29462178 Lesley Fay Musto

Note; the locations of Lesley's' photography practical and the location on which she wrote the article are not the same.

The Bophelong Children’s Home



This double-storey, seven-bedroom family home boasts two kitchens and dining rooms, a lounge and an expansive garden with a diverse-utility jungle gym in it.

But it belongs to an unusual sort of family: 19 boys and girls live together in Mamelodi with their two ‘mothers’, Abesana Moeng (59) and Hilda Mlungwana (51).

The Bophelong Children’s Home was the vision of Pastor Titus Sithole, a leader in Christian ministry training. Together, Pastor Sithole and his wife, Pastor Sibongile Sithole, had the vision to provide orphaned children with a real family. Pastor Sithole’s first vision was to build the Bophelong Community Centre, which is now a hospice for terminally ill people.

While the hospice was being built, the church had a feeding scheme which then developed into a Home Care Program where the church began to identify orphaned children. “Other children were found by social workers and were brought to Bophelong”, says Ms Mlungwana. The Children’s Home was built in 2006 and was filled to capacity by 2008.

The children attend the Bophelong senior and junior schools, which were also built on the property as part of Pastor Sithole’s vision. “The family prays together in the morning and the evening as well as eats breakfast and dinner together”, says Ms Mlungwana. “A child is disciplined in private so as to not embarrass the child”. Physical reprimanding is unheard of at the home. The family attends The Charity and Faith Mission Church and spends their Saturday nights watching DVDs together.

Bophelong cares for three different types of children: for children who were taken away from family, for child-headed families whose parents have passed away from HIV/AIDS and for children who have nobody to look after them. There are three children who live with HIV/AIDS at Bophelong and their siblings always remind them to take their pills (ARVs).

The Charity and Faith Mission Church works in conjunction with another church called the Cross-Roads Church, which is based in Cincinnati, America. Together they fund and sponsor the Children’s Home, contributing by meeting the daily food requirements and by sponsoring blankets, clothes, furniture, kitchen and household appliances and toys for the children. “Without them we would have nothing”, says Ms Mlungwana. Bophelong is still a small home that lacks resources. It has applied for government funding but has still not received anything, according to Ms Mlungwana.

The orphanages in Mamelodi provide shelter and resources for their children, with only one other in the area giving attention to the children’s spiritual needs. But Bophelong says it provides more than the average. “What I like is that it is on a church basis, which helps the children to learn on a moral basis and although they attend school with outside influences, there is a lot of community support because there is a church” says Ms Mlungwana.

This family is the first to live at this home. The children will live there until they turn 18 whereafter they will be integrated into society. Volunteers are needed and there has never been an adoption, although it is welcomed. The Bophelong Children’s Home has plans to build two more homes and will have place for 90 children within the next 10 years.