Our Cape Town community created the Circle of Nourishment group in 2012 and has been in service to the community since the winter of 2012. Our main social relief project supports vulnerable mothers and new-born babies at Mowbray Maternity Hospital, through our weekly feeding scheme and donations of 'Stork Bundles', as well as providing Kangaroo wraps for premature newborns in the kangaroo ward at
MMH. Further Rokpa projects include assisting the homeless with food packets and hygiene items and addressing food security through the Seeds of Nourishment initiative, supporting community food gardens. More about our work at MMH: Close on 1,000 babies are born here every month. Over 90% of the mother’s are unable to pay the hospital for their services. Many expectant mothers visit the day clinic without having eaten. Our service has been to provide a simple serving of sandwiches, a juice and fruits to the mothers, and any accompanying members of family who wait for hours at the clinic. Social workers further identified another need in the hospital– maternity packs for impoverished mothers. Our broader community supported the call for knitting of booties and beanies, and through ongoing fundraising efforts, we are able to purchase supplies to create Stork Bundles. These include 3 re-usable nappies, washable nappy liners, soaps, baby clothes, a blanket, booties, beanies and maternity pads for the mother. On average we provide 200 Stork Bundles per year to the hospital, 50 kangaroo wraps per month and throughout the pandemic, 200 -300 reusable masks per month.
