The Soup Kitchen serves balanced meals every day to young people affected by HIV. The number of recipients has steadily increased from initially 40 to 150 per day in 2009. Food is cooked and served by volunteers in the Sinethemba House, which also serves as a gathering place for the women's crisis group and the Silulutho Youth Group. A significant portion the daily meals are drawn from the Sinethemba community garden. Sinethemba is currently looking to partner with a mobile clinic to administer necessary medications to those who are too sick to go to the clinic.
The Community Garden was started three yeas ago. It provides vegetables such as spinach, carrots, peppers and pumpkin for the soup kitchen and the community. The community garden provides opportunities for individual empowerment and skills training such as bookkeeping; planting and maintenance; using the produce to create a balanced diet and identifying community members in need who receive vegetables from the garden.
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| Professor Pumla - Gobodo Madikizela, patron of the Silulutho Youth Group |
The youth development program was expanded in 2009, focusing on personal growth, educational tutoring, discovery and exposure trips and intercultural dialogue. A key component of this program is the active participation of the Silulutho Youth in community services as per their own motto: ‘fostering humanity and education in our youth in order to make a difference in our community'.
Mninawe, a professional football player during his youth, created the Sinethemba junior football club two years ago. 22 youngsters age 13 to 18 practice every week and participate in local and regional tournaments.
The Frankfurt Press Club in Germany donated football boots and shirts during their visit in 2009. The Sinethemba football club has been chosen by a leading German newspaper as recipient of donations received for an online FIFA football auction.
Please read more under: www.fr-online.de/mfussball/
The Women's Crisis Support Group was initiated for abused women and today also supports HIV affected women. In addition to counseling, the women's group has begun generating modest income through sewing and beadwork. Products are sold in church and to visitors. In 2008 the group received generous donations of sewing materials and a sewing machine.
For the past two years Sinethemba has organized and managed intercultural learning programs for visitors from the USA and Europe. In collaboration with the South Africa Community Fund, students from American Universities sign up (fee based) for cultural exposure programs that include:
- One or two week residence in a secure township guesthouse
- Participation in community workshops and discussion groups on Xhosa culture
- Field trip to the traditional Xhosa villages
- Participation in traditional ceremonies and heritage festivities