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

Dear Supporter,

We are proud to announce that our co-founder Basil Kransdorff has been awarded an honorary degree for his unique and outstanding contributions that have had a huge impact on society locally as well as at a global level.

An industrial chemist, social entrepreneur and CEO of Econocom Foods, Basil is also the co-inventor of the innovative and low-cost nutritional product - e'Pap technologies - aimed at redressing micro-nutrient deficiencies  in marginalised and poorer populations.

Basil's category for the award is for a personal record of distinguished service and/or achievement in some other field of endeavour (e.g. the advancement of democracy and social justice, social service, community leadership, economic enterprise, public affairs, philanthropy, the performing and creative arts) which is deemed appropriate for the University to recognise.

We are proud to be working with Basila and e'PAP to help fight against poverty in Harare and Africa, in general. 

Another noteworthy person we would like to congratulate is Samkeliso Masuku for bringing e'PAP into the Pumula community. He is now heading up our first school tuck shop which aims to introduce greater nutrition to the children at Godlwayo School. This is not only a great initiative to help the children, but is a fantastic income generation project at grassroots level.

Thank you for supporting this project.

All the best.

The GVI Charitable Trust

Links:

• www.gvi.org

Dear Supporter,

Great news in from Ntunungwe School, which has been distributing e'Pap to the Grade 7 classes since 2013. The school is supported by Gill Dudman, a local farmer in the area who has for many years dedicated her time and love to the children in this impoverished area.  She wrote.....

"Ntunungwe School achieved a 76,3% pass rate in the  National Grade 7 exams.  Thank you e'Pap, good teachers and able Children!"

The porridge is also called ‘Clever porridge’ as the children’s work improves when they get good nutrition. Your donation has also meant that we are able to feed some of the pre-school children who were looking rather thin.

For less than $10 a month for anyone over 6 years and less than $5 a month for children aged 8 months to 6 years you get a whopping 29 vitamins and minerals a day.

Thanks for supporting this project,

All the best

GVI Charitable Trust

Links:

• http://www.gvi.org

Dear Supporter, 

The joy of feeding over 4000 children& making use of the e'Pap feeding initiative in the Garden Route region of South Africa continues as a transport company, Taxi Trucks, generously offered to transport the e'Pap porridge from Johannesburg to Plettenberg Bay and Knysna, free of charge.

"One of the biggest expenses is the cost of transporting the e'Pap from Johannesburg to Plettenberg Bay and Knysna," said Peter Godsell of the e'Pap management committee. He added, "The transport costs have risen steadily over the last nine years, to the point that the feeding project could no longer increase the number of children being fed." "Taxi Trucks came to the rescue by donating the entire cost of transport. This is a very large and generous contribution as over the year more than 24 000kg needs to be trucked from Gauteng to the Garden Route," explained an elated Godsell.

Taxi Trucks is one of the leading express freight organisations in south Africa. Marius Pienaar of TaxiTrucks said, "In the very tough economic climate in South Africa I believe it is vital for companies to continue supporting initiatives such as e'Pap. It is always easy to turn your back on such initiatives, but we must not lose sight of the incredible work they do and the fact that the beneficiaries of such initiatives are often the very needy.

"In light of the above it was an easy decision to provide free transportation from Johannesburg to Plett and Knysna and we will continue to do so for as long as we possibly can."

With the huge success of e'Pap in other countries in Africa, we are really hoping to gain more support for this project so we can bring this success to Zimbabwe. Thank you for your support this far and for reading this report.

All the best

GVI Charitable Trust

Links:

• http://www.gvi.org