Mokoena seeks sponsorship to feed the homeless

In 2015, Kuki Mokoena of Phase 1 in Alexandra started a feeding scheme to feed the so-called Nyaope Boys of the community.

In an interview with Alex News, Mokoena said she would get heartbroken when she saw the young men going through rubbish bins in search of food.

“As a parent myself, I would not want to see my child going through rubbish bins looking for food, so I took two of them to my house and gave them food,” she said. The word spread and today she feeds about 246 young addicts aged between 21 and 27 on a daily basis.

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Mokoena does not receive any funding and she pays for the food from her own pocket. “It gets very difficult at times because I do odd jobs and the little money I earn is used to buy the groceries.”

The young men receive three meals a day and some of them attend detoxing sessions at the South African National Council on Alcoholism, an organisation that offers therapy to alcohol and drug addicts.

Mokoena said the addicts were often associated with crime and that was not necessarily true. “Because they look a certain way, people say they are responsible for the muggings in the community. It is not all of them who commit crime, they just go around looking for steel to sell to scrapyards.”

Mokoena, with the help of seven other women, prepares the food from her two-roomed flat on a two-plate stove.

“It is difficult and time-consuming preparing the food because, as you can imagine, preparing food for over 200 people on a two-plate stove can take the whole day.”

She hopes to find sponsorship for a venue where she can run the feeding scheme, a bigger stove and some groceries so that she can provide for the young men.

Thabiso (24) who has been living on the streets of Alex for two years, said he was thankful to Mokoena and the women for providing them with food. “You know, when you go around the township looking for steel to sell so that you can eat, people look down on you, so these women are doing a great job,” he said.

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Thabiso added that he did not commit any crime and only looked for unused steel to sell to scrapyards.

Mokoena encouraged citizens to offer food to homeless people instead of throwing it away. “If you have leftover food you know that you or your children won’t eat, rather save it for these boys, they are grateful and eat anything.”

A neighbour who spoke on condition of anonymity told Alex News that the young men make her uncomfortable. “We hear a lot of stories about these boys and seeing them here every day makes us feel scared,” she said. The woman added that it would be great if Mokoena found a place outside the premises where she could cater for them.

“We have to keep our doors locked because we don’t know what they will do to us. Our children cannot even play freely outside because they are scared.”

Mokoena said most of these young men ran away from home because they were either abused or came to Johannesburg to look for work to provide for their families.

Details: Kuki Mokoena 072 243 3180.