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- Johannesburg based community NPOs are battling the high cost of living and rely heavily on donations to sustain their organisations.
- Swaragano, a soup kitchen in Alexandra township, was launched in April 2020 by an informal trader who had extra veggies to spare when SA went into lockdown. The soup kitchen feeds 178 children daily.
- Miracle Mission in Randburg homes abandoned children before adoption.
Helping hands, love, and donations – this is how Johannesburg non-profit organisations Miracle Mission and Swaragano soup kitchen are thriving and helping their communities amid the rising cost of living.
News24 interviewed Mpho Masechaba Mashigo about what it takes financially to run the Alexandra soup kitchen, launched in April 2020.
Mashigo said rising expenses have been a constant struggle for the soup kitchen, which relies solely on donations to feed 178 children two meals daily.
Her mother, Sanny Mashigo, is an informal trader who sells cooked food.
Masechaba launched the soup kitchen at the height of the global pandemic, shortly after South Africa went into hard lockdown. She had just bought two weeks' worth of stock.
Because of the restrictions which prohibited non-essential workers from going to work or running their businesses, she could not work. But tragedy led to the birth of the Swaragano kitchen, which means "working together".
"The restrictions came unexpectedly. We did not see them coming, and when we went into level five quarantine, my mother had enough stock and was stressing about what to do with all the food she had bought. After much prayer, my mother decided to continue doing what she did, but this time, for free, by giving back to the people," Mpho said.
Going from house to house in the informal settlement of the suburb, she recruited women to volunteer their time at the soup kitchen and for her community to donate food towards the project.
At the height of the pandemic, her kitchen fed more than 400 residents, both children and adults.
When they ran out of stock that Sanny had bought for her business, she had to make another difficult decision - close the soup kitchen or use her savings to continue helping her community.
Mpho said her mother chose the latter and spent the R20 000, which she had saved for her food caravan, to buy more veggies to continue her project.
She said:
Soon, her savings ran out, putting the organisation at the mercy of donors, through which the soup kitchen continues to exist.
"People donate any amount of money they have from R100 to R3 000. Others donate their time, while others donate pre-loved clothes. We've also started our garden, which takes the pressure off financially," she said.
Miracle Mission, a children's home in Randburg, has been running for 25 years. It employs 12 staff and cares for 12 abandoned children at a time.
Children stay at Miracle Mission before adoption by local or international families. Glynis Sack, the organisation's director, told News24 that the biggest part of their budget was to pay salaries.
"Because of the 24/7 nature of what we do, we have day and night, as well as weekend staff. Our staff complement takes the biggest chunk of our budget. Some months, we have employees who are on leave which we have to pay, and their relievers as well," she said.
She added that while the organisation recruits volunteers, this option would only work as a temporary solution.
"We must be careful about the people who want to come in and what their intentions are. We don't need people who are emotional about what happens here because they soon find that they can't sustain their commitment because they have busy lives," she explained.
Miracle Mission receives a subsidy from the department of social development, which it supplements with donations.
"We do have monthly donors. They're not sufficient, and that is something we're constantly praying for and wanting to build. That way, we know that even if the person donates R100, we get that every month. We also have committed people who support us. They give us goods based on our needs list, which makes a huge difference for us."
Their needs include baby food, formula, nappies, and household cleaning materials.
Cindy Sproat, who manages the home daily, said there had been an improvement after the pandemic.
"The donations are amazing. We get something at least once a week. Sometimes it's a big donation, a few items, or loaves of bread. It depends," she said.
Cynthia Dinalane has turned her home in Kempton Park into a women's and children's shelter, Tshegofatso Rona Welfare.
She, too, receives no government support and relies on funding to support them.
Dinalane told News24 she helps abandoned children and women who are victims of gender-based violence. Currently, she houses 59 inhabitants.
She believes she would be helping more women and children if she had more resources and government support.
Dinalane said the women who leave their children in her care, still hold onto their Sassa cards to access their grant.
"They leave the children and take the cards. When I call to ask for their details so I can reapply, they often give me the wrong names that the social development department can't verify," she said.
Dinalane said providing shelters for vulnerable women was key in tackling the scourge of abuse.
