Many children have to go through this winter season with blankets that are torn and have holes, but they still have to share the same blankets with their siblings. Some have no blankets at all. For these families, it’s even difficult to afford to buy food let alone to afford a new blanket.
There are children who get into fights with their siblings over a jersey. The elderly suffer just as much. There are elderly people staying in shacks, backrooms with raw cement floors, holes in the walls, broken windows. Winter is a beautiful season, but it is a dreadful one for all destitute families, children and elderly people. They are the longest three months of your life if you have no warm clothes, no warm bedding, live in a shack or room with cold cement floors, holes in your roof and still have to fight off the hunger.
Nhlanhla asks himself: “Where do they find the strength that they need to overcome all of this?”
Looking at all this suffering and need, the youth of Dobsonville and Snake Park have taken it upon themselves to be the change and give these poor families the strength and lift them up by providing blankets, warm clothing and warm food.
Starting on 24 May 2020, two months after the lockdown and at a time when people were becoming increasingly desperate, the youth began to prepare warm meals every Sunday, preparing vegetable soup, pap, bread and other hot items. So far, their soup kitchen has fed more than 3,000 people in Snake Park Township in Soweto. To be ready to feed everyone by 10 am, the 15 youth members gather in the early hours of the morning and begin preparing nutritious meals. Mostly they use their own funds to get all the soup ingredients; there are, however, some generous people in the area who occasionally donate something.
The youth recognize that feeding the hungry only addresses part of the needs for the families of Snake Park Township. Blankets and warm blankets will also go a long way to alleviating the bitter winter cold. They are therefore also appealing for winter clothes for children, women, and men, including tracksuits, jerseys, long-sleeved vests, jackets, warm shoes, pajamas, trousers and sanitary towels.
Salesian Brother Clarence Watts, Delegate for Social Communication of the Southern Africa Vice Province (AFM), speaks about Nhlanhla and his team and says: “He is a truly inspiring young man, together with his team of youth. There is no Salesian presence in Soweto, but Nhlanhla has brought the Salesian spirit of generosity and kindness to the most vulnerable youth in Soweto. Don Bosco would be very proud of him.”
