Bana Pele encourages the community to practice Ubuntu
The Bana Pele Mankweng Community Drop-in Centre for orphans and vulnerable children offers hope and safety to over 76 beneficiaries.
POLOKWANE – The centre was started in 2008 by Shirley Ramoraswi, a resident who says she realised that the number of orphans and vulnerable children in her community continues to grow and that is affecting the growth of the children.
“At the centre we receive about 76 beneficiaries that we cater for daily and from there we are able to identify the problems that families face and try to resolve these. The children who are cared for at the centre are robbed of their childhood and are forced to grow up quickly and be adults instead of enjoying their childhood,” Shirley explained.
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Together with a few mothers from the community, designated with various roles at the centre, Shirley and her colleagues have taken time out of their busy schedules to ensure that vulnerable children and orphans are well taken care of.
“We cook them a hot meal for when they come back from school and also assist them with homework. Here at the centre, we teach them basic life skills such as cooking, baking, sowing, cleaning and doing the laundry so that when they are alone at home they are able to fend for themselves and look after themselves and their families as most of them are living with their grandparents and are forced to help out. In this way we are preparing them for adult life where they will have to cook and clean for their own families one day, also with some of the life-skills such as sowing, knitting, gardening and cooking they may be able to start a business and make some money to look after themselves and their families,” she added.
The centre, in a quest to help regain the dignity of all stakeholders, distributes food to needy families so they can be able to feed themselves.
They say that their mission is to encourage communities to go back to practising the notion of Ubuntu which says Motho ke motho ka batho, translating to ‘people need each other and should be able to assist each other where we can in whatever way possible’. “Child headed homes need to be curbed as all children deserve their childhood instead of taking up big responsibilities which will end up weighing heavy on the child,” she concluded.
