A Joe Slovo mother has started a safe house for children in the area.
Nadia Anyanwu has always had a passion for children and a caring nature, a trait she believes she inherited from her grandmother.
Ms Anyanwu, 42, had been studying Early Childhood Development with the intention of opening a crèche when she ended up taking in her ex-husband’s six-year-old child after he passed away in 2012. She also has two children of her own.
“In 2016, the Department of Social Development saw the way I was taking care of the boy and my other kids and they told me they were looking for mothers who do what I do, which is taking care of children who are not biologically theirs,” said Ms Anyanwu.
She agreed to help and social workers started dropping children off at her place, often for a couple of hours at a time.
Ms Anyanwu has since registered her safe house, Zinceba Zenkosi Safety Home, as an NPO.
She now looks after nine children including her own and this has put a massive strain on her finances.
Besides the government grants she receives for the children, Ms Anyanwu also does domestic work two days a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays.However, this is still not enough to cover their living expenses.
“We are renting an RDP house in Joe Slovo where we use it as premises for Zinceba Zenkosi. We pay R3 200 a month and that is where most of our money goes to. I also have two guys renting my old shack, so that also helps us. As we speak, we are in the dark because we don’t have electricity,” she said.
She said they haven’t bought electricity since the second week of January as the units are expensive and run out too quickly.
Ms Anyanwu said while they do sometimes get help with food from organisations such as churches, they simply cannot make ends meet as a new organisation and she is hoping a few good Samaritans will step forward to help.
Before getting government funding, they must fix up their premises and need help to do this.
She said her most pressing concerns are repairing the toilet that needs fixing and sorting out the electricity issues.
At the moment, Ms Anyanwu and her children live in one room of the house.
Ms Anyanwu said that she got her caring ways from her grandmother.
“My grandmother would always try to help everyone in the community where we grew up. My dream right now is to eventually open a daycare that will be free of charge,” she said.
Call Ms Anyanwu on 084 609 2597 or email yoyoyori4@gmail.com if you would like to help.
