Many eager residents participated in delivering a month’s supply of food to 10 000 households, in a week-long programme in the Cosmo City and Kya Sand areas.
Telephony and cash management service Kazang and the charity organisation Mahlasedi Foundation helped to organise wheelbarrows for the carrying of the food for residents in need on 28 May.
Kazang’s Sumay Dippenaar said, “As it was World Hunger Day, and the country is in lockdown, many people are suffering during this time. We would like to make a difference in delivering these food parcels and facilitating the process.”Each wheelbarrow carried enough non-perishable food to feed a family of four for about a month.
“There are so many volunteers that have helped, and we would like to give a big thank you to the Mahlasedi Foundation, which has been working tirelessly to organise these food parcels.”
Dippenaar said that the community members could not come to any central point to collect the food due to social distancing measures. “We thought why not bring the food to them. As there is so much food to be delivered. We are using wheelbarrows to deliver them, carried by people who live in the community, who are getting paid for every single delivery.”
Bert Pretorius of the Mahlasedi Foundation added, “We invited members of the media to the distribution day to highlight the plight in our communities. 10 to 11 per cent of people in Africa are struggling with issues of hunger, and this lockdown has not helped. It is amazing to see the entire community getting behind this initiative.
“We thank everyone who helped to make this distribution possible, and there is always a lot more work to be done. With the coronavirus infection rate on the rise in South Africa, we as a foundation have determined to assist impoverished communities without the financial means to buy necessities.”
Kazang is the provider of virtual vending products and services such as prepaid airtime, data, electricity, money transfers/remittances, bill payments and gaming vouchers for the informal trading marketing. Kazang has a network of more than 25 000 vendors operating in township and rural areas across southern Africa.
Details: www.mahlasedi.org
