Global Mandela Stop Hunger Campaign launched
ALEXANDRA – Stop Hunger Campaign launches global Mandela anti-hunger campaign in Alex.
The global humanitarian non-profit organisation, Stop Hunger Campaign, launched the country’s leg and lead-up to the Global Mandela Day – Follow The Sun Campaign at a crèche in impoverished Alexandra.
The campaign aims to collect 10 million standard food packs globally to support needy people said to suffer from hunger daily.
The event at Kwa-Mankele Day Care Centre on 6th Avenue was also attended by the crèche children who seemed to savour the occasion and a nutritious meal served by popular TV chef and food writer, Siba Mtongana, who was introduced as the campaign ambassador.
Seemingly at ease and appreciative of her new role, Mtongana said she was happy to feed the children a nutritious meal made of rice, soya and an assortment of beans laced with minerals and vitamins. “I grew up surrounded by poverty. Helping children in a country with 3.1 million of them battling hunger daily is very close to my heart and I thank you for the campaign’s ambassador role,” Mtongana quipped.
The organisation’s Saira Khan said the campaign was also a lead-up to the international Mandela Day celebration on 18 July and said it was fitting to be launched at the crèche. She added that it was one of the many they supported in the poor township, other places countrywide, and in 178 countries on the African continent, Asia and Latin America. “We support 400 crèches with 55 600 child beneficiaries daily countrywide, including home feeding to avoid some of them (children) and their families spending the night [with] empty stomachs,” Khan said. She added that similar events were being held in Malaysia, India, Philipines, Italy and the United States of America to highlight the plight faced by over 10 million victims of hunger globally.
Khan said that corporates and other organisations participated by sponsoring and packing donations of standard food packs for distribution to beneficiary organisations for the poor.
The entourage visited one such beneficiary, the Nomathole family near the day-care centre. Family head Lungeli, a single father and sole carer to 13 dependents from his meagre and unreliable income, said they all shared and slept in the semi-divided two-roomed house without privacy. “Without support, we sometimes go to bed hungry. It’s especially painful to see children going to school hungry,” he said.
Details: Angelique 076 893 8928; KwaMankele Day Care Centre 011 443 4115.
