Relebohile Day Care Centre
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Since July 2007 the Day Care Centre has been offering support and encouragement to orphans living in township of Tumahole next to Parys, a small town in the northern Free State, 150 kilometres south-west of Johannesburg, South Africa. |
The Centre is a solid brick building and evokes a feeling of shelter and protection in the middle of Tumahole. Every day about 200 orphans from the poorer areas of the township receive care and support.
Many of these children have lost their parents due to HIV/AIDS or abandonment and have to fend for themselves. Some live with grandparents or relatives who are also living in very poor conditions. Young children under the age of 6 years come to the crèche facility, which operates five days a week.
For the older boys and girls it is a place where they can go before and after school and receive regular meals, homework supervision, psychological and medical support. The permanent staff of the centre, all of whom are black women from the township, act as mothers and help them with the daily struggle to survive and offer advice and support.