We, Jonathan and Verah Mthombeni retired from Pediatrics practice in California at the end of 2010 and went to South Africa to live on a farm we bought for vacation.
There is a village about 9 – 11 kilometers north of the farm. We decided to visit the village. Our guide to this village by happenstance introduced us to a lady who was the volunteer social worker for the village.
In conversation, she told us about the devastation of HIV/AIDS in the village. She told us that because of HIV/AIDS, there are many orphans in the village. Many of them went to bed hungry.
They depended on one meal per day, which they received at 10 a.m. at the school. Some children were head of household.
We were touched and decided that something had to be done right away. This was on a Saturday. We asked the volunteer social worker to call together the affected children and their caregivers the following Thursday.
On Thursday, 50 families showed up consisting of grandmothers and children. We decided to start a feeding program the following Monday – on their credit card! As a brand new program, we thought that about 20 children might show up that Monday afternoon.
To our greatest surprise, 90 children showed up! In the following days, the number increased to 126. We carried the program on our credit card for all of 2011. Sincere and heartfelt thanks to those who later joined in the following year, to help financially.
The change that we saw in the children’s faces, their weight gain and the appreciation of the grandmothers helped to keep us going in spite of being retired people, and no more having a good regular income.
Together, we improve the lives of thousands of people of the Mapimpana Village. You can give a donation, Volunteer your time or join our mailing list.
Distributing food to the elderly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
