Lockdown hunger is real and the feeling of hopelessness can become overwhelming. Sometimes it can feel like everything we are doing is just not enough!
Johannesburg, South Africa (17 July 2020) – IOL reported yesterday that researchers surveyed 7 000 households and they found that 47% of respondents reported that their household ran out of money to buy food in April 2020.
The lockdown has contributed to perpetual starvation for 2.2 million South Africans, and hunger for millions more.
I wrote the below on my personal Facebook but feel like the story needs a much wider reach.
Lockdown hunger – everything we are doing is just not enough!
I just had the most heartbreaking call from a close friend.
“It’s just not enough, everything we are doing is just not enough.”
At the start of lockdown, Kelly McGillivray started an initiative in her community where they now feed over 40 people, every night. It’s a round-robin concept where different households share the load to keep helping the most vulnerable in their community.
She had ordered take-aways for lunch, and as she paid for the delivery, she noticed an elderly man sitting in the sun on her pavement. He looked worn; like he had lived a long life, sad; like he had experienced massive heartbreak and alone; like people didn’t see him anymore.
Kelly approached him and asked if she could help in any way.
“Please ma’am, may I have a cup of tea and some bread.”
Kelly went inside, made him some sandwiches and a big hot cup of tea. She went back outside and spent some time talking to him… listening to his stories. He asked if he could sit in the sun a little longer to which she said, of course.
A little while later, she went back outside to see if she could get the elderly man anything else, but he had already left and had placed the teacup neatly by her gate. As she picked up the teacup, she saw a confused young man standing in the middle of the road with a piece of paper and a puzzled look on his face. She got his attention and asked if he was okay.
At first, he was reluctant to speak, but after realising that he had found help, he opened up.
“I am very sorry for bothering, but I am lost and need to get this address. I am from Zimbabwe, I have come to look for work, but I need to get my papers signed. I am too scared to speak to anyone in case they hurt me, but I just need to get to this address.”
Kelly looked at the address and immediately knew that he needed to be in Pretoria and not Johannesburg. She explained this to him and offered to take him to the taxi pick up area.
“No, I will walk. It will only take me 8 hours. I don’t have much money, and if the people here find out I am from Zimbabwe, they will hurt me so I will rather walk.”
This broke her. Why would anyone want to hurt someone because they were not from here?
She immediately called an Uber for him – to make sure he could get to where he needed to be. The cost of the trip was way more than she could afford, but it was very little when compared to the kindness and compassion that this young man had hardly known.
As he drove off, she began to weep.
The trauma of lockdown, this global pandemic, the mass hunger and poverty in South Africa. It all just became too much for her… and that’s when she called me. She told me the story, and even though the conversation started off with what felt like the complete heaviness of the world, by the end, the tone was very different.
“I won’t stop. I won’t stop helping and making a difference! We can help our communities, and if everyone does, then everyone wins. We can help each other through this, and I won’t stop. I will continue until I have spent my very last cent and worked my fingers to the bone. I won’t stop.”
These are my people. Kelly is my people. And I am soooo inspired to not stop helping either.
To help Kelly and her feeding scheme, please see her details here:
KA McGillivray
FNB
62268790831
250655
Ref: Charity
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