Children playing football at one of the holiday programmes. When the schools close for the year, many of KwaZulu-Natal’s youngest children face the harsh reality of hunger for the next six weeks. They rely on meals provided at schools and often go hungry during the summer holidays.
To counter this charity Zero2Five Trust will be running holiday programmes for children in KwaZulu-Natal. The children will receive breakfast and lunch, enjoy fun and educational activities and will also take home a 5l bucket containing food to help their families. According to the South African Early Childhood Review 2024, nearly five million children under six live in households that cannot meet their basic needs with almost half (49%) of KZN children experiencing some of the highest rates of food insecurity in the country.
This results in ongoing malnutrition, stunting and developmental delays. “Food security is declining all the time. It is scary how basic food items have become ridiculously expensive.
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Although an extra 5kg bag of porridge doesn’t seem like much, it translates into 100 meals for a young child over the six-week school holiday period. I would imagine it all gets split amongst siblings and maybe even the elderly, but I welcome knowing that we are helping impoverished households,” says Jodi Pons, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the Zero2Five Trust. Another major concern is safety with incidents of neglected children that emerged during the 2024 holiday season from households where caretakers were working and young children were left in the “supervision” of their older siblings.
“We open our four venues for children who are normally not looked after. This is a big problem for parents who still go to work in December. Schools close as early as November 20 and they have to make sure that their children are safe. It’s one thing having older siblings, but they have friends stopping by and often this is not a safe environment for young children,” she said.
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