WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Thandolwethu is an informal children's home in Khayelitsha, Cape Town's biggest township.
Thandolwethu means "our love" in Xhosa, which South Africa's second largest Bantu language.
There is lots of love in Thandolwethu. Khanya, Zozo, Thembi and Vuyo migrated to Cape Town from the Eastern Cape in the mid 2000s. In Khayelitsha they found a lot of abandoned children at the time of a raving HIV crisis.
The pure need motivated them to start the children's home, which they supported since then with their love and care and the little income from their own pockets.
The home was founded in 2007. The following year the women applied for formal support, but could only register the home as an emergency orphanage. Obviously the demand exceeds the places for abandoned children to go. In this sense the home is actually illegal. That's why we are keeping the page password protected, apart from the need to keep any pedophiles away from children's pictures online.
The standards for official children's home in the Western Cape Province are very high and impossible for thandolwethu home to meet. The long term plan is to buy a plot outside Khayelitsha in Mfuleni and to build a proper home. Mfuleni also counts as a township, but it's more spacious and quieter. This long term vision requires support.
This is basically where we are stuck, and need more help.
We are looking for any help. Please help us to get the children out of Khayelitsha.
