Windhoek — Over 350 orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Babylon in the Tobias Hainyeko Constituency benefit from the Kobi Alexander Enterprise Soup Kitchen.

The soup kitchen operates from the Nathanael Maxuilili Centre in Babylon. When the soup kitchen was started in 2001 by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Namibia (ELCIN) under the leadership of Dr Absai Sheyavali, it only catered for 150 children. According to the manager at of the soup kitchen, Eunike Hedimbi, in the beginning they fed children only three times a week with the support of ELCIN.

In 2006 to 2010, the City of Windhoek took over the soup kitchen. But since 2010 the soup kitchen has been operating fulltime as the Kobi Alexander Enterprise Soup Kitchen and children are now being supplied with food every day.

Hedimbi noted that although the soup kitchen initially catered only to OVC, today it feeds all needy children in the surrounding areas. "There are more children in the area in need of help but we only help 350 which is only enough for the food we have," said Hedimbi. She noted that some of the needy children are selected by the cooks who live in the same economically depressed areas as the children.

"The beneficiaries eat enough. All the cooks are from the area. They know who normally needs help and they give forms to the guardians and parents to fill in for the kids to register," said the manager.