RSA – Ebenezer Village (Atlantis, CPT)

Every day babies are being abandoned in municipal toilets, parks, refuse bins or shortly after birth they are left behind in hospitals mainly due to AIDS, poverty and unemployment.

Ebenezer Village situated just outside Cape Town, South Africa, in the small town of Atlantis just 40km up the west coast was started in 2006 with no help from government and a lack of funding. Originally it was intended that they take in abandoned and abused babies but it has since grown to accept kids up to the age of 12, due to the needs within the community.

I came into contact with them while working in Atlantis, did a tour of their facilities and met those wonderful kids who touched my heart beyond anything I can put into words. Their battle is no mean feat, they struggle but never give up hope. On top of feeding, clothing and parenting these children they have a feeding program for the community. Kids and adults alike line up outside their kitchen window at lunchtimes to get a plate of steaming hot food that they wouldn’t be able to get at home. The faces of those who they help I will never forget as long as I live.

How Ebenezer Village started

In 2003, Mathilda and Rebekka got involved with supporting a little orphaned AIDS baby in Atlantis, who was living with her granny in her neighbours garden in a shack. As the granny was aware of the condition of the baby she was not interested in taking care of the basic needs of the little girl. Mathilda took the little one in for a couple of hours a day to bath her and give her a few warm bottles. Formula or clothes given to the granny were given to her other daughter who also had a baby of the same age. Little Anneline had a tough life and suffered from a lot of related illnesses to the HIV Virus. Mathilda requested through Child Welfare to foster the baby as we felt for the little girl and her situation. The granny was worried to lose the government grant, which she had been using for herself to buy alcohol, and within hours after the Child Welfare had contacted her, she disappeared. Neither Anneline nor the Granny has been seen since.

After some research they decided to build a home for abused and abandoned babies like Anneline. The aim of the Ebenezer Village is therefore to provide a temporary or long-term safe place for orphaned, abandoned and abused babies. We are trying to optimise a holistic approach where the physical, spiritual, social, intellectual and emotional wellbeing of these children is incorporated. This also includes the care and comforting of terminally ill (AIDS) babies and provide hospice care.

We believe that every baby has the right to have a full stomach, a warm bed and some loving arms. None of these babies asked to be HIV infected, and therefore we want to give them the best loving care, no matter what their life expectancy is. The Ebenezer Village will continue to meet the nutritional needs of the street children and continue the soup kitchen for local children in need.

How can you help?

Due to the shear number of intakes they have on a weekly basis clothes, food, toys and educational materials are always slim pickings so those things are always needed. There are two ways that you could help this amazing foundation. Firstly, from experience, I found that creating awareness in the work place can be very effective, getting others involved and spurring on the movement of giving. While working at my old company we set up a box in our kitchens in which people can put the stuff they had no need for any more and inviting them to go along when we did the deliveries. By doing this we created a bond of giving to others and an awareness through out the company, our actions spurred others into action and it became a revolution of sorts . If you don’t want to get your company involved or would rather do it more personally then give them a call on the below contact details, they always welcome visitors, go meet these amazing kids that always have smiles on their faces or help out with the soup run.

If you want to help out but find it daunting going to Ebenezer Village and prefer someone else with you take a friend or let me know and I’ll join you. These kids taught me a lot in life, the hell that they have been through would make even the hardest person cry and yet they play on and their smiles are the biggest you have ever seen. My heart goes out to them and their new parents who give continually without complaining… Amazing people!

To contact Ebenezer Village

Ebenezer Village
Nottingham Road
Atlantis 7349
Tel./Fax 021 572 11 02

Website