Life 4 U’s Mandela Day

IVORY PARK – Life 4 U Foundation in Ivory Park gave 40 food parcels to needy families in the area for Mandela Day.

July 20, 2016

Staff Reporter 1 minute read

Life 4 U Foundation hands food parcels to widows and orphans on 16 July.

Life 4 U Foundation, a non-profit organisation based in Ivory Park, focused on food security on Mandela Day.

“We decided to celebrate our Mandela Day on 16 July at our offices because we wanted to accommodate everyone who wanted to play a role for social change,” said Simon Molekwa, the foundation’s project manager.

The main objective of the event was to help the underprivileged and marginalised orphans and widows from Ivory Park and Tembisa.

Molekwa said they identified 40 beneficiaries from the townships.

He added that the campaign would continue until 28 July in Ivory Park and would assist orphans and widows with food gardens and food parcels.

“As poverty is rife in our communities, we are determined to continue to provide some relief to the community because in some instances you find only one person working in a family of eight or 10 people and when you check the person, their wages are too small to sustain the family,” said Molekwa. “We would like to thank our main sponsors, Ivory Park and Tembisa community members, KMC Butchery and Life 4 U volunteers for making this year’s event so successful,” he said.

Molekwa added that their volunteers also gained skills through their social responsibility work. “We recently partnered with the Water Research Commission and hosted an unemployed youth workshop in Ivory Park to encourage youth entrepreneurship.” He said this was to address the country’s challenge of youth unemployment.

“The event hosted 250 unemployed young people, including our volunteers and the theme of the workshop was creating jobs while improving sanitation. The commission encouraged the youth to exploit the opportunities that existed in the water and sanitation sector because most people did not really like dirty jobs. Also, the issue of toilet hygiene and water conservation was raised to encourage the youth to participate in this,” said Molekwa.

He added that the organisation would continue to work with township youth beyond Mandela Day during the month of July.