School principals, religious leaders, institution and NGO heads are among no fewer than 50 prominent local personalities who have pledged to support a 14-hour fast on Friday 29 May to raise funds for feeding projects in Makhanda. Co-ordinated by the Makhanda Circle of Unity coalition, leaders of churches, local government, businesses, educational institutions, health services and NGOs have committed to going without food from 6am to 8pm.
The gesture is in intended to raise funds for feeding projects, and organisers have asked that participants donate the amount they would have spent on food for that day to the Makana Revive Trust, which is disbursing funds to some of the local feeding projects. Thousands of Makhanda residents are experiencing extreme hardship under the lockdown. With government relief funds slow in coming through and insufficient to make up for the sudden drop in income for breadwinners, many are struggling to feed their households.
Organisers of tomorrow’s solidarity fast are Andrew Hunter, Dean of the Cathedral, Professor Owen Skae, Director of the Rhodes Business School and Vicentia Kgabe, Rector of the College of Transfiguration. Kgabe and Skae are joint chairs of the Makhanda Circle of Unity.
In a media release, they said, “The aim is to spend a day contemplating the hardship others face and to make small donations, roughly the amount that each person would have spent on food during the fasting period.”
They have invited donations to be paid into the Makana Revive Trust account for certain local feeding programmes.
Details of the event and its participants, as well as the bank account details for donations are available via the Public Service Accountability Monitoring (PSAM) office of Rhodes University
