'Mom' feeds U'hage's destitute

[caption id="attachment_39889" align="alignright" width="405"] WARM-HEARTED: 2013 Citizen of the Year Alida Davis still cares for the destitute and homeless. Picture: BRIAN WITBOOI[/caption]

WALKING into Alida Davis's Uitenhage home, one notices three things: the 2013 The Herald-GM Citizen of the Year award in her lounge cabinet, an eagle sketched on canvas against a wall and an intense warmth that flows through her entire home.

These things, among others, define the 58- year-old as a woman with deep compassion who wants to heal eagles with broken wings and help them fly again – one of the reasons why she walked away with the "Oscar award" at the end of last year's The Herald-GM Citizen of the Year campaign.

At 2am on Saturday with the temperature a chilling 10°C, Alida, her husband and some friends loaded two large pots of soup, bread rolls, cake and warm clothes and blankets on a bakkie and went off searching for Uitenhage's homeless people.

She stopped at every hobo spot in Uitenhage in search of her homeless children. "I give them soup, soap and salvation," she said. "That's what I do." - Alvené du Plessis