Children’s home gets makeover

Local celebrities from Cape Town at the weekend showed where their hearts were when they helped give a children’s home in Khayelitsha a much-needed makeover.

Radio presenter Sam Roy of Heart 104.9FM, Liezel van der Westhuizen, one of the presenters of the Expresso morning programme, and Dean Stockenstrom from the Pink Handyman spent their free time helping fix up the Baphumelele Children’s Home in Khayelitsha.

The volunteers worked three-hour shifts at the weekend.

The children’s home, which houses children from birth to 18 years of age, is a place of refuge for orphaned and abandoned children. Some of the structures in the complex are in a state of disrepair and desperately need refurbishment to make them warmer and more welcoming for the children who live there.

The initiative was started in partnership with Heart FM, New Kidz on the Block and Woolworths’ My School fundraising programme. The aim of the project is raise awareness for other worthwhile causes.

Volunteers are also encouraged to help needy kids by assisting with the makeover of a number of homes on the orphanage premises. MySchool will be donating R130000 towards the project and will encourage their partners and cardholders to support the makeover through donations of cash or in kind.

Heart 104.9FM and MySchool aim to support the initiative by helping raise money for the project to the value of R260000. Heart 104.9FM listeners will be encouraged to make donations towards the initiative by contributing money or services to New Kidz on the Block, which is registered for donations tax and will issue a tax certificate for all donations received.

People are asked to donate goods including paint, bathroom supplies, plumbing materials and electrical and light fittings, among other things. Donations towards furniture, including a lounge suite, TV, DVD player and comfortable beanbags for the children to sit on, are also required.