Mama Lumka is person of the week

The wheelbarrow -lady they called her a decade ago when she followed her heart - of- compassion and retrieved the abandoned, neglected and disabled children in Llwandle, Strand.
(The informal settlement is called: Nomzamo ) to look after them in her humble home.

The parents are often caught abusing drugs or being a hazard while they're drunk and upon arrest, the police takes the children to this safe place.


Read this beautiful story (taken from their website)

The "Wheelbarrow Saint" & The Development of Ikhayalethemba Village

In 2001 Mama Lumka began providing residential care for 16 disabled and able-bodied children in her own home in Nomzamo, Somerset West. Some of the children she cared for were disabled, some of them were HIV+ and some of them were AIDS orphans. All of them had been abused, neglected, abandoned and/or left by their parents. All of them had nowhere else to go. Having experienced “home” with Mama Lumka, none of them wanted to go anywhere else.

SABC3 televised a documentary about Nceduluntu Sanctuary Trust's orphanage called Ikhayalethemba Village on Saturday 10 May 2008 under the title of "The Power Within".

In 2002 a group of business people identified Mama Lumka’s efforts as ones that need to be supported and enlarged upon. The Nceduluntu Sanctuary Trust was established. In the Nomzamo and Lwandle communities (situated just outside of Somerset West in the Western Cape) there are no formal facilities for vulnerable children. This led to the current initiative which has seen the Trust acquire a new area of land some 5000m2, on which foster homes could be built, each accommodating six children with 2 caregivers and a house mother. The capital campaign will see the construction of a Sanctuary with 10 houses, an Educare Centre, a job creation/training workshop, and a food garden. This means that Nceduluntu will be providing a vital service for the current and anticipated problems in this community by addressing the needs of the orphaned and vulnerable children, the needs of children within the community for pre-school education as well as parents who need skills training to become employed and provide for their families. It is hoped that the success of this project will lead to the model being implemented in other communities around South Africa.

Well done to Liza Schoeman for seeing an opportunity and joining in my enthusiasm for these beautiful children.
Together we can..
procure R10 000 for a worthy cause.

M