Johannesburg – Three years ago Beauty Mnci opened her heart and home to needy kids in Bertrams, Johannesburg.Children come to her every day, mostly for their only plate of food for the day.
Apart from a few broken crayons to keep the little ones busy, there was not much else. But that changed this weekend, thanks to the kindness of News24 readers.
On Saturday, a group of ladies from a Johannesburg church group surprised Mnci with colourful new tables and chairs. The group, who asked to remain anonymous, also brought along packs of crayons, new books and teaching charts.
“Oh, the children are going to be so happy. They will finally have a place to sit down and do their homework properly,” Mnci said, unable to contain her excitement.
“They used to sit on these chairs,” said she, pointing to a few chairs that she had borrowed from the recreation centre, “but there were no tables so it was hard to do homework”.
Seeing all the activity, some of the children in the area made their way to the recreation centre.
“Is this for us?” one little girl asked, almost in disbelief as she paged through the new books.
“See, I can now teach the small ones to read,” Beauty said as her curious charges gathered around her.
A few immediately sat down at their new tables as if waiting for a lesson to begin.
Mnci started a free aftercare service as a way of getting children off the streets.
She told News24 that most parents in the area did not work and kids went hungry most of the time. She started feeding the little ones who came to her after school. But she depended on donations mostly.
Mnci said some children in the area were orphans and were living with relatives who had children of their own and were already struggling financially.
After News24 ran a story on Mnci last month, readers responded with offers of help.
“A lady called me in the week and said she read about us and she was going to bring some books and crayons for the children. We are so grateful.”
But it didn’t end there. Pastor Terry Jugdeo and his wife, Farida also stopped by to drop off packets of soup and two minute noodles for the kids. Jugdeo pastors a church in Florida.
“We try to find places where kids are in need and try to donate what we can every month,” he said. “It’s not much but we hope it helps.”
But it was the teaching charts that seemed to have the little ones captivated as the older kids argued over who would play teacher.
“You are not the boss of me,” one yelled before Beauty took over and sounds of “A is for apple and B is for broccoli” filled the air
PH
