- Auden and Carmen Hector have been providing homeless people with warm food through their 123-movement initiative.
- There have been some nights where they have had to sadly turn some people away as a result of limited resources.
- Most of the donations supplied to the family are from members of the public.
A Cape Town couple has made it their life's mission to give back to those who are homeless in Factreton after they were nearly evicted from their home due to non-payment.
Auden and Carmen Hector started providing 250 homeless people with warm food 3 days a week - on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday - through their 123-movement initiative.
“There, unfortunately, have been some nights where we had to sadly turn some people away as a result of limited resources,” said Auden, 38.
People of all ages come to enjoy a warm meal made with love.
“We wanted to give back to the community because during the hard lockdown period we were about to be evicted for non-payments to our landlord; we reached out to the community for assistance as my wife and I had lost our jobs,” he said.
Carmen, 36, added that most of the donations supplied to the family are from members of the public who have "come out to show their support" in feeding the less fortunate.
According to the Hector family, the community really "showed up for them" with an overflow of food donations and people even went as far as paying a month’s rent for them.
“We had so much food donations being sent to us, we had to eventually start giving some stuff away for fear of them reaching its expiry date,” said Auden.
The father of three said that when their situation took a turn for the better, they decided to plough back into the community and assist where possible.
Since last year, the couple have been providing the needy with hampers of food.
“It hasn’t always been easy but seeing the smiles on people's faces when they come to collect their food has been rewarding,” said Auden.
Soup
Auden, who now works as a store clerk, says they provide soup and biryani.
They hope to expand their initiative to other parts of Cape Town.
Kashiefa Sabodien, who has been living on the streets for over 20 years, said she's very grateful to the Hector family for the meals.
"I make sure I don't miss out on the food, their biryani food is delicious, and I sleep better at night knowing my son and I get warm food to eat," she added.
Ryan Pharo said he wish the family could provide food daily.
"Living on the streets is tough, sometimes we have no food at all to eat. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays are my favourite days as I know I'll be getting some nice foods," he said.
Pharo said it had been a long time since he last had a decent plate of biryani and welcomed the initiative by the Hector family.
Auden says the objective is to teach people how to take care of themselves through skills development.
The family are planning to launch a "learning base" to equip the youth with knowledge to help them succeed in life.
"We are hoping that members of the public will be able to donate chairs, desks/tables, computers, book shelves, reading material, sewing machines, tradesman’s power tools and musical instruments to kickstart their learning base project," he added.
Anyone who would be interested in offering assistance can email auden@the123movement.org for more details.