JESS HOLLIS - The Township & The Soup Kitchen

The Township & The Soup Kitchen.

Behind the barbed wire fences and potholed roads of Ngxingxolo Village, a Xhosa township near Cintsa in East London, is Onwaba, a drop-in centre and soup kitchen set up by local woman Temie. Here, food and clothing are provided for disadvantaged and vulnerable children in Cintsa East, with breakfast, lunch and dinner served every day, without fail.

On this particular day, children from the local children’s home came to Onwaba to help prepare lunch and spend time with children living in circumstances they themselves may have known, had they not found a safe home in the orphanage.

Many dusty feet and a few pairs of clean shoes moved side by side, sharing laughter and play as if their lives were no different from one another. Games spilled out into the street, with groups forming and breaking apart as quickly as they began, while others gathered around the kitchen.

The Township & The Soup Kitchen ©JessicaHollis2026

For the protection and privacy of some children featured, any images in which their identities could be recognised have been withheld from publication.

For more information about the children's home involved, please visit The King's Children's Home.