Likusasa Lomama Community Organisation project manager Phumla Boya Dyafta received R457,725 from Eastern Cape social development MEC Siphokazi Mani-Lusithi on Thursday.
Mani-Lusithi visited the Khanyisa School For The Blind in KwaDwesi to commemorate International Day for Eradicating Poverty on October 17.
Likusasa Lomama is one of 33 community nutrition development centres in the Eastern Cape which are supported by social development.
Dyafta said they had started their soup kitchen in 2012 with the hopes of luring people in with a nutritious meal to teach them life skills.
The project started in Dyafta’s garage at her home when she realised with other members of her stokvel that residents were leaving the stokvel because they did not have money.
“We were originally a group of women who planted their own vegetables,” she said.
“We sell the vegetables as a means of making an income, and we used the stokvel as a means of saving our money and wanted to teach the community the same thing we had learnt.
“We saw that the community was in poverty.
“We were helped by our ward councillor to find a dumping site which we cleaned and used to place our container that we bought in 2015.”
The women feed 400 people a day but Dyafta said they could afford to feed more.
“People can come to us at 38 Mkize Street at KwaDwesi, they must bring their name, ID number, their address, how many people live in their home, how many people are working, how many have a grant and how many don’t get a grant,” Dyafta said.
She said 35 people, whom they had provided meals to, had since planted vegetables at their homes.
Young people were also teaching people how to bake and the elderly taught people how to sew.
Mani-Lusithi said that two months ago the World Food Programme had issued an early warning on impending devastating levels of hunger as a result of Covid-19.
“We want all stakeholders to work with us in the eradication of poverty,
“We accept that this is not a challenge that we can overcome on our own, we have the private sector joining us as well.
“In an effort to avert a possible catastrophe, we scaled up activities to provide food support to more than 6,000 people who are on the verge of starvation as the recovery from Covid-19 is slowly filtering through.”
Nelson Mandela Bay health political boss Yoliswa Pali said the donation was well timed.
“People don’t have jobs and they don’t have food.
“The Port Elizabeth economy has been damaged in a variety of ways, and today we are grateful for what social development has done.”
HeraldLIVE
Community organisation receives welcome donation from MEC
Image: EUGENE COETZEE
Likusasa Lomama Community Organisation project manager Phumla Boya Dyafta received R457,725 from Eastern Cape social development MEC Siphokazi Mani-Lusithi on Thursday.
Mani-Lusithi visited the Khanyisa School For The Blind in KwaDwesi to commemorate International Day for Eradicating Poverty on October 17.
Likusasa Lomama is one of 33 community nutrition development centres in the Eastern Cape which are supported by social development.
Dyafta said they had started their soup kitchen in 2012 with the hopes of luring people in with a nutritious meal to teach them life skills.
The project started in Dyafta’s garage at her home when she realised with other members of her stokvel that residents were leaving the stokvel because they did not have money.
“We were originally a group of women who planted their own vegetables,” she said.
“We sell the vegetables as a means of making an income, and we used the stokvel as a means of saving our money and wanted to teach the community the same thing we had learnt.
“We saw that the community was in poverty.
“We were helped by our ward councillor to find a dumping site which we cleaned and used to place our container that we bought in 2015.”
The women feed 400 people a day but Dyafta said they could afford to feed more.
“People can come to us at 38 Mkize Street at KwaDwesi, they must bring their name, ID number, their address, how many people live in their home, how many people are working, how many have a grant and how many don’t get a grant,” Dyafta said.
She said 35 people, whom they had provided meals to, had since planted vegetables at their homes.
Young people were also teaching people how to bake and the elderly taught people how to sew.
Mani-Lusithi said that two months ago the World Food Programme had issued an early warning on impending devastating levels of hunger as a result of Covid-19.
“We want all stakeholders to work with us in the eradication of poverty,
“We accept that this is not a challenge that we can overcome on our own, we have the private sector joining us as well.
“In an effort to avert a possible catastrophe, we scaled up activities to provide food support to more than 6,000 people who are on the verge of starvation as the recovery from Covid-19 is slowly filtering through.”
Nelson Mandela Bay health political boss Yoliswa Pali said the donation was well timed.
“People don’t have jobs and they don’t have food.
“The Port Elizabeth economy has been damaged in a variety of ways, and today we are grateful for what social development has done.”
HeraldLIVE
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