A pre-Mandela visit to House of Hope
Food, school fees, school uniforms and transport seem to be the biggest needs at the home.
Dare2ReadSA (D2R) had a pre-Mandela Day visit to a house of safety called House of Hope in Riverlea. According to projects manager of D2R Fabian Sass, the main aim for the pre-visit was to raise awareness of the needs at the home.
The foundation brought in stakeholders so that they can see where they could assist the home for Mandela Day. Part of the stakeholders was Lucinda Pietersen (Mrs Africa), Marinda and Ben Fivaz from Reddford House in Northcliff and Faeeza Davids from Community Challenged Youth Empowerment (CCYE).
On the day the group brought warm blankets for the children at the home and another thing that they planned on doing on July 18 was to build a mini library for the children at House of Hope.
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D2R also turned four years old so they brought their birthday cake to the home to share with everyone and they also had a short story time for the children.
“We live in a society where there is a low literacy rate and last years stats showed that South Africa came out last in literacy out of fifty countries. Currently, the stats are showing that children have to learn to read between Grade 1 and Grade 3 but you will find that they still can’t read in Grade 4. This is where the initiative of Dare2Read came in because we want to help our children in reading and developing their skills,” said Sass.
According to the founder of House of Hope, Comfort Ramuhulu, the home is almost six years old. Ramuhulu started the foundation after moving to Riverlea and noticed that there are a lot of children who are roaming the streets, she then left her job and started the House of Hope.
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She said that one of the main struggles is getting transport for the children with disabilities to go to school and to their hospital check-ups. Food, school fees, school uniforms and transport seem to be the biggest needs at the home.
“I’m in a community that has my heart when we are in need theirs always someone who will come with the things at we need at the time. They are very supportive but the donations are not always constant so we struggle at times,” said Ramuhulu.
House of Hope is not just a permanent home for the kids there are some of them who go weekends or when they can to their parents. The youngest at the home is eight months old and the oldest is eighteen years old.
Ramuhulu worries about those children who are between Grade 6 and 9 because she said they the community is losing them and we need to come up with a solution for saving them.
If you would like to donate to House of Hope you can contact Comfort Ramuhulu on 076 128 4360.
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