On Saturday 16 March, the first Saturday of Ramadan, Moms Who Care hosted a mass Iftar in Newfields Village, followed by an Iftar in Hanover Park on 23 March, feeding around 500 people on each occasion.
A local organisation aims to create unity and reclaim the streets through inviting communities to dine together during Ramadan.
On Saturday 16 March, the first Saturday of Ramadan, Moms Who Care hosted a mass Iftar in Newfields Village, followed by an Iftar in Hanover Park on 23 March, feeding around 500 people on each occasion.
Two more Iftars will be held in Bonteheuwel and Manenberg in the next two weeks.
“The reasons for our street dinners in Ramadan is to build unity and come together. We want people to come out in their numbers and occupy the streets and claim the streets back again from those who occupy them unlawfully,” says founding member Adeebah Ariefdien Sha.
“We also want to demonstrate the beauty of Islam through collectiveness and how we deal with our neighbours through good manners and relationships irrespective of background, religion, and ethnicity.”
The organisation was founded in 2017 by Sha and a group of close friends.
“I wanted to honour my mom who was a cancer sufferer at that time to start a charity organisation. We started off with a small 40L pot of food and now some years later we distribute in various areas and cook 12 100L pots per week,” he says.
The first community Iftar was hosted in 2019 and was self funded with the help of family and friends.
“We rely on community and social media advertising for funds to execute all our programmes and projects,” says Ariefdien Sha.
“Our general needs is for our feeding scheme which is suffering at the moment because the need increases almost everyday. It is hard to keep up with the amount of recipients to give them a punnet of food every alternate day. Gas is expensive and so are the food items. So, we really rely on donations for all the miscellaneous costs.”
Since it has been founded, the organisation hosts various workshops to uplift the community.
“Apart from the self-awareness programmes and projects for our youth, we have the addiction workshops for the loved ones of addicts, frail care sessions, workshops for the caregivers and workshops for blended families, among others,” she says.
The registered non-profit organisation aims to make a positive difference by empowering the communities of Hanover Park, Bonteheuwel, Manenberg, Vygieskraal and surrounding areas with its outreach programmes that target women, the elderly, destitute families and youth.
“Our motto is: ‘we should be the catalyst for positive change and unite our broader community and give them hope for the future’. We are a group of dedicated ladies striving to reach the goals and objectives to uplift our community.”
