Mosadie Gives Back

During these trying times it is not expected or known for someone who owns an Events and PR

company to be focusing on giving back. First and foremost, the lockdown has depleted many 

businesses to shutting down or retrenching people etc. When thinking of an events company owner, 

you would think of how they are able to make money during this time considering their salary and 

workers salary comes from hosting events and launches. This might be the case for Marina Nestel, 

owner of The Little Black Book as she had to shut down her doors and lost many of her businesses 

during this lockdown. 

Marina has been doing charity work for more than 10 years and about three years ago she 

embarked on a journey with Mosadie Gives Back, an NPO No 234-499 that advocates No hunger to 

the community of Mitchells Plain. For the past two years Marina reached into her pockets and used

her networking skills to get donations from her clients to feed and surprise Mitchells Plain residence 

on Easter Monday, feeding 2000 children and each and every one of them got a goody bag with an 

Easter Egg, sweets, chocolates and a drink. 

With this year’s Easter being one of the most toughest ones ever due to the COVID-9 pandemic, 

Marina decided to take it a bit further by using this crucial time in her life and business to rather 

focus on giving back and making it better for someone else. With a permit from the government, 

Red Cross staff and SAPS support she extended her voluntary work with Mosadie Gives Back

including The Volunteers (Mosadie Gives Back (Shanaaz Allie), Melissa Tal, Amanda De Waal, 

Faranaaz Isaacs and Kim Prissman who donate, work on logistics, organisation and finance the 

feeding scheme which feeds the Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain area. 

Marina does all the social media from the Little Black Book Events &PR, Amanda uses her Van from 

her shop RockaRolla Party destination to collect and deliver the food, Melissa, a registered Social 

Worker raises funds and feeds the kids and of course the Founder Shanaaz Allie and her daughter 

Faranaaz Isaacs painstakingly ensure that the parcels are packed and distributed fairly and safely.

Marina has been able to use her social media to get donations from the following:

• The Cape Royale Luxury Hotel, whose residents cook for 500 people every Monday with all 

ingredients bought from their own pockets. 

• Maxine Benatar from Maxi B Delicious who bakes for the kids every Monday

• The Service Dining Room who donate food and supplies. 

• Collen Geldenhuys who raised funds to cook a delicious mince curry with head chef Dixon at 

Seelan Sundoo’s restaurant, feeding 500 people. 

• Camps Bay High Grade 10’s who donate food weekly. 

• Ladies of Love who donate food to 25 organisations and feed 1000 hot meals a day, 

providing Mosadie food every week.

This Wednesday from 3pm, Mayor Dan Plato will be joining the ladies from Mosadie, Marina and 

The Volunteers in handing out food parcels including Flour, Oil (two types of parcels: The 

Elderly/Disable and The Normal Families, sandwiches and some treats. Captain Jacobs (Second in 

command) from the Mitchells Plain SAPS will be in attendance and the Red Cross Disaster 

Management team will be there as well to help with sanitizing, keeping social distance order etc. The 

event will be covered by journalist, Daniel Abrahams from The Son.

Unfortunately, it’s difficult to continue this operation without operating funds for all expenses that 

have been personally incurring. To get through the next month they will need a minimum

of R40 000-00 to feed the kids and to hand out food parcels to families and the elderly. During the 

lockdown period, they have extended the services to the community to 3 times a week and not only 

the usual Monday. On a Mondays Shannaz has been feeding 400 children from her home for the last 

year. That number has increased to 500. They congregate on the streets to wait for the delicious 

meal she and her group of dedicated volunteers cooks for them. This is at a cost of R 3500 .00 

excluding the cost of the paper cups and spoons, which are donated by Ladles of love. The rest of 

the funds and initiatives are funded by other donations and the volunteers. 

Shanaaz wants to ensure that each innocent child gets a warm meal every evening. A meal that 

many parents cannot provide as they are either alcoholics or drug abusers and neglect their children.

MISSION

1) Mosadie Gives Back is a community driven project. It cannot now stop feeding the kids it has been 

supporting for the past 2 years. They have come to rely on the weekly meal. Should we get sponsored 

for meals every day or part thereof, then we can alternate between the community, Mitchell Heights 

Primary School and Tafelsig Primary school.

2) Mosadie Gives Back also organises social and fun events for the community. On Easter Monday 

2019 we fed 2000 children and each one of them got a goody bag with an Easter Egg, sweets, 

chocolates and a drink. This was achieved by once off sponsors and once off donations from personal 

contacts. On youth day 2019 we used Olifantshoek hall for a fun day where there will be a live band 

and various competitions including a "Miss Mosadie Gives Back"

We would like to continue doing this on all public holidays and were busy preparing to do this for 

2020, however covid hit and we lost most our sponsorships.

3) I do believe that the 1500 kids from Mitchell Heights Primary School and the 1167 from Tafelsig 

Primary should also benefit. There should be a mutual cooperation and collaboration between 

Mosadie Gives Back and the schools , whereby Mosadie Gives Back uses the kitchen of the schools to 

prepare the food and makes it both possible for the school kids as well as the struggling 

neighbourhood community to come in the late afternoon to receive a meal. Mitchell Height Primary 

School is also ideally situated in relationship to Shanaaz's house and provides easy access for the 

volunteers.

The coordination and funds CAN go through Mosadie gives Back, which I will administer, or any other 

institution that HCI foundations would like to use to facilitate.

The following is our objectives in importance of order.

1) To receive R3500 per week (or the equivalent in donated food supplies), food containers, spoons 

and 

gas, to feed the community in Tafelsig from Shanaaz Allies's home in Theresa. We would also like 

financial assistance to pay the volunteers who cook and assist Shanaaz in Mitchells Plain. Added to 

that we would like an allowance of Petrol, social media funding, telephone calls and incidental 

expenses that we all incur to allow this Foundation to exist.

2) To receive R 3500 per day (or the equivalent in donated food supplies), food containers, spoons 

and gas to feed the community in Mitchell's Plain. This can under extreme conditions be achieved by 

feeding them from Shanaaz Allies home daily. A group of 14 Volunteers is in place.

3) To cooperate with Mitchell's Plain and Tafelsig Primary School, whereby both the kids that go to 

school and those that don't can benefit from a hot meal once /twice a week or every evening 

depending on funding. On this scale Mitchell's Plain Primary School would have to provide the use of 

their school and kitchen to facilitate this. The exact funding of needs to be worked out.

Whichever route your foundation wishes to take is entirely up to them. It is incredibly generous that 

they do so in the first place. Whether they choose to sponsor once a week or up to 7 times a week, 

they can be assured that a minimum of 500 children will be going to bed with a full tummy. The 

sponsorship will be appreciated in either food supplies that we would arrange collection of, Monetary 

donations to our Mosadie Gives Back Foundation, or any other foundation that the sponsor trusts 

that can administer the funds. If the community is helped, that is of the most importance.