Help us keep our home Nkosi's Haven!
Donation protected
Help us to protect Nkosi’s Haven Village as a safe haven for HIV-infected mothers, their children and AIDS orphans!
“Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are.”
- Nkosi Johnson
We don't want to lose our home!
Our home Nkosi's Haven:
Nkosi's Haven Village is a safe home for HIV-infected mothers, their children and orphans and children whose lives have been impacted by HIV/AIDS. Nkosi's Haven was founded by and named after child activist Nkosi Johnson and his mother Gail Johnson in April 1999. Nkosis Johnson's dream was to create a safe haven in which infected mothers could live together with their children.
The Haven currently provides 106 residents and live-in staff members with a safe place to live, 3 meals a day, education and medical care.
As a non-profit organisation, it relies heavily on donations to keep Nkosi Johnson's dream alive but unfortunately those donations have become fewer and fewer over the past years.
The money is desperately needed for school fees and uniforms, medication (otc), water and electricity costs, toiletries and cleaning materials, food and other necessities.
It is urgent! As we were writing this our power got cut since we have not been able to cover our electricity bills!
The Haven consists of 17 cottages housing mothers, children and staff, a sick bay, a library, a baby daycare center, a therapy block, a kitchen, a bakery, a leisure building and a laundry room. There is also a workshop and classroom, as well as a computer room and an art room for additional education and support. An on-site pre-school to save school fees had been planned for a while but due to financial shortage the building could not be finished yet. An additional farm just outside Johannesburg provides the residents with food and offers jobs to locals living close-by.
Who are we?
We are the children and mothers living at Nkosi’s Haven in Johannesburg, South Africa. We are artists, writers, bakers, dancers, gardeners and singers. We are creative, smart, bubbly, friendly, loud, funny and on a rainy day we can be lazy. But most important: We are just like you! We are friends and brothers and sisters.
Nkosi’s Haven keeps us warm, well-fed and healthy in a stigma-free environment. Since many of us are infected with HIV or come from families suffering and torn apart by HIV/AIDS, we simply do not have another place to go to. Many people are still scared of coming too close to someone infected with HIV and there is no other home that lets infected children stay with their mothers until they are grown up.
Our brother Nkosi Johnson once said:
“Take care of us and accept us – we are all human beings. I want people to understand what AIDS means - and to be careful and respectful. You cannot get AIDS if you touch, hug, kiss, or hold someone’s hand who is infected. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can go. We can speak. We have the same needs as everyone else. Do not be afraid of us, we are all the same!”
At Nkosi’s Haven we learn to respect each other, no matter how different our backgrounds or abilities may be. We mostly run our home ourselves with trained mothers working in the kitchen, bakery and sickbay, older boys helping on the farm and older girls helping out in the kitchen and taking care of the little ones. We all help each other out and strive to be as independent as possible. However, we do rely on your help since there are costs we simply cannot take care of ourselves!
Here we laugh and fight, we play soccer and make music, we dance and run and play. This is where we live and where we grow up!
This is our home! Please help us keep it!
If you want to learn more about Nkosi's Haven visit our website
http://nkosishaven.org/
“Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are.”
- Nkosi Johnson
We don't want to lose our home!
Our home Nkosi's Haven:
Nkosi's Haven Village is a safe home for HIV-infected mothers, their children and orphans and children whose lives have been impacted by HIV/AIDS. Nkosi's Haven was founded by and named after child activist Nkosi Johnson and his mother Gail Johnson in April 1999. Nkosis Johnson's dream was to create a safe haven in which infected mothers could live together with their children.
The Haven currently provides 106 residents and live-in staff members with a safe place to live, 3 meals a day, education and medical care.
As a non-profit organisation, it relies heavily on donations to keep Nkosi Johnson's dream alive but unfortunately those donations have become fewer and fewer over the past years.
The money is desperately needed for school fees and uniforms, medication (otc), water and electricity costs, toiletries and cleaning materials, food and other necessities.
It is urgent! As we were writing this our power got cut since we have not been able to cover our electricity bills!
The Haven consists of 17 cottages housing mothers, children and staff, a sick bay, a library, a baby daycare center, a therapy block, a kitchen, a bakery, a leisure building and a laundry room. There is also a workshop and classroom, as well as a computer room and an art room for additional education and support. An on-site pre-school to save school fees had been planned for a while but due to financial shortage the building could not be finished yet. An additional farm just outside Johannesburg provides the residents with food and offers jobs to locals living close-by.
Who are we?
We are the children and mothers living at Nkosi’s Haven in Johannesburg, South Africa. We are artists, writers, bakers, dancers, gardeners and singers. We are creative, smart, bubbly, friendly, loud, funny and on a rainy day we can be lazy. But most important: We are just like you! We are friends and brothers and sisters.
Nkosi’s Haven keeps us warm, well-fed and healthy in a stigma-free environment. Since many of us are infected with HIV or come from families suffering and torn apart by HIV/AIDS, we simply do not have another place to go to. Many people are still scared of coming too close to someone infected with HIV and there is no other home that lets infected children stay with their mothers until they are grown up.
Our brother Nkosi Johnson once said:
“Take care of us and accept us – we are all human beings. I want people to understand what AIDS means - and to be careful and respectful. You cannot get AIDS if you touch, hug, kiss, or hold someone’s hand who is infected. We are normal. We have hands. We have feet. We can go. We can speak. We have the same needs as everyone else. Do not be afraid of us, we are all the same!”
At Nkosi’s Haven we learn to respect each other, no matter how different our backgrounds or abilities may be. We mostly run our home ourselves with trained mothers working in the kitchen, bakery and sickbay, older boys helping on the farm and older girls helping out in the kitchen and taking care of the little ones. We all help each other out and strive to be as independent as possible. However, we do rely on your help since there are costs we simply cannot take care of ourselves!
Here we laugh and fight, we play soccer and make music, we dance and run and play. This is where we live and where we grow up!
This is our home! Please help us keep it!
If you want to learn more about Nkosi's Haven visit our website
http://nkosishaven.org/
Fundraising team: Nkosi's Haven volunteers (14)
Carla Lebesque
Organizer
Raised €1,865 from 29 donations
Gail Johnson
Beneficiary
Dorothee Hensgens
Team member
Raised €1,288 from 17 donations
Jonas Danner
Team member
Raised €720 from 7 donations
Levke Albertsen
Team member
Raised €615 from 7 donations
Teresa Hessing
Team member
Raised €435 from 8 donations
