My name is Rex IP Omameh. I am a dual member of the Rotary and Rotaract Clubs of Blouberg and also served as the District Rotaract Representative of District 9350. My passion is fighting hunger.
According to a report from the United Nations food agencies, about 690 million people around the world go to bed hungry on a regular basis. This distresses me as we live in a world where each day, there is enough food being produced to feed everyone on the planet. I know we have
the ability to end hunger. If each one of us were to help a hungry person just a little bit, we could make a huge difference.
With this in mind, I took action to help contribute to the fight against hunger. In July last year, I was inspired into action by the struggles people faced during the COVID-19 hard lockdown and turned my living room into a sandwich factory. With the help of my family, friends and a few Rotaract members, I can proudly say that I have been privileged enough to feed over a hundred people a week. On five different occasions, we made the effort to feed 1 000 people a week. We funded this ourselves; everyone gave what they could spare. To date we have made 17 216 sandwiches and when we were restricted from gathering, my family helped me. The three of us would spend between four and 12 hours a day making sandwiches… and we have not stopped!
As young professionals, I know we often get very busy but if a cause is fun and challenging, we will always make time for it! Most of the sandwiches we made were given to Milnerton Community Action Group (CAN), a group of wonderful individuals doing so much for the community, for distribution. Recently, Blue Ribbon Bakeries joined our project and started to donate 150 to 200 loaves of bread and 100 to 200 litres of soup two to four times a month. This has taught me that what we can spare is never too little; it will always make a difference. Our wealth isn’t measured by what we have, but what we give – and the best is yet to come in 2021!
Thank you guys for the great work. The site looks amazing!
The Sandwich story by Rex too is inspiring.