Marinkie Maile and her daughter Katlego Ngomane, from Block MM in Soshanguve, started the Invisible Hands Feeding Scheme as a way of helping children who come from disadvantaged families, due to the impact Covid-19 impact has had on household to make a living.
Having had humbling beginnings, they started without funds or any kind of a donation and had to finance the scheme from their own pockets.
The non-profit organization is willing to feed the whole community with the aid of any donation that is essentials and beneficial to the community. The organization is doing incredible things and they have a long term goal of moving to larger premises and help even more families as far as they can.
The project founders are appealing to citizens, government departments and corporate companies to assist financially in order to secure food security for the children. The sad part not having enough food has to be turning-back children in the queue with empty plates.
‘’Our first meal was bread and soup, and now we can at least cook the basics. My plan going forward is to be able to cook proper meals for all of my children, so that they can eat and enjoy without having any worries of what, will they eat when they get home. I want to be a helping hand and be able to reach out where I can. I don’t have much to offer but I believe in sharing and as we all know, sharing is caring,’’ Marinkie said.
‘’ I have experienced poverty and hunger when we were faced with covid 19 and we were under lockdown. My mother owns a children’s day care centre and when the pandemic hit the nation, things went south for us, as most children dropped due to their parents losing their jobs and some could still attend for free. That was a wakeup call for me, to be aware of whatever the little you have, someone could see it as a fortune. I’ve learned that poverty and hunger are real; I don’t want the kids to worry about what they will eat when they get home. The meals have become essential to the kids,’’ Katlego said.
They wait until 15:30 for children to come back from school so that they can have their afternoon lunch starting from Monday until Friday.
The children are not neglected by their parents; the founder just noticed the gap and the means to provide for them were they can.
