Providing meals for destitute children

With more and more South African children becoming orphans and some being in situations that make them vulnerable, the South African Red Cross Soweto Branch is giving these children hope by providing them with after school meals.

According to the Soweto branch manager, Mantshadi Moralo their feeding scheme was started in 2005 but in 2010 their sponsors pulled out.

This caused the number of children that were attending to drop as they could no longer provide for all their needs and additional activities they had.

“We used to have a club for our orphaned and vulnerable children, but when this died out we created the cooking initiative. Currently we feed about 60 children in the area between Grade R to Seven from Monday to Thursday, but we couldn’t do Friday as it was heavy for us. These are children from nearby schools and though some of them are able to eat at home for others what we provide them with is their last meal for the day.”

She said that the centre keeps the children busy and whenever they can they assist them with clothing donation with the help of one of South Africa’s big retail stores.

The staff also gives the children food parcels helped by the Food Bank and Traffic Free Flow.

Moralo said they pleading with communities and business to get involved in this project so they can take on more children who are in dire need of help.