Young woman doing her part
Tsakane – Her love for taking care of others and her trait of giving has lead Simphiwe Mnisi (27) to open Leth'ukukhanya Care Centre in Tsakane for orphaned and estranged children.
The care centre has been operating since 2013 and has gone through major refurbishment in order to accommodate the children.
She says that she didn’t foresee herself doing charity work for a living, even though she has always been involved in charities since she was a young girl.
Mnisi says she was involved with a local charity that closed down and left most children there unsheltered she felt the need to open a safe haven for them.
“It was then that I embarked on getting them a place that they could call a home,” she says.
She managed to get people on board to assist to make her dream of giving the children a home.
Leth’ukukhanya Care Centre is only two years old and houses 10 children – five girls and five boys.
Mnisi explains that the home can house 40 children, but due to documentation that still needs to be filled out and approved, she cannot take in the number of children she wants to.
“We are still a new organisation and we have to appoint an in-house social worker who will assist us with placing children at the house.
“These are challenges that we face because of lack of funding. We will have to pay the social worker from our own pocket and we don’t have the money,” she says.
Despite the challenges, the young woman says she has been blessed with people who have made generous donations that make sure the children are fed and clothed every day.
Speaking on the joy she gets from knowing that she has given hope to children who were dumped and had no one to care for them she says there is no greater satisfaction and she doesn’t see it as job but as something that comes naturally to her.
“I would really love to take in as many children as I can into the care centre to give them the love and care that they are so in need of,” she says.
