Naniwe Klaas started the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) soup kitchen project with a group of five women in the St Augustine Church in Joza township in 2007.
Naniwe Klaas started the Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) soup kitchen project with a group of five women in the St Augustine Church in Joza township in 2007.
Children go to the church during their school break times, where they receive soup and sometimes samp.
“When they eat they don’t want to stop, it is sad because in their minds they think they will be full for the rest of the week," she said. “We have to stop them in order to control their eating habits.”
Most of the children lost their parents to HIV/Aids and most of them are HIV positive. They don’t get proper care from their other family members. She says that they sometimes have to call social workers to intervene when they see that a child is being abused at home.
She admits some of the students need to be coached because some are traumatised by these conditions. “They lose focus at school because of the treatment they receive in their homes."
She worked as a primary school teacher for 10 years prior to working on this project.
After she stopped teaching she still yearned to take care of children. “I love children a lot,” she says compassionately.
This project’s survival has been helped by the generous funding of the Anglican Health Trust. They supply the children with school uniforms and also organise fun events for them.
The GRASS (Gaian Revolutions And Social Solutions) project at Rhodes University has been in partnership with the OVC since August last year. They have helped in supplying soup and samp for this project.
Mrs Klass’s dream is to see these children succeed in life. She has also taken the initiative of checking up on their performance at school and has started approaching tertiary students, who she asks to help the OVC children with their homework.
