El-Shammah Home for Abandoned Babies and Place of Safety received a loving visit from representatives of CIB Insurance Administrators, last Wednesday.
“We really appreciate the love and care we received from CIB today, it was overwhelming,” said the founder of the centre, Bertha Spies.
“Our staff here raised R20 000 in the past three months through cakes sales,” said CIB’s marketing team leader, Michele van der Walt.
“Basically, each month we have a cake sale hosted by a different department within the company.
“The departments have been really creative these past three months and really come up with great ways to raise money.
“This is an amazing achievement for us, as this was done purely by the staff themselves and it is a great team-building exercise.
“We are really proud of our staff for this great achievement, coming together for a worthy cause.”
Van der Walt also told the GCN that they bought items with the money raised.
“We bought R20 000 worth of items that the home has listed on their wish list; they included nappies, baby food, cleaning detergents and donated baby clothes.
“We used to raise funds every month, but realised that we raise more over a longer period and are, therefore, able to buy more.
“We encourage other companies to look into it as well; it’s fun and for a good cause.
“We are also looking to raise funds for the Germiston SPCA over the next three months.”
According to Spies, there are a lot of abandoned babies in South Africa, which is one of the reasons this home was established six years ago, in 2009.
“This is their place of safety,” she said.
Spies said the centre caters only for infants.
“We don’t have the facilities for toddlers and it is for that reason that we care only for infants up to 18 months or two years,” she explained.
“We have babies who are under three months old.
“We have staff who are well trained to care for our babies and they always give them love, because that is what we are about, love.
“The unfortunate part is that it is very costly to care for a baby for just a month. Donations help us a lot, they go a long way and we appreciate everything we get as this makes it financially easier to cope.
“Thank you to all those who donated on Mandela Day and throughout the year.
”We also appreciate the help of the volunteers, without the community and love, we can’t do it.”
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