Connect with us
A quick visit to some of the other projects supported by your generosity
Bonteheuwel Nursery School
In the heart of the Cape Flats, Major Marlene Butler, and principal, Mavis Lee run a tight but tender ship.
Children from the community aged 18 months up to Grade R (six years old) start arriving from 6.45am Monday to Friday. There are five classes catering for 98 children.
Life is difficult in this impoverished Cape Town suburb. Teenage pregnancy is rife. There’s drug and alcohol abuse.
Because most parents are unskilled their children are neglected and rarely see anything beyond Bonteheuwel.
This makes them slow, unable to socialise, and with no knowledge of a larger world, making educational outings particularly important. On the nursery school’s wish list is a new gas stove, and the cone extractor fan needs to be replaced; educational toys and children’s story books. All donations will be accepted with joy.
Carehaven (Place of safety for abused women and their children)
The location of Carehaven isn’t advertised, but is known to a closed protective circle of the local community and the nearby police station.
The battered and broken women who come here with their little ones are destitute, degraded and traumatised.
Also, it has taken great courage to leave the scene of their violation. By contrast, they are welcomed with an abundance of understanding, kindness and love.
Carehaven is a place of safety which provides a path to healing and the restoration of self-esteem and self-confidence.
Professional counselling and capacity building programmes build each resident’s potential to become self-reliant and independent.
Captain Marinda’s wish list for Carehaven starts with a coat of paint to freshen up the facility. New curtains and bedding are also needed to make the place feel like a nice home.
Skills training offers hope for the future, and the sale of crafts made from waste provides the start of a small income and savings scheme for when they leave. Captain Marinda’s wish list for Carehaven starts with a coat of paint to freshen up the facility. New curtains and bedding are also needed to make the place feel like a nice home.
Joseph Baynes Children’s Home
In the early 1920’s, Joseph Baynes happened to meet William Booth, founder of The Salvation Army, on a voyage to England.
He was so impressed by the aims and methods of The Army’s work that he donated one of his disused factories in Pietermaritzburg to become two homes – one for men and one for boys.
On 8 March 1923, in the presence of city dignatories and the Territorial Commander of The Salvation Army in South Africa, Joseph and Sarah Baynes opened the doors to the boys’ home.
In 1992, it was decided to also accept girls, and the boys’ home was reregistered as a Children’s Home. It was also the first facility to provide residential care for HIV positive babies
and older children.
In 2015, in compliance with the new Child Care Act, the home was again re-registered, changing its name from Joseph Baynes Children’s Home to Joseph Baynes Child and Youth Care Centre (Joseph Baynes CYCC).
One hundred years later, the home is also celebrating a landmark anniversary, and is still managed by The Salvation Army, looking after 81 children from new-born to 18 years of age.
Imagine a place where love really counts, where you are more than your disadvantaged circumstances, your race or faith; and your future is alive with possibility . . . that’s the place you can call home. That’s Joseph Baynes CYCC.
All our children are given the chance to thrive, learn, grow and build the foundations for a successful future.
And we’re so thankful to every person who helps to secure that foundation with their donations.
An old building, and growing children have constant needs. If you’d like to help in some way, Administrator, Major Tersia Finn, would love to hear from you.
The Hesketh King Treatment Centre
Established in 1905 when the Cape Town City Council approached The Salvation Army to help released Pollsmoor unskilled prisoners not to return to crime for survival. Many of
them were substance users.
Given land in Rondebosch, Captain Hesketh King established a social farm for skills training, followed by a rudimentary rehabilitation programme for substance abusers. The project thrived for 38 years until the council needed to take back the land for rapid urbanisation.
With the monetary compensation, Captain King found and bought new land in Muldersvlei, near Stellenbosch.
There was no rail link, and with World War II happening there were no trucks so everything had to be moved on foot.
The move took three days and started with people living in tents and a hastily erected barn. Funds were raised for a building to accommodate patients, and a cottage for the superintendent and his family. And in 1947 the rehabilitation programme was officially opened.
Today, run by Major Heather Rossouw, the centre focuses on Help, Hope and Healing for adult men aged between 21 and 75; and youth (boys between 16 and 20) who are chronically addicted to alcohol and/or drugs.
Hesketh King is a place where the dignity, self-worth, rights and responsibilities of the individual patient, family and staff members are respected.
But there are also lighter moments. Sport is part of the recovery journey.
Wednesdays are Block Buster evenings when old movies are shown. And Church meetings are filled with song. The best moment is the special celebration of patients’ ‘new birthdays’ on completion of the programme.
Going back into the world, patients are encouraged to take part in a support group once a week.
As with Carehaven, bedding and curtains are also on the Hesketh King wish list.
At Beth Rogelim, which currently accommodates 54 residents, there’s a big cry for help.
“The state of our 40-year-old building has moved beyond maintenance to replacement, including our lifts. The 10 ablution areas are still as they were when the home opened and desperately need an upgrade. Beds, linen and decent sitting room chairs would be most welcome,” says Major Eddie de Vos. If you’re able to help in any way, please contact Major Eddie de Vos on 083 308 5780.
