Mama Amelia
Mama Amelia is the head of the Sakhumzi shack crèche in the Mfuleni Township, and acting mother to 165 homeless children. For the past 40 years, Mama Amelia has dedicated her time to improving the life of what she calls “her children”. Now, in her 70’s, she continues on her “life’s mission”, and makes plans to sustain what she has created. She thinks of it as “her calling”, and what’s remarkable is that she feels “blessed”.
The motivation for Mama Amelia’s mission is simple: “They mustn’t be on the streets; not having a good life. I try to give them a life that is as good as possible. Not saying I’ve got this-and-that (material goods), but the warm home…that was important for the children”. Mama Amelia provides the children with a caring, loving environment- and sustains their basic needs of shelter, safety and food. The children attend school, and many of them graduate (she proudly displays the graduation photos on her office wall).
In addition to her ‘permanent residents’, children are dropped off at her home for day-care. Sometimes the parents collect their children at the end of the day, sometimes they don’t. Either way, they are welcomed with warmth by Mama Amelia and her older children who assist her. The natural system of her home makes it sustainable. Children who have grown up in the home, become the caregivers themselves. The system resembles ‘community’ in its truest form. Mama Amelia comments: “It is rewarding when I see my teenagers that are big now … taking over from what I do. I’ve trained them in different ways of caring, and taking care of the whole work that I do”.
Love has evidently never been a shortage in the Sakhumzi household, but material practicalities have been challenging. When Amelia first started her shack crèche, she supported the children on her own. As the numbers grew, Mama Amelia’s situation worsened due to the lack of external support. She received little bits of charity from a few caring individuals- but her household was taking strain.
Mama Amelia’s luck changed after writing a letter to Nelson Mandela.
He responded in 3 days. One week later: “I received some amount of money from Nelson Mandela, which boosted me very, very much. He blessed this place, not even wanting to know who I am. That’s why I say, it was a dream come true. After he blessed me, others' help came from all over.”
It is these donations that maintain Mama Amelia’s ever-expanding home. The Sakhumzi household has grown considerably over the years, with rambling rooms and containers occupying the entire plot of land. The council recognised this, and donated a piece of land near to Sakhumzi for her children to play on. The plot has been named Ekukhanyeni - "place of light", and Mama Amelia has big plans for this land.
The Sasdi Foundation is assisting in the management of Ekukhanyeni, as part of their "Shack to Chic" initiative. Mama Amelia explains: “They are assisting to build that new home; those new premises. And now they are trying to raise some funds, to be able to cater for those children”. Currently, the land is being used as a playground, and allows the children some space to play, explore, and be kids. SASDI is in the process of raising funds, and have added containers as a temporary measure- until they are able to begin executing Amelia’s plans and building.
The extraordinary Mama Amelia leaves us with this thought: It is important to take care of the children, because children are the future. Without these kids, nobody can grow bigger. The generations… it grows and grows. Others grow old and then the others take over. So if we can make the children have better living, and better understanding of life, I think for me that would be something that I’ve given.