Thu Sep 06 13:34:00 UTC 2018
Josephine Mpofu started Supa Dimama Senior Centre in 2008, after seeing the struggles of elderly people who often went hungry and spent all day alone with no company or stimulation in an impoverished area of Ivory Park close to Midrand in Gauteng.
A widow with almost nothing to her name, Mpofu was inspired by the example of her own grandmother, who took care of her. She initially acquired two sponsors and set out to help provide nutritious meals, exercise and activities to ease the plight of senior citizens and young mothers.
- Josephine Mpofu, Supa Dimama Senior Centre founder
Despite financial challenges, Mpofu also managed to keep a daycare centre going. In 2017 Supa Dimama received a big boost when it partnered with the Shoprite Group following a Mandela Day initiative by our Gauteng division.
The Group’s implementation partner, Food and Trees for Africa, held a series of workshops in which participants were shown how to plant and work the soil more efficiently, greatly increasing the centre’s productivity and sustainability. Equipment, seedlings, other materials and trees were also provided, and a JoJo water tank proved to be a real boon.
Today the centre has 87 beneficiaries on its books, and Mpofu runs it with the help of four volunteers and a sports coach. Breakfast and lunch is provided daily with vegetables like spinach, beetroot, cabbage, potatoes and onions supplementing the menu.
Medication is dispensed at the centre and it also provides a counselling service. Shoprite’s support has also enabled volunteers to visit those unable to make it to the centre on their own steam.
- Josephine Mpofu