Mrs Mpumalanga makes a difference at orphanage
"I have a child myself and I know how expensive it can be to raise them. We take a restaurant meal for granted, most people can afford to have it at least once or twice a month. I wanted to spoil the children with something nice, something they do not get often," said Bianca Rennison.
Mrs Mpumalanga 2017, Bianca Rennison, spent last Thursday at Betty’s Haven in Nelsville. The children received burgers and fries sponsored by RocoMamas.
She told Nelspruit Post about her dreams of one day owning an orphanage of her own. “So many children are stuck in orphanages because people do not want to adopt older children, they want a clean slate with babies. I’ve always wanted to be able to give a home to children in need, so they can have their own space – a place to call home and a family to love,” she said.
Ms Betty Mandlazi, founder of the orphanage, spoke of how it all started. She was working as a nurse at Rob Ferreira Hospital in 1995 when she stopped at a cafeteria in town after her night shift. “I found three children asleep in front of the place and I took them home with me. The very next day I went to social services and demanded a social worker to help me get set up with the right paperwork for me to open an orphanage and become a legal guardian of the children,” she said.
When she told the matron at the hospital that she was quitting, the matron asked what she was going to do about money.
“I told her, the Lord never demanded that I have money, the Lord demands my heart! I won’t be taking money with me when I die.”
After eight years, in 2003, former president Mr Thabo Mbeki ended up in her humble abode and saw that she lived in a tent, so that her house would be available for the children.
“He said to the people that when he returns he wants to see me in a house. The people of South Africa, in all the provinces, came together, got me this property and built me this house. Today I have 19 children in my care.”
Rennison is involved with numerous projects and hopes to raise funds for the special-needs school, Pro Gratia. “They need four more classrooms and we hope to raise enough money for them to be built with a golf day coming up in August.” She is also involved in a recycling project where the plastic clips that keep bread bags closed as well as bottle caps are accumulated. For every 50 kilograms of bread clips and 450 kilograms of plastic lids and bottle caps, one wheelchair is donated to her cause.
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“We’ve managed to get two wheelchairs so far and we hope to get two more to give to people in need.”
