Our last stop was at one of the large NGO social service projects in Khayalitsha. We met Mama Rose, the founder of the project, and she told us how she got started in the 1980s, by finding an orphaned child on her doorstep, and then having the police bring her a second child. She suddenly found herself caring for more and more orphaned and abandoned children, and the project was born. As of today, the project has taken in more than 5000 children, who live on site or in private homes, or group homes. What was once a tiny one room house in the middle of the township has expanded to take up about the equivalent of a city block and includes such things as foster care, hospice, a preschool, a soup kitchen, elder care, and a health center. All this is done with help from partners and donations, as there is little government funding.
We had stopped earlier in the day at a grocery store where we bought a bunch of corn meal, beans, rice, onions, fruit, milk packs, and cooking oil. This was our donation, which we hauled in off the bus and piled on a table in the small main office. And then...we went to the baby room! It was literally a room full of adorable babies! These are the orphans and abandoned children who live there, and these were the youngest of the bunch. There were 11 of them, and they wanted hugs, and patty cake and they wanted to touch our cheeks and grab our hair and they were generally the cutest babies in the world. They are obviously well-fed and well-loved, and they were--all of them--very social, which suggests they get a lot of loving visitors. Their room was small, with a tile floor and an 8 by 10 area rug. There were colorful murals on the walls, and severals small bedrooms with 5-6 cribs in them. It was not a fancy place, but it seemed like a happy place. As we left, one baby broke free and toddled/ran after us for about 50 feet before being scooped up by a worker. I'm pretty sure that it was just as hard on us to say goodbye as it was for that baby!
I'm not posting photos here, for privacy reasons, but I suspect the baby room was the highlight of the day!
We had stopped earlier in the day at a grocery store where we bought a bunch of corn meal, beans, rice, onions, fruit, milk packs, and cooking oil. This was our donation, which we hauled in off the bus and piled on a table in the small main office. And then...we went to the baby room! It was literally a room full of adorable babies! These are the orphans and abandoned children who live there, and these were the youngest of the bunch. There were 11 of them, and they wanted hugs, and patty cake and they wanted to touch our cheeks and grab our hair and they were generally the cutest babies in the world. They are obviously well-fed and well-loved, and they were--all of them--very social, which suggests they get a lot of loving visitors. Their room was small, with a tile floor and an 8 by 10 area rug. There were colorful murals on the walls, and severals small bedrooms with 5-6 cribs in them. It was not a fancy place, but it seemed like a happy place. As we left, one baby broke free and toddled/ran after us for about 50 feet before being scooped up by a worker. I'm pretty sure that it was just as hard on us to say goodbye as it was for that baby!
I'm not posting photos here, for privacy reasons, but I suspect the baby room was the highlight of the day!
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