Cape Town - The Nelson Mandela Foundation, in collaboration with Distell and Shoprite, hosted a Christmas party and food distribution drive for an ECD centre in Blackheath as part of the foundation’s #Each1Feed1 food relief campaign.
After countless community aid initiatives the #Each1Feeds1 food relief campaign, powered by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, the Imbumba and the Kolisi Foundation ended its year’s work with a Christmas party for the Sing for Africa ECD learners and their parents.
Founded in response to the Covid-19 pandemic the #Each1Feeds1 campaign worked to provide aid to thousands of South African pensioners, child-headed households and less privileged families across the country.
Nelson Mandela Foundation CEO Sello Hatang said the campaign had covered more than 25 000 km around the country in its drive to reach the most vulnerable South Africans.
“We were trying to understand the impact of Covid-19, and to remind ourselves that these realities are not Covid-19 realities, that they have always been there, it’s just that they are exacerbated by the pandemic.”
“Today we will be supporting the ECD and the parents of the learners here and the neighbouring ECD centres that do not benefit from subsidies of the government. What we found is that the teachers are out of pocket completely and they have now lost any sense of income. That’s why we are here,” said Hatang.
Outside the ECD centre, a group of about 90 parents stood patiently waiting for their turn to collect 10 essential grocery items. The ECD was one of three pre-schooling centres that benefited from the food relief project.
Sing for Africa CEO Maretjie Paxton said that while she didn’t expect the ECD to be nominated to join the Nelson Mandela Foundation and become recipients of aid, she was very grateful and honoured that the nomination had opened doors for the ECD.
Paxton said: “I am so ecstatic that we the community and learners are receiving aid. This is something that the community really needed. Happy Valley Ward 14 is a distinctively poor area and so many are in need. While we always try to assist when we can, support such as this surely goes a long way. We are very grateful.”
Cape Argus