OUR PROJECTS
BONISIANANI PRIMARY
We have 47 children from the Bonisianai Primary School in Umzlatazana, KwaMashu, who are also part of our skills development training program. They are fetched every Wednesday and Thursday to attend the Durban Music School for lessons.
This school has 90 orphans with very little financial aid, with the children being fed and cared for by the Bonisinani teachers. We assist with feeding programs and where possible, render additional support to the teachers.
We also send food, clothes and blankets to the orphans on a regular basis. Help is also given to the school by providing transport for their sports teams. This school has a number of excellent hockey teams and with our help with transport and meals, are now able play in various school leagues around KZN.
BRIDE OF CHRIST
We partner with an organisation called ‘The Bride of Christ’ which is run by an amazing man, Justice Mvelase. He works in Mpumalanga Township in Hammersdale and tries to make an impact on the youth of that area. His main focus is to council young people. He helps them get their ID documents and teaches them about drugs, HIV awareness and general life skills. He is involved with helping hundreds of orphans / vulnerable children in the area. We give them presents at Christmas, as they have no one to give them gifts during the year. This is the only gift they receive all year and we try to include T-shirts, socks, underwear and stationery. A few years ago our CEO, Kim Matthews, helped Justice to complete the Lottery Funding Application forms and he was subsequently given a car. This has been a tremendous help with his work.
"It is a great pleasure, of getting helpful organization like yours. The Paw Paw Foundation have bee so helpful to us. I would like to table assistance for last year 2013, from January to December you gave us R21,500.00, for administration purposes, more over on a vehicle as we had no ca allowance. You also assisted many orphans 105, most HIV/aids and vulnerable children, also managed to reach 9,500 people in counseling them ,in crime, drugs, marriage, violence, stress and corruption ,without you we could not reach these people. May our loving Father in heaven, open doors for you as to accomplish your mission ,not forgetting, presents that you offer yearly for children that have nothing to celebrate during festive season, and you have continuously doing this in every December. The T shirts you offered speaks in every corner of Mpumalanga Township herein Hammersdale"
MALACCA ROAD
In the affluent suburb of Durban North, there is an informal settlement called Malacca Road which came to our attention a few years ago. The people who live in this settlement are exceptionally poor and are vulnerable to the elements. The Paw-Paw Foundation has come alongside them and we try to help as much as possible. We source building materials, especiallyfrom sites where people are doing renovations and we look out for furniture that people no longer use. This year we have been able to give them corrugated iron and other materials to help them patch up their shacks.
We also had a big drive in winter to get blankets for the many children who live there. We have been able to bring them food occasionally and help transport the adults to government meetings which they would otherwise miss. They are a very innovative group of people and we are always so fascinated by the way that they appreciate everything we bring them and especially, find a use for things that we throw away!
SBUSISIWE
CHILDREN’S HOME
For the past four years we have been partnering with a wonderful woman named Theresa Gwala, to try to make a difference in the lives of 21 orphans / vulnerable children. Theresa was born in Inchanga, but left the area to get married and become a nurse. Her husband was a successful businessman and they lived a good life in Umlazi. A few years ago he died and Theresa decided to return to Inchanga and try to make a difference in the lives of a few of the many orphans who live in the area. She moved back into her home and took in 19 children between the ages of a few months to 16 years old. She registered her orphanage with the Department of Social Services and called it the ‘Sbusiswe Children’s Home’. Unfortunately, the house was in a state of disrepair and she found it difficult to feed and clothe all the children. We stepped in to help and also encouraged others to help her. So far the house has been painted and vertical / ‘Ziphakele’ vegetable gardens were planted. A new building has been built outside to accommodate the boys.
We have been able to give her a completely new kitchen (which was donated) and this has made a huge difference. We acquired a new washing machine and some furniture. Fifteen of the children participate in our skills development program and study music once a week at the Durban Music School. At Easter, we gave the family a party and a brand new keyboard. Regularly donations of food, clothes, blankets, toiletries and household cleaning materials are sent to help Theresa continue her unselfish dedication to and good work with these children. Without the help of the Paw-Paw Foundation,this family wouldn’t have regular food and the help they need to survive.
YMCA
There is a big YMCA in the Albert Park area. They run a homework club to give the children somewhere to go after school under proper adult supervision. There are many young children who go to this club every afternoon, so we decided to give them something to do that was different to their normal afternoon routine.
We have hired a young man who is a really good hip-hop dancer and teacher. He gives them hip-hop lessons once a week. Next year we will change this to twice a week. In addition to this, we will be giving choral music training to a group of 16 teenagers who also go to the YMCA in the afternoons.
One of the learners at the Durban Music School, Ayanda, had her home burgled and she lost everything that she owned. She literally had the clothes that she was wearing and the bag that she was carrying. We organised a replacement keyboard for her and bought her new clothes. We are busy looking for a small fridge for her as well.
We partner with an organisation called ‘City Celebration’ who train young people how to dance. They work with orphans / vulnerable children in an informal settlement in KwaMashu. We assist them by transporting the dance troupe to their various performances around the city.
Others we help...
INDIVIDUALS
We collect foods, clothes, blankets, furniture, stationary and books from members of the public and take them to various orphanages in and around Durban.
The one orphanage we support is in Shaka’s Kraal and we have assisted them by buying building materials for them, so that they could add on 4 new rooms to help them house more children. We have also given them furniture for these new rooms and food and clothes for the children. A Engen garage in Durban North gives us Woolworths food that has expired but is still fine for human consumption and we take this food to families in Inchanga. The one family has five young children and is headed up by a teenager. The youngest, a boy, was killed in a hit and run accident this year and we organized and paid for his funeral. Another family has a father who is lame and cannot work and the mother has to look after him so she can’t work either.
They have 3 children and a baby to care for We help a young family care for their baby as neither the mother or father have been able to find work this year. We help with nappies, food and toiletries.
SMALL ORGANISATIONS
This year we came along side a wonderful organization who do amazing work in the valley of a thousand hills and we give them nappies and baby clothes when we have a chance. We collect wheel chairs from people who no longer need them or request new chairs from organisations and give them to children who wouldn’t normally be able to afford to buy a chair.
We make up care packets to take to people who are in Addington Hospital and once a month transport a group from a local church when they go and visit them. Included in the packets are soap, a sponge, biscuits, sweets, magazines and gifs. We donated a washing machine to Durban Children’s Homes Durban District for their shop.
We were able to give a family who didn’t have a kitchen at all a complete kitchen.
Hope Farm
For many years The Paw-Paw Foundation has supported a home in Cato Ridge called ‘Hope Farm’. This farm is run by an amazing couple being Andrew and Rae and who have dedicated their lives to helping orphaned and vulnerable children. They have two of their own children and have adopted seven other children. They bought Hope Farm 10 years ago and are working hard to become self-sufficient.
Social Services bring children to them to look after and they try to place the children with adoptive families. They have managed to operate off the electricity grid and generate all their own electricity! They grow their own vegetables and have started keeping bees and selling honey. This reduces costs and generates income.
Ziphakele Garden
Ziphakele Garden is a full garden that will be able to feed a whole family or more in a much smaller area.
It is a vertical garden that will be made of wire mesh to hold the soil in with a thick layer of plastic lining the mesh on the inside and that will be filled with top soil. We will plant all type of vegetables that a nutritionist has told us are the best for growing and sustaining people. We will then plant seed’s all around the garden and pull out pockets in the mesh to grow the vegetables. We can have an assortment of vegetables from pumpkins (creeping around the bottom), to carrots and hopefully even mielies on the top of the soil.
We truly believe that when this project is fully up and running it will revolutionise the food and hunger problems in our communities and beyond. It can be in a tiny area and still support people as well as being low and cost effective.
Thembalitsha - Village of Hope
We also had the privilege of setting up Gardens at Thembalitsha in Cape Town. This NGO is a small farm that has a medical centre, a (fast growing) orphanage and a volunteer centre. In conjunction with the local churches, they help the Grabouw community with special focus on the children.
They liaise closely with the Social Services and take in orphaned and abused children from the community. They are currently planning to build a facility to house and care for these children on a permanent basis.
The gardens are an economical, space saving and easily maintained source of nutrition and will help to feed the children once the “care village” has been built.
Isibonelo Secondary High School, Kwa-Mashu
In October we teamed up with Cliffton High School to set up gardens at the Isibonelo Secondary High School, located in Kwa-Mashu, Durban. The school has a small agricultural area that they have landscaped and have a class in place that looks after it in order to teach the children how to farm and garden.
The school has a small landscaped agricultural area looked after by a class so as to teach the children how to farm and garden. Upon arrival, the entire school was waiting for us and enthusiastically greeted us with open arms. The children were wonderful when it came to the construction of the gardens and constantly asked questions and offered help. With a great deal of hands chipping in, we managed to set three gardens up in less than three hours, with every one of the boys from Isibonelo promising that they would take special and personal care of them. It was nice to see such enthusiasm and commitment