There has been a lot going on with us in the past few months. The new school year has started and our helpers in Kenya had their hands full. We were able to bring a lot of new children to school and celebrate many successes. Unfortunately, the expansion of the Food Program has not yet taken place. We would like to make up for that now! Next week, the school children will go on their well-deserved 10-day vacation. We would like to use this time to buy new lunch boxes for 20 needy children. After the vacations we will put our plan into action. The children will drop off their lunchboxes in the evening and pick them up again in the morning on their way to school. The extension will take place twice a week. After a trial month, we will evaluate our successes and recalculate the prices.

Many parents cannot afford to pay for a full meal. Some days the children only get food once a day and often only a small portion because money is tight. The parents work as casual labourers and only when they get a day job can they afford to put food on the table. Covid-19 has made it even harder for casual workers, and the children are the first to feel these changes. As some parents are more affected by the situation than others, we have around 20 children who keep telling us that their parents do not give them food to take to school. We want to address this problem as soon as possible and expand our food program.

The Ein-Zehtel-Stiftung is a foundation which supports small projects of NGOs in Germany. We were able to inspire them for the expansion and they support us with 1,000 € for 2022.

We are joining forces! The Soweto Youth Initiative (SYI) is now working closely with UNDER Lea’s TRUST (ULT). You are probably already familiar with the SYI. For over 21 years they have been involved in the Soweto Slum, providing children with a sense of security they did not have before. They take care of countless projects, support private individuals who are in particularly bad situations and are always there for the residents of the Soweto slum. For many years now, they have been running the Food Program, which provides a warm meal for over 250 children on many Saturdays each year. Unfortunately, due to a lack of funds, it was not possible to really cook food for the children every Saturday. The project enjoyed great support from sponsors, but it was always difficult to keep sponsors up to date with successes and to acquire new sponsors.

When I, Lea, travelled to Kenya in January 2020, it was unfortunately only possible to attend the food program on three Saturdays (in 3 months). At that time I started a fundraising campaign as a private person, which made the Food Program possible every Saturday for many months. The SYI and ULT have always worked closely together and benefit from each other. Since the Food Program is now a joint project, we have decided that officially the project will run through ULT and the operation will remain with SYI. Thus, ULT can focus on fundraising and communication with sponsors, while SYI is in charge of the active implementation of the project on the ground.