By Nangamso Mabindla
17 June 2004

When Fezeka Matya-Mjamla saw a family eating out of a rubbish bin last year she felt pity. But she also felt something more - that she had to do something.

"I will never forget that experience," says Matya-Mjamla. "Seeing a child eating that kind of food made me think how I would cope if my two daughters were in that situation."

Driven by the intensity of that experience, Matya-Mjamla - an unemployed teacher - started giving people in Buffalo City's impoverished areas one meal a day.

"I thought of the people who live in shacks close to the suburbs. When hungry they break into houses and steal," she said.

So she set up a soup kitchen in an open area in Oxford Street, in Southernwood. It is open between noon and 1pm.

When she first started, a few people would come to her for meals. But the number has now grown to more than a hundred people a day. "People now come in their numbers - they want to be helped."

She is funded by her husband, by a supermarket and by some people who have spotted her feeding the poor.

However, Matya-Mjamla is concerned that some people keep returning to crime.

"I only do this between 12 pm and 1 pm; after that some go back to the streets and commit crimes - that worries me."

This, says Matya-Mjamla, is because people need something to eat in the evenings as well. She wants the government and non-governmental organisations to help her.

"I don't want money - I just want the government to assist me with land so we can cultivate it with these people. It'll be something to keep people busy - and we can then sell the produce."

Matya-Mjemla also urges people with means to assist. "I have big plans for the project and one of them is to start something like a small farm so that we can produce our own food and sell it."

Willie Vansen, a father of two, says he is grateful to Matya-Mjamla. "It's not much but it does make a difference to my family. We always come here hoping that at least my children will have something to eat."

Nomende Dyantyi, who collects and sells bits of cardboard for a living, echoes Vansen's words.

"I go to bed hungry but at least I know that the following day I will have something to eat - even if it is just for the afternoon. It's not like going the whole day without anything to eat."

She also thinks the government must help.

"We would also like to be included in the food parcels given out to the poor by the department of social development."