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- Noyose Klass left the Eastern Cape to look for a job in Cape Town so she could feed her family.
- Noyose Klass cooks food for 40 children at a Khayelitsha organisation, saves in a stokvel, and walks to work daily.
Noyose Klass moved from the Eastern Cape to Cape Town to find work after her divorce.
She arrived with nothing and had to start her life from scratch.
She found a job at Iliso Care Society in Khayelitsha. She now cooks for 40 children at the organisation.
Klass said she depended on her husband for everything before the divorce.
“After the divorce I had to find a job so that I can take care of myself and my family,” she said.
She uses the money she earns to support herself and her two children. She sends R1,000 home to her kids and spends another R500 on groceries.
She gets some of her groceries from the organisation she works for.
Klass makes sure she pays R500 every month towards a clothing account. This allows her to take clothes home for her children in June and December.
She puts R1,200 into a stokvel to save for big items like a bed and a cupboard.
She said the stokvel helps her buy things she could not afford otherwise.
“I only go home when there’s something serious like the funeral,” she said.
Klass walks to and from work every day to save money.
She said local transport costs R17 for a single trip and R34 for a return trip, which is too much for her to pay.
Klass wants other married women to learn how to do things for themselves.
“I would advise married people to do something even if their husbands are taking care of everything,” she said.
Klass said this will stop them from struggling if something goes wrong one day.
Pictured above: Noyose Klass, a mother of two from Khayelitsha township in Cape Town, survives by cooking for kids.
Image source: Noyose Klass
