Cape Town - A Mitchells Plain couple’s non-profit organisation has become one of the first beneficiaries of cement manufacturer PPC’s Building Stronger Community Heroes initiative.
The A&A Development Programme, an NPO founded by married couple Anwar and Ayesha Alexander, from Tafelsig in Mitchell’s Plain, was recently awarded a food garden worth R10 000, to supplement their daily feeding scheme initiative, which the two began at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic shortly after losing both of their jobs and incomes.
The Alexanders, who were both working in the education sector before Covid-19, said their food garden project initially started with them reaching out to friends and family, for assistance for their own family.
Anwar Alexander said: “When I was retrenched last year and my wife a week later, life became very difficult for us. As a husband and a father, it was difficult to have people know that we were struggling. However, one night – after we could barely feed our children – I realised that I could not go on like that. So, I reached out to family and friends to ask them for help.
“So many people helped us and we were able to rise above that situation, so much so that we decided that we had to pay it forward and try to make a difference in other people’s lives,” he said.
Armed with purpose to uplift others, the Alexanders started feeding children and pensioners in Freedom Park, Tafelsig. Today, the compassionate couple’s soup kitchen feeds up to 200 people, twice a day.
“Sadly, due to Covid-19 still being with us, donations have dried up. To our surprise and delight earlier this month, just when we were about to throw in the towel, we got a call from PPC – informing us that we had been chosen as their inaugural Building Stronger Communities’ Hero initiative, and would be given a vegetable garden to the value of R10 000.”
“We were still in shock when PPC and cricketer JP Duminy, who is PPC brand ambassador and founder of the JP21 Foundation, drove up to our home in three bakkies. We are eternally grateful to PPC for what they did for us,” said Alexander.
The PPC donated vegetable garden will be planted on a communal piece of land, opposite the Alexander’s home.
Coastal region PPC sales and marketing general manager Clint Wicomb said: “As a South African company, we are committed to empowering South Africans to experience a better quality of life. In these tough times, we want to help community heroes who are committed to that same end.”