A local primary school teacher, Christine Simelane, and her husband, Ps Mmeli Simelane, brought an early Christmas to 180 needy children at Mtfophi Primary School.
The Simelanes surprised the learners with food hampers on the day they came to fetch their reports at the school. Christine urged everyone to donate food parcels for less fortunate pupils during school holidays.
Read: Avoid getting into debt this Christmas
“My husband and I started the #Feedahungrychild project in 2019 after discovering that hundreds of needy children in the area were starving during the school holidays, and more so during the Christmas holidays.
Most of them depend on the government’s nutrition programme at our schools. That’s the only meal they will have for the day until they get back to school the next day. School holidays are hard, long and lonely for less fortunate children when they have nothing to eat,” she explained.
Christine said hundreds of these kids will not wake up to a delicious meal and presents from Santa on Christmas, instead they will be awoken by growling tummies. “Some of them come from bigger families who are struggling to feed their children due to poverty and unemployment.
This has been worsened by the Covid-19 outbreak,” she said. “It pains our hearts to know that these kids won’t be able to have proper meals during the school holidays until schools reopen,” added Mmeli.
Also read: Mpumalanga farmers feed hungry villagers
The couple run the project out of their own pocket and generous contributions received from friends and loved ones. “This was a bittersweet experience for us. Sweet in the sense that it was humbling and heartwarming to see the children’s faces beaming with joy and gratitude as they received their food parcels. But on the other hand, our hearts were sore because we could not manage to feed every targeted kid due to limited supply,” he said.
The couple calls on anyone who wishes to donate non-perishable food items and toys towards this generous cause to drop off their donation at 5380 Soprano Street, Mfayinda Section, KaNyamazane. They are also willing to collect larger parcels if need be. Enquiries: Christine Simelane on 073-761-5582.
