladysmith
The team held a public feeding programme in the rural township of Roosboom before heading further north into KwaZulu-Natal
A volunteer delegation from the UK has been in South Africa for humanitarian activities, working with the Al-Imdaad Foundation.
Activities have included public feeding, distributions of stationery and hygiene packs at schools, and the handing over of a borehole (inaugurated with Acting KZN Premier Sihle Zikhalala).
The delegation included members of the Al-Imdaad Foundation’s UK office and volunteers from an organisation known as Food For Thought, which has been providing weekly meals to the homeless in the UK since 2014.
Describing their activities, Food For Thought founder Mrs Shameema Patel said, “Every Sunday morning, we provide hot meals to anybody in our community who needs it. We come from the UK, but we still do have a lot of poverty and families go without food, which is really unfortunate.”
Al-Imdaad Foundation UK Country Director Mr Abdusamad Moola described the Food For Thought mission in this way, “They have been giving free food and supporting families in the UK, and now they have come to South Africa to make a difference as well.”
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The volunteers come from all walks of life and describe themselves as “two chefs, a health promotion leader, a post office manager, an occupational therapist, a mental health support worker, a sales manager and our youngest volunteer, three-year-old Eesa”. They fund-raised in the UK for projects in South Africa and began implementing their projects on Monday, January 14.
The volunteers started their mission in KwaZulu-Natal’s Uthukela district, where they joined hands with local authorities to deliver stationery supplies, hygiene packs and feminine sanitary items to needy learners at schools in the Ladysmith and rural Loskop area. The team also held a public feeding programme in the rural township of Roosboom before heading further north into KwaZulu-Natal.
Al-Imdaad Foundation Special Projects Co-ordinator Mr Abed Karrim oversaw the UK delegation’s programme. He explained that the location for the borehole was chosen in consultation with local authorities through the KwaZulu-Natal government’s poverty eradication programme.
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