Around 50 Kwa Bhayso residents in Nemato were delighted to be visited by the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) church children’s ministry on Saturday, March 18.
This visit was in line with SDA’s annual community outreach programme where they served the residents with a hearty dish of homemade soup, bread, samp and beans and also donated clothes for both young children and adults to keep warm for the upcoming winter season.
Since March 2021, the SDA children’s ministry took the initiative to conduct a community outreach to those in need. This year’s outreach was conducted under the theme “Love is a verb” by the children, between the ages of zero to 14 years, supervised by church leaders.
SDA children’s ministry leader, Babalwa Princess Lepile said they chose to visit the kwaBhayso informal settlement again this year, due to the high unemployment rate in the area. “People from kwa Bhayso are unemployed and they are dependent on social grant so we choose this area because some of the residents there are not working, the poverty is there and also kids from there have less opportunities than our kids. So we are trying to teach our kids to treat people the same as them whether you are rich or poor but we are still all the children of God so we must love one another because God does that to us,” she said.
This was the second time that the church visited kwa Bhayso as they had last visited the informal settlement after lockdown in March 2021 to lead a similar outreach, Lepile said. Last year, the SDA’s children’s ministry visited Station Hill residents to give them hearty soup and bread. “At Station Hill, we did the same thing as we did at kwa Bhayso except donating clothes because we didn’t have enough time to organize some clothes,” she said.
Lepile said they will be conducting more outreaches this year. “We are still coming to the other areas that are situated in the location according to the program that our church has planned,” she said.
The children’s ministry leader said their donations was well received by kwaBhayso residents on Saturday. “We were warmly welcomed by the residents and they are also appreciated everything that we have done for them and their kids. The community members were delighted to see us because we have informed them about our visit a week ago,” said Lepile.
