Baphumelele Children’s Home Makeover 2011

3 Days and over R1,6 million in renovations. This is what it took to transform this orphanage into a happy place and a dignified home for the 73 children who currently stay at Baphumelele Children’s Home.

On the weekend on 29 July – 1 August 2011 over 720 volunteers, many contract workers and corporate sponsors, and the local community got together to support the Heart 104.9FM, Newkidz on the Block, MySchool Fundraising Programme Extreme Home Makeover for the Baphumelele Children’s Home in Khayelitsha. The purpose of the makeover was not only to perform much needed maintenance, repairs and improvements on this deserving home but also to highlight the plight of orphaned and abandoned children.

The children’s home, run by local legend Mama Rosie, has been growing ever since its doors first opened. Currently they have a full Baby Room (taking care of abandoned, orphaned and ill babies from 0 to 2 year) five cluster homes (each run by a “Mother” and housing up to 9 children) and a very busy admin and laundry room. Mama Rosie explains that “We simply do not have the funds to perform the regular maintenance and improvements that is needed for a big operation like ours. We do the best with what we have available. A makeover such as this one squeezes many months’ worth of improvements into only a few days!”

ABOVE: Mama Rosie shows her delight at having a new veggie garden with irrigation system included.

Newkidz on the Block, an established registered NPO based in Cape Town concerned mainly with the plight of orphans in South Africa, oversaw all logistics related to the transformation of the Baphumalele Children’s Home. Founded in 2007, the organisation builds child-support networks in communities and helps to place orphans with foster families or in children’s homes, and they promote foster care to the general public and offer guidance to foster families.

The MySchool fundraising programme sponsored R70 000 towards the makeover and together with media partner Heart104.9FM ensured that the whole of Cape Town got involved (by volunteering, donating or simply spreading the word) in support of the orphanage. Heart 104.9FM also did live broadcasts from the home during the makeover weekend and invited many celebrity guests to get their hands dirty. MySchool also encouraged their cardholders and partner to get involved. Partners such as Woolworths, Jack’s Paint and Waltons were eager to support the initiative and gave generously to ensure the campaigns success.  (Woolworths gave a R20 000 cash donation and a donation of bedding, towels, cushions and mugs, and Waltons gave R20 000 worth of office furniture).

How did we improve the home? We did the following work.

• Repaired indoor and outdoor cement work
• Laid grass in between the houses
• Painted the interior and exterior walls
• Painted the ceiling and all doors
• Repaired all light fittings and switches
• Repaired plumbing
• Repaired cupboards and installed new handles and hinges
• Replaced cornices
• Oversaw minor handyman jobs
• Repaired broken windows
• Installed new curtain rails and curtains in all the rooms
• Provided new soft furnishings (including bedding, towels, cushions and throws)

BEFORE  (below)                                                                                AFTER (below)