Students in the Department of Public Administration and Governance donated 5 000 cans of food to local homeless children and performed various activities geared at motivate the young ones.
The donation was handed over recently to the Abaphumeleli Home of Safety in Litha Park, Khayelitsha, which houses about 50 children between the ages of two and 18.
Besides the food donation, the students were asked to pair up with a child and give and spend some time with them by offering them career guidance based on the children’s dreams as well as moral support.
“Students were challenged to leave the kids with a strong inspirational message,” said lecturer Mbuso Tshaka.
Tshaka added that the food was tucked into immediately illustrated how great the need is.
The students raised the donations with local retailers for marks, as part of their Project Management 2 studies which was meant to assess them on time management, team work, leadership, organising and controlling.
“I gave the students letters to appeal for donations from industry organizations as an academic exercise,” he said.
Evelyn Makasi, the home’s founder, expressed gratitude for the massive donation. “The students gave us ample food cans to last us for a long time and the kids are happy for they enjoy it when they get visits from groups of black people as they relate to them better than to whites,” said Makasi.
Tshaka adds that the home is among one of the 10 charity organisations identified by the Faculty of Business and Management Sciences as beneficiaries of annual donation in the next 10 years.
He said the next children’s home to benefit from donations will be Baphumelele in Site B, Khayelitsha.
“For the next project, the students will be challenged to come up with the healthiest food items for the home’s kids which can be used as either breakfast or lunch.”
He argued that the homeless children will not be empowered by food donations only, but education can lift them beyond their circumstances in such a way that they can also plough back to the shelter after they become successful.
He thanked Shoprite, Goal and other supermarkets for their selfless donations to the project.
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