This month Children of Light Educare (COLT) in collaboration with Cape Town Hindu Seva Samaj distributed 600 meals to our children and their families in two of our communities in Athlone. This has grown from the initial soup seva that was launched in 2017 in celebration of the 50 years of community service of Mother Yogeshwari, co-founder of the Ananda Kutir Ashrama. The soup seva was started by a small group of devotees who prepared, cooked and served 120 meals to COLT families in their communities in August each year.
The soup recipe has been tried and tested over the years so the only change required this time was to increase quantities five-fold! The use of the larger venue and cooking facilities at the Samaj Centre made this all possible. Volunteers from the two organisations added the important ingredients of love, kindness and compassion while working together peeling, chopping, rinsing, cooking, buttering, and packing. The meal packs that were delivered to our children and families contained a cup of warm nourishing soup, a buttered sandwich and 2 pieces of fruit. It was bitterly cold and raining when we delivered the food which somehow made our efforts more meaningful and well received. It was encouraging to hear some of the volunteers say that next time they will bring their children along to help with this heartwarming seva.
Two young brothers who are inspiring others to serve, deliver sandwiches to COLT each Tuesday morning. They make peanut butter sandwiches the evening before and deliver the 2 loaves of sandwiches and a bag of fruit every Tuesday. The aftercare class is on Tuesday afternoon so this provides our older past learners with a snack, as well as our current 16 COLT children.
If you wish to help improve the lives of COLT children and their families by volunteering, or donating cash kindly contact Devi at info@colt.org.za or call Principal Mala on 084 919 4864.
