Children Help Gather Food, Toys for Children Affected by AIDS at South African Foundation, PRI’s ‘The World’ Reports

PRI's "The World" yesterday profiled the Children for Children Foundation, an organization in Soweto, South Africa, that involves children in gathering and distributing food, clothing, toys and other items to children affected by HIV/AIDS. Bathabile Serei, founder of the program and a teacher at the Enkonjeni Senior Phase School in Meadowlands, said that although her students "are far from well off" and come from a "very poor area" in Soweto, she has learned as an educator that "children have big hearts." Serei said, "They love giving. All they need is for us as parents to teach them how. The slogan of my organization is, 'You don't have to be rich to give.'" Serei's students contribute their own used items and ask for donations from neighbors and other schools. The gifts are "handed over personally" to children in Soweto and rural areas of the country so that the students are "in touch with the person they are giving to" (Kruger, "The World," PRI, 5/5). The full segment is available online in Windows Media.