MATAFFIN – In her famous quotes, former Roman Catholic Mother Teresa, known for her acts of generosity and charity, once said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people then just feed one.”
This was fulfilled when employees of Midas Incorporated Africa presented food parcels at Woodhouse Community Crèche and Drop-in Centre on February 19.
They also spent time playing and mingling with the children whom they also presented with snacks and small gifts. Food parcels including mealie meal, rice, tinned food and cooking oil were presented to the centre to the delight of management.
The kid’s excitement was evident on their faces and from the manner in which they hugged and clung to the donors. “This is not the first time we visit; we have been here before to see how we as a company can assist this community as obligated by the company’s social-responsibility programme to promote good citizenry among the communities we operate in.
We therefore decided to adopt this project because it aims for the betterment of children which are the future of the nation,” explained manager Mr James Payne.
“We started with providing them with proper fencing and labour so that the kids and the premises are well protected. Our plan is to buy them food parcels every month, it is also in our pipeline to build them a proper dining hall,” Payne added.
Woodhouse Community Centre was founded by two pensioners, Mr Amon and his wife Jeanette Ngwamba, from their pension money on July 13, 2010 and was formally registered as a non-profit organisation (NPO) in 2013. The two elders treat the children like their own and are affectionately called gogo na mkhulu (grandma and grandpa) by the children.
“We started the project after seeing that most children were roaming the streets while their parents worked in the farms, so there was need for a safe area where they could be taught moral values,” explained Ngwamba.
As time went by, the couple then decided to provide meals for needy children as many of them used to eat stale food dumped at a nearby dumping site while their parents were away. The crèche has 41 kids aged three months to four years and six months, and five staff members, while 138 children from needy families receive a meal at the centre after school.
The drop-in centre has 11 volunteers which include home-based caregivers. It still needs extra buildings for the drop-in centre which currently-operates from a corrugated-iron makeshift, chairs, tables and playing equipment for the children.
Other challenges faced by the centre include the shortage of water as the whole community relies on the municipality’s tanks which deliver water once a week.
