Orphanage gets helping hand from local company

Botshabelo means ‘a place to run to’ in Tswana and was established as a non-profit organisation in March 2000. The orphanage was started in response to the plight of babies being abandoned in hospitals or left to die due to poverty and HIV/Aids.

The orphanage currently has nine children in their care who are six months and under and their oldest resident is six years old.

Scribante, a mining and civil engineering company in Kyalami, got in touch with Botshabelo after workers read an article entitled ‘A place called home’ in the Fourways Review (week ending 10 May 2013).

Dinasen Palavar of Scribante explained that the company, which is less than 400m away from Botshabelo, approached the orphanage to ask how they could help.

Michelle Hinrichsen, funding co-ordinator of Botshabelo said, “Scribante came through at just the right time because we had just thought of upgrading our baby home when they offered a donation.”

Hinrichsen explained that Scribante’s R80 000 donation would be used to extend and pave the patio and create a bigger dining room area for the children.

“These are our kids and they deserve the best,” Michelle said. “We want them to be able to have a sense of pride in their home.”