Gift of the Givers, a beacon of hope for the hungry children of Eastern Cape amidst government failure

Tis the season to be jolly as the Xmas song goes, but while we stock our fridges to the brim and buy mountains of gifts, there are children in the Eastern Cape of South Africa, who don’t have food. Corene Conradie, the Eastern Cape Coordinator of Gift of the Givers told BizNews that 80% of people in the Eastern Cape lived in poverty and below the breadline. Conradie said many of the families are child-led households with no parents. She said the child grant of R550 that families receive does not keep up with inflation and mothers said it was often only enough to buy two weeks of food. Despite this desperate need, the Eastern Cape Department of Social Development returned R67 million of the R100 million allocated to them by the central government in 2022. Conradie says it was an absolute failure to the poor in the province where a desperate mother in Butterworth murdered her own starving children and took her own life. As has happened so many times during crises when the South African government has been slow to act, Gift of the Givers has stepped in with food trucks. Conradie says, “You can see the joy, dignity, and hope restored in the mother’s eyes.” – Linda van Tilburg

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Relevant timestamps from the interview

00:00 – Introduction
01:08 – Why haven’t things improved in the Eastern Cape?
01:56 – How much of the Eastern Cape is affected by this?
02:41 – Ages of the children who become heads of there families
03:06 – Central or Provincial governments failure
04:20 – The Eastern Cape government returning money it didn’t need
05:05 – What does Gift of the givers do?
06:11 – What has the impact been?
06:50 – A case they’ve been working with
08:24 – Other projects
09:18 – How is Gift of the Givers kept afloat?
10:09 – Working for Gift of the Givers
11:55 – Most memorable moments
13:01 – How can people support Gift of the Givers?
13:36 – Dr. Imtiaz Sooliman
14:56 – Do you get support from the business sector?
15:29 – Conclusion

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Excerpts from the interview

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Children’s grant of R550 only covers two weeks of food

It’s not such a jolly time for thousands of families in the Eastern Cape province as many live with hunger as their daily constant companion. It is a fact that the child grant many families receive does not keep up with inflation. Many people live below the poverty line. We spoke to mothers asking them, ‘What is the reason that your children go without food?’ They told us truthfully that 550 only lasts them two weeks at most, and most of the time it’s less than two weeks. We asked them, ‘How do you survive when you’ve used up that money?’ They say, ‘We starve. We fill our bellies with water.’ That’s the reality for many families.

About 80% of people live in poverty and below the breadline. If you look at the Eastern Cape province, there are not a lot of job opportunities. Many young people leave the province for other provinces in search of better opportunities. Often, they leave the house with a female to provide for her and the rest of the family.

Many houses are child-led households where there are no parents. This, of course, has originated from the COVID-19 pandemic where lots of parents and breadwinners died. with little ones still at home. These children go day to day begging, many of them do not even go to school. They beg from neighbours and that is how they survive.

HIV+ mother had no other choice than breastfeeding baby

I’ll tell you about a recent case that we have been working on within the Tholeni area. A mother was diagnosed with HIV and was advised not to breastfeed her baby to prevent the transfer of the virus, as the baby was born negative. In that house, there was just water.

She has other children as well. She showed us a two-litre bottle of water and told us, ‘I fill that up with water and I tell them to fill their bellies as full as possible.’ Then she puts them to bed. Because she still had breast milk, although it was not healthy for the baby, she was forced to breastfeed her baby. Just a month ago, the baby was diagnosed with HIV and is now positive.

This mother was telling our teams that she felt like she was killing her baby. She would rather die than live in poverty. Several donors came on board and this family now receives bulk food every month. The joy of the mother is evident; she says she’s got a reason to live because she now receives assistance.

Eastern Cape returned unspent money, ‘they failed the poor mothers and children’

The government does have feeding schemes in place. They do provide an R350 grant, but it is not enough and it does not reach everyone. I know of a specific feeding scheme in Butterworth. I don’t know if you’re aware of the tragic incident where a mother recently took the lives of her three children and her own, because she could no longer bear to see her children starve to death.

In that very same area, we know that the Department of Social Development has a feeding scheme. We visited them and asked, ‘How many people do you reach?’ The numbers are shocking. With their budget, they only reach 120 individuals in a village of 400 plus households that are living in poverty. It’s just not enough. They need to do more and they need to be more visible on the ground to understand the need.

The return of money by the Eastern Cape Government was an absolute failure for the poor and those in need of food. They returned it because of their system, their procedure, because they realised that they would not spend it in time before the deadline. And while people are dying, while people go hungry, mothers see that the only way out of poverty and hunger is to murder their children and take their own lives. So, by returning the money, they have failed the poor mothers and children of the Eastern Cape.

Gift of the Givers have 50 feeding centres in Eastern Cape, 30 million Genesis meals,

Many of the requests came during the COVID-19 pandemic and after the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve done several assessments on the ground where we’ve seen that there has been an increase in malnutrition cases, and not just from the communities. Even hospitals are calling on us to say children are dying. Just last year in Butterworth, nine children died in the Butterworth hospital because they were admitted too late. We have started 50 feeding schemes or feeding centres across the province. When you’re dealing with malnutrition, children cannot eat normal food. So, they need a fortified high-energy powder or paste. So we have rolled out over 30 million Genesis meals across the province where we work with several clinics including hospitals.

When you look people in the eye who have nothing, when people don’t have food, they’ve got no hope. When our trucks pull up, you can see the joy. When you look a mother in the eye who is now able to give food to her children, whether it’s the high-nutritional porridge or a food parcel, you can see the joy, the dignity, and the hope restored in the mother’s eyes. People are grateful.

The Eastern Cape is also well known for the drought in several areas. In Nelson Mandela Bay, which is one of the biggest metros in the province, we’ve drilled close to 40 boreholes recently. Across the province, it’s almost 80 boreholes that the Gift of the Givers have drilled. We have also noticed that there’s a huge backlog with operations and treatment for cancer patients.

We have now joined hands with several hospitals to perform those operations and to assist with funding so patients can get their treatments. This has been a huge help for many families in the province. We also deliver monthly food parcels to various families.

Setting up 100 science labs across the Eastern Province

We do not receive government assistance and although there’s a huge lack at times from the government, we cannot focus on what the government does and does not do. We are fortunate to have several corporate partners, various businesses, and good-hearted individuals on the ground who donate to our causes and to our humanitarian assistance.

We are now partnering with FORD and are setting up 100 science labs across the province to assist underprivileged children with science and maths so they can have a better future.

Uplifting the dignity of people, the giver gets the benefit

I started in 2019 when my town was hit with a drought, and I voluntarily began assisting the community. I was a financial advisor and I left my job. For eight months, I worked in the community delivering water without an income. After eight months, Gift of the Givers reached out and they came. They don’t come small. They came with big trucks. They came with rigs.

Two weeks after I assisted them, Dr. Suleiman asked me if I would like to join the team. Without hesitation, I said yes, because I enjoy this work. One thing that I cannot bear is when I look someone in the eyes who is in need and I’m not able to help. Serving humanity is where my passion lies.

Many times, it’s you who gets the benefits of it. You don’t just deliver a food parcel. You don’t just support a feeding scheme. You uplift that person’s dignity. It goes so much beyond that. When I’ve walked into these impoverished households, beyond that food parcel, it’s the human touch. People feel that they are heard.