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IngweNet© NPC

KZN  FOOD  AID  FUND

 

The KZN Food Aid Fund is an initiative of IngweNet© NPC, the "trading as" name of a registered Non Profit Company in the category of Empowerment and Economic Development, with “business activities not restricted”.

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Because of the recent Covid-19 Level 4 Lockdown followed by the KZN & Gauteng riots, looting, and arson (where most of KZN was affected by the looting and burning of supermarkets and food distribution warehouses), IngweNet© NPC's immediate aim in establishing the KZN Food Aid Fund is to ensure that people do not go hungry in the short term.

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To achieve this, food has been and will continue to be provided to those who we can help who have no access to food, either by supplying food donations, or by buying food on their behalf using funds donated by charitable individuals or organisations.

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The severe shortage of basic foodstuffs such as bread, sugar, maize meal, and long-life milk, which most of the affected individuals and families (mostly in the rural and peri-urban areas) rely on for their survival, has recovered. However, food prices have shot up drastically and  many families whose breadwinners have lost their jobs through both the Covid lockdowns and the civil unrest causing many businesses to close their doors are still going hungry.

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IngweNet© NPC also holds the viewpoint that a generic (standard) food package does not benefit the health of an individual, and therefore tailors food packages according to the health and dietary needs of the individual.... i.e. to sustain and continue the individual's normal/previous dietary practices, especially where these are health-related.

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To this end, a strategic partnership has been established with a New Zealand-based company specializing in formulating dietary and nutritional plans for individuals, based on the availability of whatever foods they are able to receive, for the maximum health benefits. This is especially relevant to those afflicted with serious medical conditions.

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However, providing food packages to hungry people is NOT the long-term answer to the issue of the poverty of communities which South Africa has descended into.

Since the founding of it's predecessor, the IngweNet People Empowerment and Sustainable Community Development Trust (established in 1996) by the Executive Director and Founder of IngweNet© NPC, both IngweNet Trust & IngweNet© NPC uphold the following policies and vision for the future:

  1. To source food items, especially basic items, wherever possible, to fill in the shortages that established retailers are experiencing;

  2. To raise donations of non-perishable foodstuffs (locally in South Africa), and monetary donations world-wide, to ensure non-prescriptively that as many people as possible are reached and do not go hungry;

  3. To give food items in these times of shortages to those who cannot afford to buy food, and to supplement necessary items to those who can afford food;

  4. Once the crisis experienced by individuals and families without food is over, to help those who have received donated food to establish their own permaculture, sustained eco-growing, and/or organic growing systems (all of which have low input costs), in small-scale, vertical, "food forest", intensive, or expansive/market gardens (most of which include raising selected poultry and animals for meat for better protein);

  5. To perpetually mentor the recipients into sustainable participants to sell their surpluses locally within their communities, as an income-generating opportunity; and

  6. To harness the power of the participating communities into "collectives" in order to establish small-scale industries that add value to food products through processing into downstream high-value commodities, thus creating strong local (community) economies that will ultimately contribute to stronger regional, provincial, and national economies through "agriculture".

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In order to achieve these aims, the KZN Food Aid Fund will continue its fundraising drives indefinitely, to establish training centres where "trainers" (instructors/mentors) will be trained in the different modalities, and from where they would bring hands-on, practical support to participating individuals in communities WITH THEIR OWN GROWING SYSTEMS.

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IngweNet© NPC is also in the process of linking with various funding agencies, and will also raise additional funds through grants, donations, loans, and investments in order to achieve its long-term aims and objectives….. however, this process is both costly AND of medium- to long-term duration, and therefore YOUR support would be very much appreciated and valued in the short-term.

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Please continue to spread the word, and encourage your friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances wherever they are in the world, to consider giving this project material support….. even the smallest donation will make a difference.

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