St Matthews
Siyakhathala
Siyakhathala is a Marselle and Ekuphumleni Township driven project, supported and encouraged by the local church and community, to provide food security to all residents. The covid 19 pandemic has added large numbers to the unemployed and the hungry.
It is both the Christian and civic duty of every citizen to respond positively to the biblical question, “When I was hungry did you feed me? But! Charity runs the risk of degrading and demotivating the recipients.
So we looked for a way to both maintain the important principle of supporting oneself while providing adequate food to the poorest.
This is what we have done!
- A dry food mixture that makes either soup or stew for five persons has been developed.
- This will be sold from St Matthews Church in Marselle and St David’s Zionist Church.
- The currency will be clean, recyclable garbage.
- The price per 2×5 meal packet will be one shopping bag full of plastic, paper, cans or glass.
The philosophy and hope behind the scheme is:
- Every person in the Township will have the security of knowing that neither they nor their children need ever go to bed hungry.
- Getting their daily bread will not require the dehumanising necessity of begging.
- Collecting, cleaning and sorting recyclable material will give to people both the motivation and dignity of caring for themselves
- The effort needed to collect recyclable material will dissuade those who are not really hungry but only looking for free handouts.
- It will lead to a cleaner and healthier township
- It will highlight the value of recycling
The finances, purchasing and packing of the parcels will be done by members of St David’s Anglican Church and others. The cost of the ingredients is roughly R1 per meal.
The distribution of the Meals will be done by the local community and members of St Matthews Anglican Church.
Financial Appeal
Most want to help the needy; but it’s just so hard to find a way that doesn’t involve expensive administration, a scam or corruption.
Here is a simple local project run by people in the community, overseen by a reputable Christian structure that you may want to support. Every Rand given will be used to buy food and nothing else.
Contributions to:
Account name: Alexandria Parish
Bank: Standard Bank
Branch Code: 050817
Account number: 280 275757
Reference: SMS
Ruthell Johnson
Rector
This is the most amazing initiative. Well done
That is truly genius
A brilliant concept to which a lot of careful thought has obviously been given. Wishing you every success.
Thanks.
I live in New Zealand.
I will make arrangements to make a donation to this project.
Thank you.
Kim
I have just sent a donation….this is a good initiative. Well done. Happy to do more if the scheme continues.
I will just make one comment though on risks…. through an anecdote. Many years ago in Hong Kong there was a rat plague. So the Crown government instituted a system whereby for every rat’s tail handed in, you would receive xx shillings. The Crown then couldn’t figure out why they were taking in millions of rat tails, more than the estimate rat population. It transpired that rats were being caught across the border and the tails imported into Hong Kong for the reward. Entrepreneurs at their best.
Of course it is impossible to police these things when you are trying to do something beneficial for the vulnerable. But just something to keep an eye on.