An administrator from Humana People to People non-profit organisation (NPO), Zamile Humane, confirmed that they are on a mission to fight poverty in the areas of Mthatha by educating people about ploughing.
He said that this NPO is based in South Africa, and in other countries. According to him, they operate in five provinces here in South Africa, namely Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and Gauteng.
“We arrived at Polar Park in Mthatha in 2019. When we arrived there, our intention was to look after children who are orphans and vulnerable. We are assisting them in their school homework, hygiene and meals.
“We have our shelter where we also cook for them. After school they come with their homework, and while we are busy helping them we also give them food. We are working with two schools that are close to us, Umthatha Community Special School and Siviwe Buso Primary School in Mthatha,” said Humane.
He said that they also go to these schools to check if they are attending or not. Humane said that most of the time they find that some of them do not go to school, because they do not have a uniform.
“We even get uniforms and pay school fees for them. Sometimes we negotiate with the principals so that they can continue to be at school while we are trying to sort their school fees issues.”
Humane said that when it comes to food security, they have realised that people from South Africa are living in poverty, so they tried to motivate them to have backyard gardens. He added that these gardens will help them grow vegetables and if he/she has a big garden the person can even sell some of those vegetables.
“If you have a big garden, you can get money to pay school fees for your children. When you buy vegetables in some of the shops, they are not fresh, but if you grow them [yourself] at home, they are the best. We started this programme by saying each child must have a garden at his/her home so that they will be able to have food.”
Humane said now they had expanded this programme because they are also now assisting people from other areas, such as Kwa Mpuku locality, Slovo Park, Zone 14, Mandela and Marambeni locality.
He confirmed that they supply them with seedlings, and they group them when they are educating them. He said each and every area has somebody who is working on it, called an area leader.
