EVATON.- In an interview with Sedibeng Ster Vinolia Motalingoane, the founder of the organization, said that they cater to single mothers with the main objective being to serve as a support group for women. It was only after becoming a single mother in 2015 that Motalingoane realised the difficulties of being ‘alone’, without a support system, that she came up with the idea of founding a support group.

“This is also after I noticed how single mothers were having it tough and nobody seemed to care. According to the community being a single mom is a norm and women must just pull themselves together and move along despite the fact that we are emotionally struggling, and sometimes even financially.”

Moreover, Motalingoane noted that it bothered her that the community would disregard single mothers when their children misbehaved, and placing blame on the mother and not the ‘runaway’ father. The Mama Mmoja Support Centre is currently based in Orange Farm Extension 2 and Motalingoane and her staff are also working on finding a space in Sebokeng where she said many women have shown interest in the organisation and asked her to bring the support group which offers one on one counselling, workshops, and community services programmes.

“It hit me that single mothers have long been deserted and it needs to stop. I only officially registered the Mama Mmoja Support Centre in 2021 and struggled to find a place to operate it until I moved to Orange Farm, and that’s when it started operating.”

The ‘New Celebration’ event will be held to donate baby essentials to new moms at the clinic.

“We are hosting this event because we know there are moms who leave the clinic and hospitals with nothing, so we will be donating things like receiving blankets, cremes and wipes.”

The organization can be reached at 063 132 3169.