Tholuthando – Orphanage South Africa 

 

Try to put yourself in these shoes. You wake up every morning in some back street hidden from the general population. You didn’t sleep much because you afraid: afraid of being attacked, afraid of being bitten by rats, afraid of the cockroaches scurrying all around you. You are hungry because you did not have something to eat last evening and now you must start you daily pleas for money. You stand along with so many others at traffic lights and corners begging for a few coppers to buy some bread. You have to compete with others for a few meager takings so as to have something in your stomach. You are conscious of the ever present threat of violence. This is your daily life. If you can put yourself in this picture, how do you think you would feel? How would you survive?

Oh, and to put give you the full picture, you are 5 years old!

This is the life many children live on the streets of the urban centers of Africa. One couple, Sindi and Andrew Duma, decided to do something about it. They opened their home to children orphaned by AIDS or running away from domestic violence to live on streets. They opened their home and their hearts. I got to know about them through some students at the local Medical school where I am chaplain.  Through some contracts we have built a custom built home to house 35 children. It is called Tholuthando Home which means “we have found love”. The children are now in a place where they are fed, where they have a roof over their heads, where they can go to school – where they can find love! 

This project gets no help whatsoever from the government. We rely entirely on donations. It is a constant struggle to put food on the table every month, to pay for their education, put clothes on their back. We need the help of generous people and institutions to keep the children from being sent back to the streets.

Please help us, to help them, to help themselves !

Written by Peter Lafferty – Glasgow born and bred living in Durban and  building up Tholuthando