Ubuhle Babantwana
Cape Town, South Africa
In South Africa, over five million children are characterized as severely deprived. Many of them are orphaned. Many of them are sick with HIV/AIDS and are malnourished. Still more don't go to school because of destitution or discrimination.
In a poverty-stricken township outside Capetown sits Ubuhle Babantwana-an orphanage and daycare center that cares for over 100 of the neediest children. They provide food, healthcare, education, and a loving family to orphaned and vulnerable children of all ages.
Mama Pumla, the founder of Ubuhle Babantwana, had a promising career, earned a decent living and lived in a middle class neighborhood but felt like she had no true purpose. After seeing children wandering the streets each day, she realized that her calling in life was to take care of South Africa's forgotten children. She quit her job, moved with her husband to a tiny home in Mfuleni and founded the Ubuhle Babantwana Daycare Centre in October 2004.
Initially, Pumla welcomed five children into her program. Only a few months later, that number grew to 30. Now, her center tends to almost 120 children up to five years of age. Pumla has also permanently taken in ten orphaned and neglected children despite having three children of her own. Along with the dedicated help of twelve unpaid teachers and caretakers, Pumla now provides a loving safe-haven to these vulnerable children. Although she and her husband now live in relative poverty, Mama Pumla has never been happier with her life.
Mama Pumla had a dream to build additional structures that would provide more housing for orphaned children and additional room for the daycare center, allowing her to help even more children in need. Cultural Care Au Pair helped her fulfill this wish. In August of 2008, Ikhaya Lami (Our New Home) was built with funds rasied through Kids First activities. Working with CHOSA (Giving Hope to the Children of South Africa), donations from Cultural Care au pairs, host families and LCCS provide funding for Mama Pumla to continue her mission to help the youngest and neediest children in her community.
