Hope & Hunger: Feed the Children of Promiseland

My name is Nonkululeko "Nonny" Mda. I am 47 years old, a single woman from Alberton, Johannesburg, and the founder and chairperson of Ikhaya Lethu (Our Home), a community-driven initiative in Promiseland informal settlement, Palmridge, Gauteng.

I started this initiative in 2018 after witnessing the desperate hunger and poverty in my community. I live here, and every day I see families struggling to survive, children going hungry, and parents unable to find work. It is heartbreaking to watch people suffer, so I made it my mission to help in any way I can.

Here, it is mostly children who come for food. Many rely on school feeding programs for their only meal of the day, but on weekends, there is no school—and no food. That’s where I try to step in, bridging the gap and making sure they don’t go hungry.

To keep this initiative going, I work as a cleaner—earning just enough to contribute what I can, even though I myself...