Durban - When South Africa went into a hard lockdown in March last year amid a raging coronavirus pandemic which upended lives and forced the homeless into tents, Raz Ali, the owner of a beachfront-based security company knew he had to do something.
“What was going to happen to all those people? Who was going to feed them and how? The city could not do it alone,” Ali recalled.
As businesses shut down and people were forced into their homes to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus, Ali, who owns Boss-UIP Security Specialists, set up the Raz Ali Foundation with sole aim of ensuring that no one in the beachfront and Durban CBD went hungry.
What started initially as 400 meals a day grew to 1000 by the second week of April 2020 as Ali got his friends and other business owners to join the feeding initiative.
A friend of his donated 300 000 stickers that had his foundation logo on it which was placed on all the meals handed out.
“A year later all the stickers were finished. I used that to measure how many meals we had served. So over a period of a year and a bit we have served over 300 000 meals,” Ali said.
When lockdown restrictions eased and the homeless left the city-run tents, Ali and his foundation continued to feed people in the beachfront area.
“We then started ensuring that all the homeless shelters in the area we operate from has food. Everyday we deliver over 400 meals to homeless shelters,” he said.
In addition to the feeding scheme, Ali partnered with hotels in the area who donated their old linen and bath towels as well as toiletries to the less fortunate on the beachfront as part of a winter drive where blankets were also given to people.
“The Raz Ali Foundation is just a vehicle we use to ensure that people do not go hungry. The true heroes are all our sponsors all of whom do not do this for the glory but because of their love for their fellow man and wanting to do good in this world,” Ali said.
IOL