Together we can give the HIV-infected mothers, their children and AIDS orphans at Nkosi’s Haven Village a Christmas just like everyone else!

"Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are.”
-  Nkosi Johnson

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. Nkosi's dream was to create a safe haven in which infected mothers could live together with their children.

The Haven is currently accommodating 22 mothers and 121 children, of which roughly half are orphaned. The Haven provides the 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 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 additional farm just outside Johannesburg provides the residents with food and offers jobs to locals living close-by.

 

Who are we?

 

Hi everyone,

 

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. There is no other home that lets infected children stay with their mothers until they are grown up.

 

Our brother Nkosi Johnson once said:

“Care for 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 walk, we can talk, we have needs just like everyone else. Don’t 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, run and play. This is where we live and where we grow up, and where we hope to celebrate Christmas together!

 

We wish you and your loved ones a safe and joyous festive season.

Thanks to you we'll be spending Christmas just like everyone else!

 

With love,

 

The moms and kids of Nkosi's Haven


Thanks for your support!

The (ex-) volunteers of Nkosi's Haven Village
Jonas Danner
Nean East
Lenya Deborah Kgabi-Berge
Dorothee Hensgens
Willemijn Dortant
Carla Lebesque

 

 

If you want to learn more about Nkosi's Haven visit our website

http://nkosishaven.org/