African Couch Potato: The Mash-up is a South African perspective on all things film and television. Hosted by award-winning TV producer, Gino Shelile, it mashes up in-studio interviews with industry professionals, titles to check out each week, a current film or series review, and a look at old movies that are worth rewatching.
This week’s episode is something different as this year we are taking part in Podcasthon – a global movement where podcasters from across the world come together and dedicate an episode of their podcast to a charity that they would like to support. Our chosen charity is Kulea Childcare Villages.
In Kenya and Tanzania, families living in extreme or absolute poverty have high rates of malnutrition and maternal death and usually cannot afford school fees for all their children or medical care. When a mother passes in childbirth, her baby is at great risk of dying, also, so extended families often surrender that baby to an orphanage because they cannot afford formula.
Kulea Villages helps keep families together even if the mother has passed. We provide crisis support immediately (infant formula and food for the family) and work through holistic support to help families escape the endless cycle of poverty. Our two programs, Child Sponsorship and Maisha Matters, provide assistance which focuses on the physical, emotional, social, intellectual and spiritual well-being of the caregiver(s) of each enrolled baby or child. We extend mentorship to the caregiver by enabling them to start and run their own small business. After a child or baby has been in our program for 1 – 2 years and is leaving, our hope is to have a healthy baby or child whose needs are met consistently through the small business run by their mother or relative who now has confidence in his/her ability to earn a living and to raise children.
Gino managed to get some chat time, via Zoom, with Deborah Brown Magaya, Executive Director of Kulea Child Villages, from her offices in Tanzania.
If you want to know more about Kulea Child Villages or help in any way contact them through their website kuleavillages.org.
Let us know what you think, what movie or series you would like to see featured, or just to tell us how brilliant it all is:
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Member of the Film Critics Association of South Africa (FCASA)
