Samaritan reaches out to 3 orphan children who live alone in a shack

IN October, CV reported on a family of three children who lived on their own after their mother passed away.

At the age of 14, Wisani Maluleke from Xihosani village near Giyani was supposed to enjoy the carefree life of a young teenager, but instead he had to look after his six-year-old brother and two-year-old sister.

“I have to ensure my siblings eat something every day. People in our village won’t open their doors for us anymore, because they know we come to beg for food,” he told CV.

His mother’s sister, Dories Shivambu, explained that her sister died in April after a long illness that kept her in bed for months. Shivambu said she lived only a few houses away from the Maluleke children, but was unable to help them.

“I have four children of my own to take care of. This is too hard for me to handle. I am a single mother and unemployed,” she said at the time.

Last week, a pastor and good Samaritan, bishop David Msiza of the Higher Dimension Ministry Church in Middelburg, reached out to Wisani, Nhlamulo (6) and Navelani (2).

Msiza visited the children and made a pledge on behalf of his church that they would buy groceries for the children every month and build them a decent home.

“From now on your job is to concentrate on your schoolwork. I don’t want you to worry about food anymore, because we will take care of that,” he said to Wisani before he went out to buy clothes and groceries for the Maluleke children.

“We will not put a time frame on our help. As long as there is a need here, we will supply these children with groceries.

“We want them to focus on their schoolwork, rather than on where their next meal will come from,” he told CV.

He urged other churches to reach out to the poor as well.

“You don’t have to be rich in order to share what you do have, I am not rich, but the little that God gave me, I will share with these children.”

Shivambu could not hold back her tears when she heard the news. Msiza said he would also make donations of clothes for her and her children.

“I don’t know how to thank you. I thought of killing myself every time I woke up to find that I had nothing to feed these children. The only thing that stopped me from committing suicide was little Navelani,” she told Msiza, adding that the family only ate once a day at home.

“The older children eat at school thanks to the feeding scheme there, but for the little ones I had no hope.”