Happy helpers - the children assist with the building - Orphan Family Project - Clarens - Free State South Africa
Clarens is in the Eastern Free State Highlands South Africa in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains in close proximity to the Golden Gate National Park and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. It is a tourist centre and a haven for artists.
On the edge of the Clarens there is a very poor township Kgubetswane and this like many areas in South Africa has not escaped the spread of the AIDS virus. Clarens has a growing number of children who are orphaned as a direct result. What started as a small operation by local volunteers and churches to feed and clothe 50 children from the township has mushroomed as more and more children lose one or both parents to aids and over 120 children a day now need food. Some of the street children are housed overnight with local families but the families are very poor and cannot afford an extra mouth to feed, hence The Orphan Feeding Programme in the grounds of the Itumeleng Health Clinic. What started as a table with a pot of soup by Martie Du Plessis and a team of volunteers from local churches soon grew to a shelter, but it still wasn’t big enough to feed the increasing number of children. Food is collected daily from local shops, markets and hotels. All of the food is beyond its sell by date and would normally be thrown away. It is then cooked into a nourishing soup by local volunteers who work on a rota.
Each day at the Orphan Family Shelter, a different activity is planned before the meal. This includes sports, puppet shows and lessons in personal, social and emotional care. Some of the orphans have HIV/Aids too, but education is the key to the future of all of these children and can be part of the battle against AIDS. Education can help the children to help themselves in the future.
In 2005 my partner Allan & I raised £3500 for the Orphan Family Project. We paid for our own flights & accommodation & joined a team of teachers and other volunteers from Wiltshire & Avon in the UK who were doing education & maintenance projects at the local Dihlabeng School. As our own personal project we built an extension to both ends of the existing Orphan Family feeding shelter and made lots of picnic benches.
The children were fantastic – eager to help in every way whether by holding a piece of wood while you sawed it, or by fetching and carrying stuff or just by inspiring us to get the project done. It was a humbling & life-changing experience. Instead of just raising the money we gave up our holiday from work, physically built the shelter, saw the environment these children are trying to survive in, and there was still enough money left over to help pay towards a new classroom at the Dihlabeng Christian school which provides education for some of the orphans.
Happy helpers - the children assist with the building - Orphan Family Project - Clarens - Free State South Africa
Clarens is in the Eastern Free State Highlands South Africa in the foothills of the Maluti Mountains in close proximity to the Golden Gate National Park and the mountain kingdom of Lesotho. It is a tourist centre and a haven for artists.
On the edge of the Clarens there is a very poor township Kgubetswane and this like many areas in South Africa has not escaped the spread of the AIDS virus. Clarens has a growing number of children who are orphaned as a direct result. What started as a small operation by local volunteers and churches to feed and clothe 50 children from the township has mushroomed as more and more children lose one or both parents to aids and over 120 children a day now need food. Some of the street children are housed overnight with local families but the families are very poor and cannot afford an extra mouth to feed, hence The Orphan Feeding Programme in the grounds of the Itumeleng Health Clinic. What started as a table with a pot of soup by Martie Du Plessis and a team of volunteers from local churches soon grew to a shelter, but it still wasn’t big enough to feed the increasing number of children. Food is collected daily from local shops, markets and hotels. All of the food is beyond its sell by date and would normally be thrown away. It is then cooked into a nourishing soup by local volunteers who work on a rota.
Each day at the Orphan Family Shelter, a different activity is planned before the meal. This includes sports, puppet shows and lessons in personal, social and emotional care. Some of the orphans have HIV/Aids too, but education is the key to the future of all of these children and can be part of the battle against AIDS. Education can help the children to help themselves in the future.
In 2005 my partner Allan & I raised £3500 for the Orphan Family Project. We paid for our own flights & accommodation & joined a team of teachers and other volunteers from Wiltshire & Avon in the UK who were doing education & maintenance projects at the local Dihlabeng School. As our own personal project we built an extension to both ends of the existing Orphan Family feeding shelter and made lots of picnic benches.
The children were fantastic – eager to help in every way whether by holding a piece of wood while you sawed it, or by fetching and carrying stuff or just by inspiring us to get the project done. It was a humbling & life-changing experience. Instead of just raising the money we gave up our holiday from work, physically built the shelter, saw the environment these children are trying to survive in, and there was still enough money left over to help pay towards a new classroom at the Dihlabeng Christian school which provides education for some of the orphans.