Pretoria - South Africa’s most vulnerable struggle to stomach food hike prices and to help, Afrika Tikkun, a non-profit organisation, keeps thousands of hungry children fed daily.
The organisation has voiced its concerns about the rising food supply challenges. They alleviate hunger and fight malnutrition in the country, investing in the development of disadvantaged youth – from cradle to career – by providing a holistic set of education, health and social services to nudge the young into adult success.
Established in 1994, Afrika Tikkun is authentically South African and, said CEO Agnes Sibanda: “We are recognised both locally and internationally for our commitment to the holistic development of young lives in impoverished communities. We are an organisation that prides itself on being partnership-focused and working alongside local and global organisations to build sustainable socio-economic solutions for South African youth.”
The organisation has various arms to assist it with its child development and skills mandate. One of these is its feeding scheme.
But Sipho Mamize, the chief operating officer, expressed his concern about the rising food prices and how feeding schemes will soon struggle to feed the millions of vulnerable people in South Africa.
This comes as the country is facing unprecedented food security risks following shocking food price inflation in the first few months of this year.
Mamize has called for urgent action to stabilise food price inflation in order to prevent increasing malnutrition and millions of financially vulnerable people from slipping into poverty.
Those who are already impoverished, relying on cheaper staple foods and charities to survive, cannot withstand a further onslaught on food security without decisive action to prevent this, Mamize warned.
“We cannot stand by and watch staple foods that the poor rely on for nutrition to become unaffordable. These must be protected from becoming unattainable, even to charities who feed the poor,” he said.
“Food is becoming far too expensive for humane economic conditions to prevail. The government and the private sector must urgently develop an action plan to fast-track interventions and stall this trajectory. If this trend continues, it may lead to food becoming unaffordable to millions more South Africans who are already living on or below the breadline.”
Mamize also said it was concerning that agricultural bodies, including those in the poultry and egg business, were suffering higher production costs and taking major losses because of load shedding.
“This means that prices for protein-rich foods and essential food items may be in short supply or more expensive to buy,” Mamize said.
Afrika Tikkun’s centres across the country provide meals for almost 6 000 young people and children, daily. Of these, approximately 34% are orphaned and vulnerable children who also receive monthly food parcels from the organisation.
According to him, a key component of fighting poverty is not just to give food but also to teach young people how to produce food. This forms part of the organisation’s agripreneurship food security programme.
Last year, they were able to provide more than 1.9 million meals to children, youth and families in SA through its various nutrition and food drive programmes.
“While larger and long-standing NGO’s may still be fortunate enough to roll out robust nutrition programmes, something needs to change for this to remain sustainable,” he said.
Meanwhile, Afrika Tikkun’s youth accelerator programme has proved to be a great kick start in life for some.
Sam-Sam Lihle, one of the young people who was registered as part of this programme, said life after matric is a very sad chapter in most cases.
“More especially for us as young people from the townships. We face so many challenges after matric, peer pressure, financial difficulties, and many other challenges,” she said.
Lihle said that the programme helped her at a time in her life where she didn’t know what to do or where to go, as she had no direction.
She was told by a neighbour about the programme. “Now I can stand up for myself. I know who I am and I know what my outlook on life is.
“I can now go and look for a job with a professional CV and can go to an interview without anxiety because I know what to do,” she said.
Lihle is now a student at the University of Johannesburg, doing her first year in BCom Accounting.
But Afrika Tikkun also makes a difference in the lives of many through sport.
Titelo Modika is a young person registered in the Wings of Life programme. She is currently in Grade 9 and through the Afrika Tikkun Care for Yourself pillar she pursued soccer as her extra curriculum activity.
With the help of a former sports facilitator at the organisation, she was scouted by Mamelodi Sundowns football club and she is currently playing for the girls’ soccer team.
Her team at Sundowns participated in a recent soccer tournament and she managed to score four goals for her team. As part of her prize for this achievement, she is at the moment visiting an international soccer camp in Portugal with the team.
Pretoria News