Mercy Home outside Middelburg, was started by Winnifred du Preez, a woman with a heart of gold and tons of unconditional love to give.

Winnie, as she is known to her friends, believes that ‘loving someone back to life’ should come without conditions.

“Everyone has got potential. Everyone has a destiny. I try to help them find it, and I never give up,” she told www.mobserver.co.za

She started Mercy Home because she believes that it is her destiny, to help others, especially those everyone else have given up on. She chose the name Mercy Home because she says that to her, mercy is something given to someone without them earning it.

“God is the most merciful,” she says, saying that she strives to be more and more like Jesus.

The place of refuge, previously funded primarily by her husband’s business, now runs the danger of closing down, because the harsh economical climate has also come knocking on their door, forcing them to sell their source of income or lose it to the bank.

“I have never known love, or Jesus, before I ended up here,” a young man from Durban says. He says that even his family, who sent him to numerous rehab centres to try and rid him of drug addiction, eventually gave up on him and he ended on the street.

Winnie vows that she will never lose faith in people. Some addicts do come and go, out of their own free will. But no matter how bad the conditions are when they leave, she will always receive them back with open arms when they are knocked down by life again.

Mercy Home consists out of a circle of Wendy-homes, with a large wooden chapel in the centre, where residents gather on a daily basis for praise and worship, and to talk about their problems and also their dreams.

Winnie’s dream is to open a soup kitchen in Middelburg, one where people can come for a daily meal, a dose of gospel and a safe place to sleep without having your clothes stolen off your back at night.