Since the founding of Lucky Beans e.V. in 2015 in Germany, we have been supporting the Lidgetton Community Project in Kwazulu Natal, South Africa.

Our motivation is to provide a safe, nourishing place for the children of the Lidgetton community to go where they can receive a nourishing meal, play and learn from Nokuthula, our Soup Kitchen “Mother". Children cannot learn or feel optimistic when they are hungry - we start from this premise.

2018 started off with our new Recycled Container Soup Kitchen operating very well for Nokuthula, who has settled into her new home, as well as organising her new soup kitchen on her property.

Nokuthula's new house is in a very central location, where there are a lot of passers by - many folk pass up and down that road all day. They all seem to know her and greet her. Quite a few visit with babies and even other young teenagers come to read books in her lounge. Nok is like a counsellor for these folk and she is respected by the majority of the people who live there. She has bible study in the container in the evenings and also Sunday school for the small children and teenagers so she is kept quite busy. We are proud of her efforts and achievements in wanting to make her community a better place, especially for the children.

Juergen, Anton and I travelled to South Africa for new year, and were fortunate to be there on the soup/food delivery day, which is the first Wednesday of every month. We collected the soup from Amber Valley, which is a large retirement-type community in a town called Howick. A large group of Amber Valley members have generously been supporting LCP for some years now.

We are very grateful to the generous donators from Amber Valley for their continuous support in providing food, and often many other things that are needed, for the children.

Inside our container

The children seem to be very pleased with the new space, and what is on offer for them.

Nokuthula now has proper shelving inside the container for toys, games, drawing materials and books - the children have access to these each time they come for a meal. They eat and then they play.

A kitchen was installed inside the container with a gas stove where Nokuthula can prepare the meals, as well as wash up afterwards, at an open air sink just outside the kitchen door.

At the back door we also had 2x 1000L water tanks installed, which catch rain water. These tanks serve as the main water providers for the Soup kitchen, and are already fill!

Next to the container we had a dry sanitation repit Sanitech toilet installed, which requires no water. This, we hope, will serve as a very efficient long-term toilet solution, which is serviced by the company Sanitech twice a year, who come and pump out the waste from the expandable bladder.

If you are curious how this toilet works:

http://sanitech.co.za/Products-Services/Sanitation-Services/REPIT-Units

The garden

Nokuthula has had some assistance from Sandra and Pat Merrick to set-up her vegetable garden. Sandra and Pat arranged a grader to come in and level the ground, to prepare for planting. She has started growing her own vegetables now.

Nok’s shop

Nokuthula has, for some years now, been selling second-hand clothes to locals from the local trading store, to supplement the small income she receives from us. The store room, which was being rented by LCP, will now become Nokuthula’s shop base. Catherine helped her to sort out and arrange her products on shelves, which were kindly donated by Cynthia from the Funtasy Toy Store in Nottingham Road - thank you Cyn!

Nok is happy to now have a real “shop” from where she can sell her products, and maybe over time expand on her range.

Easter visit from the Teddy Bear Club

A few ladies from the Teddy bear club came to Lidgetton and gave the children a lovely easter egg party with cake and pudding and sweets, plus the teddy bears and jerseys. They played games with the children, which they enjoyed a lot. Thank you to the ladies of the Teddy Bear Club who so generously sew and donate lovely things for the children.

Also a but thank you to all our supporters from Germany. Our contribution to this community is a small drop in a large ocean, but that is where the effect lies.

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