For the past 20 years, Baby Moses Sanctuary has grown into an established home for children.
Lanie de Klerk, one of the founders of the sanctuary, explained it all began as a matter of faith. She felt God sent her on this path. Even though she volunteered at places that offer a safe haven to children in need, she believes God kept urging her to take this step and start her own place of safety for children.
She explains the idea came to her and her husband, Christo, in 2001. Despite experiencing difficulty to create awareness among the community and finding a bigger home, they decided to take someone’s advice of ‘doing what you can, where you are, with what you have’. They made use of their own cars, their own home, and their own finances and on April 1, 2003, officially opened their doors. On April 28, 2003, they received their first foster child after he was left behind in a hospital.
She continues to say he was a calm and ‘easy’ child and they assumed all the children would be that way, however, the truth is not all children are the same, and not all have the same experiences and trauma, which they quickly realised with the second child placed in their care.
She noted after they received their second child they weren’t afraid of anything. They started taking children in and looked for permanent homes and foster parents for them.
“In the beginning, it was easy, however as time went on the challenges became bigger. Some children don’t get placed because they are HIV positive or it is a group of siblings or there are other behavioural problems,” De Klerk said.
They have more than one house, each with children from different backgrounds. In total, they currently have 250 children they are responsible for.
“They became our own, we feel about them the same we do about our own and treat them the same,” she explained.
She also noted aside from the children they care for, they also reach out to other people in need.
“Covid changed a lot of things. Many families reached out to us and asked for things such as a packet of rice or some soup for their children.”
After Covid, they kept in touch with the families, and not all the families have been able to bounce back. She stated they currently have about 19 families they try to help, which they share with their donors and ask for help for these families. They also sometimes get social workers calling to say there is a new mother that needs help with her baby. They even support the elderly.
De Klerk states their biggest need is basic necessities such as food, clothes, bedding, towels, toiletries, and cleaning supplies and occasionally they have unique challenges.
“One of our boys has a matric farewell in September and he needs a nice shirt, pants, and shoes for the event. We also have two girls that need medication. We would also appreciate it if people could help us with transport fees for school.”
She also added, “We currently have over 200 children we give lunch to in Kagiso, and in 2022 we were able to get Christmas presents for 100 children, this year we hope to get 220 presents.”
Any person willing to donate can contact De Klerk on 072 114 7863.
