Empty Bowls

On Tuesday, July 3oth Aletuke proudly distributed food parcels to 30 very needy families throughout my village of Moshate.  The staff of home-based care workers and the people targeting the “vulnerable” children in our community signed up families they felt were the most needy.  Thanks to the Empty Bowls project run by Kathleen Slack at Mount Desert Island High School we were able to put together parcels with a variety of staple foods and some soap for washing clothes and their bodies to encourage and maintain good hygiene.  The gift of money translated to R3000 (Rand).  We did an additional food drive for food items and money and raised another R700.  Two young women who have been volunteering at the center volunteered to take on this whole project.  They learned so much along the way and I was so proud of their efforts and dedication to the project.  The most beautiful part of the whole project was watching these two girls send families away with a bundle of food that they made happen.  When you live in an environment where food is often used as currency it was extremely humbling to talk to the different people who came to receive their parcel and find out what their story is at home.  Here are pictures of some of the people who benefitted from this project.  I would like to thank Kathleen Slack and the students of MDIHS who participated in this fundraiser and who chose my organization as the recipient of their hard work and this years Empty Bowls project.  Peace to you all.

Sara, left, and Precious, right, are the two young women who took this project by the horns and turned it into a great success.  I had a lot of fun getting to know them too.

Sugar, anyone?

This is what each family received.  Our bigger families of 7 or more got additional items like an extra bottle of oil, more salt and tin fish.

David is my supervisor and Aletuke project manager.  He was so please with the success of the project and that more and more people got to see what Aletuke is doing our community.

Sara enjoyed packing up our first customers of the day.  We used the church next to our center as the pick-up point.

Precious kept track of all the families and had each family sign for their parcel.

Myday is one of our orphans at our center.  She lives with her older sister, three younger brothers and her sister's three children and no one in the house is working.

This woman was so thankful and appreciative for the food.  With most of her teeth gone she had to work not to smile for the picture because I was making her laugh.

These are two very typical "youth" in our community.  They are no longer in school, unemployed and the girl on the right is pregnant.  They are probably living with very large families too.

This is a child-headed household taking care of her younger brothers and sisters.

This woman lives with her husband and they make traditional beer at their home and sell it.  She said that they don't sell much because they don't have the loud music to play like the bottle stores do.  She was most excited about the soap because now she could wash her clothes like the people around her do.

This man didn't talk much but he said "danky" (thank you in Africaans) over and over and over.

This young girl took my heart that day.  She is 22 and lives completely alone.  Her brother and mother died last year and she doesn't know where her other brother is.  Her home is not secure putting her safety at risk.  She has no work so she has a "boy friend" who gives her money at times.  Her eyes opened big and wide when we gave her the food.  She couldn't believe it was all for her.  

These two women care for a household of grandchildren left behind by their children who have died (most likely of AIDS)  They almost fell to the ground when I started speaking to them in Sepedi and they laughed and laughed with me as I showed them the pictures I took of them.

I didn't talk to these two boys but they loved having their picture taken and thanked me for doing it.

This is Mma Mohowa.  She is one of the dedicated volunteers at my center.  She has eight children of her own and neither she or her husband are working.  It was nice to be able to help out one of our own at the center.