From animal shelters, to feeding families
What started out as simply one project a month, has now become a weekly way for families to get a meal.
Stephan Ferreira made a decision in May 2011 to start up Charity Begins With Me, after he found himself making regular visits to animal shelters.
“It all started when I adopted a cat from a shelter in 2011,” Stephan said.
“Having seen what it’s like, I began making regular visits to the shelter with either cat or dog food.”
From there on, the community was attracted to Stephan’s idea, and the group started gaining more and more support.
“People started taking notice, and started asking ‘How can we help?’, and that’s when Charity Begins With Me started,” said a nostalgic Stephan.
From there, Stephan started up a Facebook page for his new-found passion, to create an easier way for everybody to communication as WhatsApp groups were just too small, according to Stephan.
“The project then sky-rocketed, with projects (despite only undertaking one a month) often overlapping, which led to us having to be a bit more picky with what we helped with,” Stephan recalled.
Soon enough, after nearly six years of operation, Stephan was contacted by Community Led Animal Welfare (Claw) in December 2016, to begin helping with their existing feeding scheme for members of the community.
“It started out small, with us only having to feed 55 children a week, but that changed very quickly,” he remembers.
“As the numbers grew, we had to find new ways to feed them, because we just couldn’t cook for up to 200 children a week.”
This led to them getting the community to bake muffins for the children every week.
Now, little under a year later, they see hundreds of children arrive for a meal every Sunday.
Every week, they provide each child with a hot dog, some sweets and snacks plus either a toy, book, item of clothing or whatever donations they receive in the week.
In December last year, they initiated a new plan, where mothers from the outlying areas arrive in the morning, receive a black refuse bag, go out and fill it with rubbish and return it later for a food parcel.
According to Stephan, they feed anywhere between 600 and 800 children a week, and anything you donate can help.
“We will find a use for anything you donate, no matter what it is. Even if it’s a pack of 12 viennas, it’s a meal in the stomach of 12 children who need a decent meal,” Stephan said.
If you are interested in supporting this initiative, feel free to contact Stephan on 072 593 3866, or visit their Facebook page, Charty Begins With Me.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites
Remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages to let your voice be heard!
