Melanie is prepared for project leader role

MOTHER of two, Melanie Turner, has taken up the position of project manager at the Domino Baby Home recently and said she’s geared up for the road ahead.

Melanie said as long as she can remember she’s had a calling to serve the community. A member of the Church of the Good Shepherd for seven years, and a long standing Domino Foundation volunteer, said she felt a great need to find a purpose for her life.

“It happened so naturally. I had been in the marketing and advertising industry for 15 years and when Jenni Wallace (the former projects leader) decided it was time for her to play a different role within the foundation, I knew this was the purpose I was waiting for,” she said.

For Melanie the decision was already made in her heart, and added her role as project manager would differ a little, as she will oversee the baby home, create awareness for it and find more funding.

“It’s always been my dream to work with abandoned children. We recently fostered a little boy, but when he was adopted, I realised I had a bigger purpose in life,” Melanie added.

Melanie said she really had a passion for working with abandoned babies, because they cannot speak for themselves.

“Everyone of these babies count. It doesn’t matter how their lives started, God has a purpose for them. They may have been abandoned, but they have not been forgotten,” she said.

It is a rewarding task for Melanie, specially when babies are adopted.

Some of the plans in the pipeline include the establishment of a second home, but Melanie said it was vital for the community to get involved in the process as well.

“It has always been Jenni’s vision to see the home grow. We also hope to start up a crisis pregnancy counselling programme for mothers, in the hope to tackle the problem before they abandon their babies. There are a lot of pregnant girls who have no support structures. We hope to go to the root of the problem to solve it,” she added.

Melanie said the Domino Baby Home, and the Domino Foundation, is the perfect platform for companies to support a charity for their social economic development projects, adding the foundation can consult companies on their BBBEE cards and points.

“The Domino Foundation has five main projects companies can get involved in,” she added.

While the general donations such as baby clothing, food, nappies and products are appreciated, Melanie appealed to the community to help the home with its general household maintenance, such as painting the home, removing mould from inside the house, fixing rotten battens in the roof and also appealed for a flatscreen TV to be mounted on a wall, as babies who are a little older, climb onto the current TV unit, pulling out the TV’s cords.

She also appealed for donations of goods for the new home, including electrical equipment, furniture, toys and other goods to run the new home.