Lansdowne Road Soup Kitchen
Each week a group of St. George's students from Grade 7 to 11 prepare food to give to children in Lansdowne. We call it a soup kitchen but perhaps it should be called the “Jungle Oats” kitchen- in the beginning, we provided soup, which the children did not enjoy, then we made peanut butter and jam sandwiches, but it is Jungle Oats, which they like the most. We visit the group on Wednesdays from 3.30 – 5pm to share food, and play with the children in the informal settlement of Flamingo Crescent, Lansdowne.
The people we help are living on private property that does not belong to the government, therefore the council will not give them services like electricity and toilets. There are a few taps where all the people get their water, but there is no garbage collection, so there is a lot of litter in the area, and it can be very smelly. There is no plumbing except for a few chemical toilets for the people to use.
All of the houses are close together with very little privacy for the residents. And, the houses are made of reused materials which the people have managed to find, like corrugated iron, hardboard, cardboard and wood which does not last very long. A lot of the material is not meant to be outside in the rain, and due to the weather, it is rotting.
The people who live in this informal settlement often get ill. The children seem to always have running noses and germs spread quickly because of the crowded conditions.
During the winter the children often do not have warm clothes to wear, and they do not get healthy food on a daily basis- they are very happy when we arrive on Wednesdays with a healthy meal of Jungle Oats, syrup and milk. Many of the children do not wear shoes, and their feet are full of cuts.
There is nowhere for the children to play so they spend time on the busy street. We often see cars speeding past without any worry for the children playing there. And, there are no benches, so the children end up sitting on dirty floors and the pavement.
The informal settlement is overcrowded and there are a lot of adults that do not have jobs. They do have a Spasa shop, but it does not sell healthy food. Another problem is alcohol and drug abuse, and if the mother drinks a lot of alcohol when she is pregnant the children are born with fetal alcohol syndrome. This is a very bad problem because the children are not able to learn at school.