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Limpopo villages benefit from ‘Each One, Feed One’ campaign

Siya Kolisi
Reading Time: 3 minutes

Five hundred families in 10 villages, outside Elim in Limpopo, have received food parcels as part of the “Each One Feed One” campaign. The nationwide initiative to support poor families during the COVID-19 pandemic is spearheaded by the Nelson Mandela, Siya Kolisi and Imbumba Foundations.

“I’m very happy that tonight I will not sleep with an empty stomach. I’m grateful. You have taken away my shame. It’s difficult to make ends meet and we sometimes rely on neighbours to feed us. I don’t yet qualify to get a social grant. You have eased my burden and may God bless you. These are tears of joy.”

Those words are of a 58-year-old unemployed woman who became emotional and broke down when she received her food parcel. She stays at Hlanganani RDP section outside Elim with her three children, who are also unemployed.

They have always survived from hand to mouth with the little money she made from doing people’s laundry. Things have become even more difficult since she can no longer do that due to the lockdown.

“I used to do odd jobs like washing people’s clothes and cleaning their yards. The money was just enough to buy a small pack of maize meal and a few things. But now I can’t even do that anymore because people are locked in their homes. Some nights we don’t eat at all.”

Her story mirrors the daily lives of the most South Africans, who live below the bread line.

Sello Hatang, from the Nelson Mandela Foundation, says many have not yet tasted true freedom due to high poverty levels.

“We see this as critical to ensuring that we show solidarity, with those who are struggling at the moment. On this Freedom Day, we remember Madiba’s words and his injunction that freedom alone, voting alone is not enough, when people have no bread, they have no water. Until such time that we ensure that all our people are not left vulnerable to poverty, to starvation. Then we would have made Madiba proud.”

Richard Mabaso from Imbumba Foundation says they are also distributing hand sanitisers.

Mabaso says they are proud to partner with other stakeholders to improve the lives of the needy.

“We thought we would start a campaign to provide handwash soap and we are proud to say that we have collected more than 120 000 litres of handwash soap that we have been distributing to five provinces so far. But what we are even more excited about is that corporate, Mandela Foundation, the Kolisi Foundation came on board and said, ‘how about we add food parcels?’ You know, COVID- 19, if anything, it just exposed us as South Africans (as to) how unequal and how poor we are.”

In the below video, SABC News reporter, Mike Maringa reports on the initiative:

The ‘Each One Feed One’ campaign has also been taken to Gauteng, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal.

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