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www.thevillagenews.co.za
30 October 2019
The big heart of ‘Mama’ Soraya Writer Elaine Davie
to make his way on his own, was run over and killed a few months ago, she was devastated.
Photographer Taylum Meyer
There seems to be no limit to Soraya’s compassion. “Even though there are times I don’t know how I am going to help, I always make a plan,” she says. “Sometimes a pensioner who has nothing at home to eat will knock on my door at night. Whatever I have, I will share with them.” One of her latest projects, indeed, is to try and put together a small monthly parcel of food for about 30 – 40 pensioners. She also makes a weekly trip to the clinic on TB and HIV/Aids days to bring the patients lunch.
S
oraya Pieterse is a wife, a mother of four young girls and a grandmother of one. They all live together in a small matchbox house at the bottom end of Mount Pleasant, right opposite the Marikana informal settlement. A woman of strong faith, she believes she has been blessed, so that she in turn can bless others, especially needy children and old people.
Much as she has achieved over the past six months, with the backing of her friend and chief sponsor, restaurateur Rudolf van der Berg, as well as other supporters, her dreams for improving the lot of the neediest of her neighbours continues to tumble from her lips.
Having become increasingly aware of how many hungry children there were in the shacks across the road and in her own neighbourhood, she knew she had to start doing something about it. On 1 April this year, she counted the R300 she had in her purse, went out and bought bread, polony and chips and, as in the story of the loaves and fishes, began to share what she had with passing children.
Soraya Pieterse (above left) whose Love, Hope, Faith and Happiness Soup Kitchen in Lower Mount Pleasant provides at least one meal every day to more than 100 hungry, needy children.
Thus was launched the Love, Hope, Faith and Happiness Soup Kitchen which today provides at least one meal a day, seven days a week to an average of 140 hungry children. Over the weekends, some of them come for breakfast, in addition to lunch. When Soraya started the project, she literally didn’t know where the next meal would come from. If her husband had work, he contributed, but often he was unemployed. Not only did she need ingredients for meals like macaroni, vetkoek, stew and vegetables, sandwiches, baked beans and rice and a full Sunday lunch for the children, but she needed large cooking pots, a gas hob and the gas to drive it. She also needed plastic containers, eating utensils and glasses for her small guests.
In the short term, she is hoping to collect enough food and gifts to present a Christmas table for the children at the end of the year; but she also has longer-term dreams. “I’m longing to have a kind of shelter outside my house for the children who come for lunch on hot or rainy days; and something for them to sit on. Now, if they drop food from their dishes, they pick it up from the sand and eat it. That’s not good enough. And another thing is a small Wendy house. There are three disabled children around here whose parents work all day and leave them closed up in the house alone from morning to night. If I had a safe place where they could play and rest in my yard, I would look after them.” Of course her list of everyday needs is endless, including more plastic dishes and mugs for the children, as well as cutlery, cooking utensils and bowls for dishing up, not to mention cleaning materials and gas for the stove, even clothes for the poorer children.
She literally began to pound the streets, telling her story to as many business people as she could. Before long, a number of restaurants and other food retailers came on board with regular contributions of food, and her small open-plan living room/kitchen was suddenly dominated by a large gas hob fed by two 9kg gas bottles. As the number of children increased, her elderly mother, Daleen Pietersen and a helper, Mercia Prins stepped in to share the load.
With a load like hers, the amazing thing is that she says she never gets tired, but has been given special strength to carry out this pre-ordained task of service to the community. With her big heart and unshakeable faith, the remarkable Soraya indeed seems to be an embodiment of the biblical text: ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you do for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you do for me.’
Mama Soraya, as the children call her, knows each of them by name as well as their family’s circumstances. They come for lunch in batches after school and she crosses busy Mbeki Road in front of her house to lead them safely across by hand. When one of her little customers, trying
If you would like to assist her in this single-minded work of grace, Soraya can be contacted on 084 209 7839, or Rudolf on 082 552 9925.
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