After more than a year of planning, an organisation has opened its very own feeding scheme in Delft aimed at reaching out to vulnerable children.
On Saturday, more than 300 children descended on Delft South as volunteers from the Western Cape Missing Persons Unit (WCMPU) handed out plates of food and party packets.
WCMPU founder, Candice van der Rheede, says the project was initiated over a year ago amid calls from other organisations for assistance.
“We have been volunteering with other organisations for about a year now,” she says.
“WCMPU was founded in 2017 after the death of Courtney Pieters and when we help the other feeding schemes, we are faced with various social issues, like children who are being neglected, absent parents or elderly people who are being neglected.
“So on Saturday, we launched our own feeding scheme where every Wednesday we will hand out food to children and teach them about how to keep safe, but also as an outreach opportunity to see where we can help.”
Van der Rheede says they aim to roll the feeding scheme out to other areas, including Manenberg.
“We find that in these communities the children are not educated or made aware of what (dangers) to look out for, so we also talk to them about what to do when someone touches them and so on.
“At this stage we are doing it out of our own pockets, but will welcome any food donations.”
Anyone who wants to assist can call
Shariefa on 083 443 3546.