A daily meal for at least a month or two was enough to bring joy and relief to over 50 underprivileged Zandspruit residents who received nutritious grocery packs sponsored by the Nelson Mandela Foundation and its partners on Wednesday, 30 September.
Mainly focusing on families hailing from child-headed homes, the unemployed and those affected and infected by HIV, the foundation working with its donor, the Japanese Chamber of Commerce, intervened to bridge the poverty gap in the area under the campaign #Each1Feed1, which is a collaborated effort by them, the Kolisi and the Imbumba Foundations.
The food parcel handover took place at Emthonjeni Community Centre, a familiar establishment to both the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Japanese government.
Sello Hatang, the CEO of the Nelson Mandela Foundation, who is no stranger to poverty and this needy community, cited how they planned to provide a sustainable solution in terms of food security for the marginalised.
“Do we need food parcels? Yes we do but for me, I think we should treat the #Each1Feed1 food parcels as an intervention but not a solution to the long-term problem,” he explained, adding that working with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in the Eastern Cape, they are yet to finalise a sustainable food production pilot project which seeks to educate and help families with food production across the country. In addition, Hatang saw job creation as another way of eradicating poverty. He also commended the residents of Zandspruit for not sitting back and waiting for handouts.
“The biggest problem with each community is finding a solution to their problems, and what I acknowledge about this community is that it built a centre to teach young people to come out and learn computer skills – a challenge we need to put out to other communities to go out and upskill themselves,” he reflected.
For Emthonjeni to operate without worrying about blackouts is thanks to the People of Japan, who donated solar panels to keep the centre electrified at all times.
A first-time township visitor, Mr Yusuke Yamamoto, the vice-chairman of The Japanese Chamber of Commerce and CEO of Johannesburg branch of the Marubeni Corporation, spoke on how they got on board.
“In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, we decided as the business community in Japan we wanted to provide help to South Africa. So we reached out to the Nelson Mandela Foundation and asked them where we could help – a relationship which brought us here today,” he explained.
It is a well-known fact that the late icon Nelson Mandela held Japan very close to his heart as the country is a testimony of resilience and overcoming the worst disasters that Mother Earth has thrown at them.
“Our relationship as the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Japanese government goes way back. When tata Madiba was released from prison in 1990, the first embassy he visited was the Japanese and this was purely because Madiba had a love for the people of Japan for their resilience,” Hatang reminisced.
He paraphrased one of Madiba’s inspirational quotes he drew from the Japanese, which read: “The people of Japan can teach us from recovering from any disaster because they are resilient people”. This quote was uttered by Madiba to unite South Africa post-apartheid.
Following the food parcel handover, the Japanese representatives along with the foundation members concluded the morning with a short tour of the area, and also a visit to a family to whom they donated food.
