From Muiz Kitchen to Baphumelele Children’s Home: Charities to Support on Mandela Day and Beyond

Jul 7

***Wondering how to make a difference on Mandela Day, follow the Rothko Team’s journey for inspiration.***

Mandela Day is around the corner, and you might be wondering what to do for your 67 minutes of giving back. Perhaps you’re busy with work and you’re looking for alternative ways to provide support, or maybe you’re unsure of the charitable institutions in your area. If that’s the case, there will be an idea or two for you in this blog: we’re going to follow the Rothko team around Cape Town and its environs and take a look at the different organisations we’ll be supporting on 18 July and beyond.

Let’s start in Muizenberg, where Hailey, our Managing Editor, is waiting for us outside the Muizenberg Community Kitchen.

Muizenberg Community Kitchen

– Hailey Gaunt, Managing Editor

I first came across Muizenberg Community Kitchen (a project of community organisation Amava Oluntu) while trying to find a place to work that had good coffee and a decent pastry option. Some time in late 2021, I noticed the bustle around the stately old Victorian home on Main Road, Muizenberg – just before the historic train station with its clock tower that’s literally frozen in time and Surfers Corner, if you’re heading south down the Cape Peninsula. I noted the sunny veranda with an elevated vantage – and a chalkboard advertising R50 lunches. R50 lunches?!

Since 2020, Muizenberg Kitchen has been an active site of social change and community building. Their principal business, essentially, is to provide affordable meals for folks from all social strata – and to do so with as much integrity as possible. This means sourcing ingredients from local farms and integrating marginalised people into the goings on at the kitchen, training them to cook and serve and work the business. The R50 lunches and the once-a-week three-course dinner on a Thursday enable the kitchen to offer R15 takeaway meals from the Muizenberg Community Garden for folks in the community who are struggling – the homeless, unemployed or under-employed, etc.

I love that the kitchen offers affordable, nourishing food and is a way for me to sew directly back into my community in the places and to the people that need it most. There’s a mutuality to the giving here – and, crucially, encounters and connection that make this far more than an economic transaction.

Find out how you can support the kitchen https://amava.org/projects/muizenberg-community-kitchen/

Baphumelele Children’s Home

– Gloria Kula, Senior Account Manager

I support a non-profit organisation in the Khayelitsha township of Cape Town called Baphumelele Children’s Home. They provide a safe and nurturing environment for vulnerable, orphaned, and neglected children in the township.

Founded in 2001 by a local resident, Rosie Mashale, affectionately known as "Mama Rosie," Baphumelele Children's Home has since become a beacon of hope. The home currently provides shelter, food, healthcare, education, and counselling services to over 200 children who would otherwise be living on the streets.

The organisation also runs a number of outreach programmes that benefit the wider community. These include an HIV/AIDs programme, a youth empowerment initiative, and a community-based psycho-social programme. Through these programmes, Baphumelele Children's Home has contributed significantly to improving the well-being and quality of life of the people in the Khayelitsha township.  

Baphumelele Children's Home relies on donations from individuals and corporate organisations to sustain its operations. The organisation has received several awards and recognition for its work, including the Global Fund for Children award and the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund award. Learn more about how you can get involved: https://baphumelele.org.za/

Save the Children & Girls with Wiings

– Inam Qoma, Business Development Director

Inam Qoma at a Girls with Wiings distribution.

I make regular monthly contributions to Save the Children. This is a small way to contribute and make a difference when you don’t have time or are always on the go. Save the Children SA raises money to address children's unique needs, giving them a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. Learn more about how you can set up regular donations here: https://www.savethechildren.org.za/get-involved

When I have time and capacity, I donate to and volunteer by collecting sanitary products and doing distributions with Girls with Wiings. This organisation is dedicated to sowing hope and restoring the dignity of homeless and underprivileged women. Learn more about how to get involved: https://www.girlswithwiings.org.za/

Badisa Little Seeds

– Natasha Arendorf, Managing Director

This organisation, dear to my heart, empowers young minds and fosters holistic development. Through interactive learning programmes, the organisation ignites a love for learning while promoting critical thinking, curiosity, and creativity through arts and culture. Community engagement is vital: the organisation involves parents, guardians, and the wider community in initiatives that instil values of empathy and social responsibility. The impact of the organisation is evident in the success stories of children who have achieved remarkable feats and become influential members of their communities. By investing in holistic development, Badisa Little Seeds shapes the future generation, leaving a lasting mark on their lives and the world.

You can provide support by contributing financially to help fund educational programmes, creative activities, and community outreach initiatives or by volunteering your time and skills to support activities such as assisting with workshops, events, or mentoring children. By giving back to this organisation, individuals can make a direct and meaningful impact on the lives of young minds and contribute to the overall growth and development of children in their community. Learn more: https://www.facebook.com/groups/LittleSeedsECD/

Rachel’s Wishes

– Michelle Ford, PR Consultant

My son recently volunteered at a small charity called Rachel’s Wishes based in Durbanville. It was started by the Adcocks in memory of their youngest daughter, Rachel, who died unexpectedly at the age of three. The NPO is dedicated to changing children’s lives for the better. By raising funds and awareness for different individuals, organisations and children’s charities, Rachel’s Wishes strives to encourage and support the most vulnerable in our communities AND keep Rachel’s legacy alive.

They’re hosting a fundraiser at the Tyger Valley Barnyard on Saturday, 12 August. The show is called 50 Carat Gold and the artists will celebrate the most influential events in music history by performing hits from the last 60 years of the charts. You can find out more about Rachel’s wishes and the fundraiser by following them on Facebook.

The Breede Centre

– Khanya Bashe, Executive Assistant

The Breede Centre in McGregor is a community-based charity close to my heart. They are a lifeline to so many disempowered community members and offer essential services for much of the community suffering from malnourishment, abusive homes, STIs, health issues, joblessness, alcoholism, and so much more. I value their holistic approach to causing meaningful change in the McGregor community. I am currently involved with their youth holiday programme for the June/July holidays. Volunteers from the village and surrounds are contributing their time, efforts, resources and expertise in creating a holiday programme for school-going children to both keep them stimulated and provide the opportunity to pick up new skills. My contribution to this is choreographing an amapiano/gqom inspired "double dutch" show. This act is part of a talent show that The Breede Centre will host as a fundraiser. Find out more on how you can make a difference: https://breedecentre.co.za/

Tears, Help the Rural Child, St Luke’s Hospice, Cafda, Oasis and U-turn

– Adam van Graan, Junior Writer

Tears, Help the Rural Child, St Luke’s Hospice, Cafda, Oasis and U-turn are organisations I’ve been supporting over the last 10 or so years by buying second-hand clothes, books, and furniture from their stores. It’s a good way to shop sustainably and cheaply, and a great way to practice delayed gratification: if you don’t find what you’re looking for on a certain day, it’s guaranteed to appear in a year or two. You can help out by donating items in person, volunteering your time, or simply by purchasing some bric-a-brac.

Christel House & Devil’s Peak Outreach

– Jane Notten, Founder

Investing in the next generation is my priority, as I see that as a more strategic and permanent solution to our challenges as a society, so I support Christel House in my personal capacity alongside Rothko. But I can’t ignore the plight of people in the here and now – especially since the pandemic – with so many more informal settlements popping up closer to the city centre. So, I will use Mandela Day to focus on some around these issues. I believe in making a difference in your own backyard, so I will therefore be supporting Devil’s Peak Outreach, an organisation that runs programmes to work with people experiencing homelessness in the Vredehoek area, with a simple drop being organised for this month.

Shelley Street Educare Centre

– The Rothko Team

On the 18th of July, the Rothko team will be heading down to the Shelley Street Educare Centre in Salt River to drop off a donation of bed and cot sheets, curtains, canned foods, playdough, paint, paint brushes, crayons, colouring books and puzzles. If you’ve got any of these items at home and they’re no longer in use, consider making a donation to help Shelley Street ECD in their effort to provide young children with a better start to their formative years.

Mandela Day

François Haylett https://www.haylett.co