Help Feed Hungry Children in Zimbabwe

Dear Supporter,

It is school holidays here in Zimbabwe now, so things at the school are very quiet, but that does not mean that our work stops. It is our aim to be able to supply food to our scholars throughout the school holidays. 

Up to now, the school has been asking parents to donate the money for lunch - but quite simply, most are unable to manage it as they are not employed. The drought this year is also a killer, which adds pressure to families. The crops have failed and we are having a hot, dry winter which does not bode well for the next season.  This means that the hunger has really started to take hold in the area and parents simply don’t have the resources to supply money for children’s lunches.

Here at Marula School we presently have 243 day scholars, all of whom should be receiving a school lunch regardless of if their parents can pay or not. This lunch consists of a bowl of pap, which is a mealie meal porridge. Mealie meal is a staple food in southern Africa. It is crushed maize meal that is cooked with water and served very thick and stodgy and used as a base for serving stews and relishes. To go with this, we provide a relish made from cabbage, soy mince, sugar beans, tomatoes and onions.

National Foods here in Bulawayo have been donating the mealie meal for the past few months and we hope they will continue doing so going forward so that we can continue using your donations to buy the ingredients for the relish. 

We thank you for your kind support.

Best Wishes, 

GVI Charitable Trust

Links:

• The Charitable Trust
• Follow us on Facebook

Dear Supporter,

On Tuesday, 12th May, the Rotary Club Claremont: CapeTown awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship, the highest accolade from the Rotary Foundation of Rotary International, to social entrepreneur - Dr Basil Kransdorff.

A humorous moment was had by all as it was a surprise presentation organized by long term e'Pap supporter Jo Maxwell. In on the act was our Cape Town distributor, Harold Peters. Not a whisper from anyone.

Jo Maxwell, a Rotarian from Claremont Rotary Club was one of the first people to understand and recognize the e'Pap contribution to addressing malnutrition (hidden hunger) in relation to early childhood development. She introduced e'Pap to Cape Town creches 14 years ago. She continues to ensure that children receive it. For her efforts in the community, Jo received a Paul Harris Fellowship award in 2008. In 2014, Shelley Godsell was also awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship for their work in setting up the e'Pap Feeding Project in the Eastern Cape www.epapfeeding.co.za. Shelley and Peter Godsell created the e'Pap feeding program that now feeds e'Pap to 5,000 children in 95 schools across the Garden Route in South Africa. The exciting part of this project is the 100 volunteers in the area ensure that the children receive their e'Pap which forges great relationships across communities. This project is in its 13th year.

A surprised Basil received the award on behalf of the whole e'Pap team across Africa and now across the World. e'Pap Contributors have managed to distribute over 200 million food portions on our 15-year journey and commitment to be part of making Africa - nutrient replete.

Thank you for your continuous support on this project.

All the best

GVI Charitable Trust

Links:

• www.gvi.org