1 in 1 out

Poverty is one of the greatest challenges facing South Africa today that I believe leads to crime and a host of other negative things.  In an Endeavour to address and change the situation, we have identified education and skills development as a major part of the solution. In our effort to help address this need, 1in1out Charity currently distributes stationery, uniforms and is involved in several school projects.

We are collaborating with Freedom Park Primary, Noordgesig Primary and Lawley Secondary schools, however, the greater problem is the number of children that do not eat or eat enough, as they simply cannot afford to bring lunch. Yes, the schools have feeding programmes BUT for the majority of the poorest children this is the only decent meal they have during the school day. One particular school principal that we worked with pointed out that their education committee had established that many children lose concentration during the classes especially after first break i.e. 10h30 onwards. This leads to poor performance resulting in failure at school level, which perpetuates the problem of unskilled and unemployable adults, and thus the poverty cycle continues. 1in1out will try to meet some of the cries from the children “Give us our daily bread!” An effective school feeding has been our desire for years. We are currently feeding hundreds of people daily through other programmes are we are reline on donations etc. HOWEVER, this is the start to a sustainable feeding programme. We will be selling a portion of the bread etc to some of the “road side stalls and shops in the neighborhood to sustain the bakery as we feed some of the hungry in certain schools that we work with.

Better nutrition makes for brighter children therefore the first step would be to feed the body before feeding the mind. Well-fed children find it easier to concentrate and generally perform better. That is ‘Better nutrition will help students become energetic and focus better, which will inadvertently make them prosperous in the future adding to the growth of a healthy economy’.