With food insecurity on the rise, we are meeting the most basic needs in our communities.

Food insecurity and malnutrition remains a major problem in South Africa. With wages far lower than cost of living and unemployment above 30%, many families cannot afford enough food. Those that can rely on stable foods like maize with limited if any nutritional value nor diversity. This is especially the case in remote, rural areas where most of our work is focused, as the nearest shops can be kilometres away. Across the country, around 12% of households experience hunger and one third of all children under the age of three are stunted according to UNICEF, a reflection of chronic malnutrition. For the majority of children in our ECD centres, the meals we provide will be their only food of the day.

Each day our ECD centres alone provide meals to over 1000 children. On top of this, we fund our partners to distribute food parcels to families in need, during school holidays and emergencies. At one of our community centres running ECD and health programmes, over 300 children benefitted from food parcels in the first quarter of 2024.

Everyday we help babies and young children. At the static clinic, one of our patients Aphiwe weighed just 9kg with a height of 76cm when first seen by the nurse. Thanks to the nutritional support she has received from us, she has reached a healthy weight of 13kg for her age with a height of 95cm.

“Starfish is so important because our families have never slept without meals since we set up our centre.” Careworker.