The Creches

1000 Hills Community Helpers assist several crèches in the Valley of 1000 Hills. Some include Mamjokwe’s, Sibahle and Imbaliyezwe.

These crèches care for the children of single parents who need to work, where both parents need to work with no caregiver for the children, or grannies who care for their grandchildren who’s parents have died.

They provide a safe place for the children to learn and play. 1000 Hills Community Helpers distribute food, clothing and toys to these crèches, as well as sourcing basic needs like stoves for cooking.

They recently assisted Mamjokwe to extend and improve her facilities by adding on another room and a bathroom.

The Clinics

1000 Hills Community Helpers organise a regular Thursday Clinic which is run by volunteers. These include qualified nursing sisters, pharmacists and a doctor. They treat all minor ailments such as colds and flu, injuries, burns, scabies and more. They refer any serious illness to the Government Clinic.

Thursday’s Clinic also includes a baby clinic, where mothers can bring their children to be weighed and receive a general checkup. The poorer families are given milk formula, ointments, vegetables, sandwiches, nappies, soap, baby clothes and blankets for their babies. Mothers are able to ask advice and for assistance with regards to raising their babies.

The Respict Creche

A respite crèche for families who are too ill to care for their children is part of the 1000 Hills Community Helpers setup. The respite crèche care for children of ill parents who are unable to care for them, the crèche also cares for children who are orphaned and are looked after by their older siblings or their grannies.

It provides a safe place for the children to stay. They receive three healthy meals a day before they go home to their families at night.

At present there are 40 children using this facility.

Self Help Groups

Several self-help programmes have been set up to empower those who are living below the breadline. Sewing classes have proved very popular with the talented women making beautiful clothing, blankets and even candle-wicked cushions for their families. The industrious people involved in these projects run a market on pension day to sell their wares.

The flower arranging group gather to create beauty in lives which have so little. A community gardening project is planned for the new centre. Meanwhile there are smaller gardens at various locations throughout the valley.

The arts and crafts group make the most beautiful beaded cutlery, placemats and many other articles which they sell at various outlets.

Food & Clothing for the Poor

Dawn and her helpers collect food and clothing from several organizations, which they distribute to the poorest of the poor. Dawn started a feeding program at the Catholic Church in Inchanga, where she handed out sandwiches from the back of her vehicle. Since then the scheme has grown to provide a hot meal for the hundreds of starving people who depend on it for one healthy meal a week. 1000 Hills Community Helpers give 35 destitute families food parcels once a month, most of whom are child headed.

The clothing donated from various sources is sorted and shared between those in need. Dawn is very strict about who gets what and knows exactly which families are most desperate.

Home Care

Those who are unable to get to the clinic are not forgotten. Dawn and her helpers drive into the valley to deliver medicine and food and to tend to the sick. The trained home-based care team visit the ill and dying, at their homes in the evenings. When a child is dying they visit twice a day to offer moral support. This care is of the utmost importance in the rural areas, as many of these people are too poor or sick to travel the lengthy distance to a government clinic.

The 1000 Hills Helpers offer AIDS Education to the people, teaching them about the virus and about preventing the spread of the disease, as well as how to care for those inflicted with it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this short synopsis of the work we do at 1000 Hills Community Helpers.
We run a feeding scheme and clinic based at the Church hall of St. Theresa’s Mission in Inchanga. Owing to financial constraints, we are only able to do this once a week, on Thursdays. Our feeding scheme provides a healthy meal to about 250 people during the school term and 300 people during school holidays.

The clinic is run by volunteers, that includes qualified nursing sisters, pharmacists and a doctor. Where possible we treat all minor ailments such as coughs, colds, scabies, minor burns ect. We see an average of about 140 people every Thursday.

After the clinic we run a baby clinic where we see an average of 140 babies. The babies are monitored and weighed weekly by our nursing sisters who also give the mothers baby formula, fresh vegetables, baby clothing, nappies, bottles ect. We see grossly undernourished babies and we need formula and baby cereal for them. We refer patients with more serious illnesses to the local government clinic.

We assist at a number of crèches namely Mamnjokwe and Imbaliyezwe. We hand out food parcels for the very needy and assist 18 child headed families. Many grandparents are taking care of the children whose parents have died of Aids. Some of these grandparents are having great difficulty coping due to ill health and poverty. As a lot of the children do not have birth certificates, or are under the age of sixteen and therefore cannot apply for an I.D. document, they are unable to receive government grants.

We have established a respite crèche, where the young children of ill parents are cared for and fed three healthy meals daily before going home to their families at night. We have 40 children at present. We would like to establish an infirmary to cater for HIV infected children, which will be manned by community helpers, mostly volunteers. We have a home –based care team who give as much suitable medication as we have available. They visit the ill and dying at home in the evening. When a child is dying they visit twice daily to give moral support.

This care scheme is, we believe, to be of the utmost importance and we hope to increase our scope should we receive resources. As you may imagine, anything is most welcome. We would appreciate donations of clothing, blankets, bedding, food, baby formula, cereal, soap, savlon, material and even second hand sewing machines.

We are in need of items to help with home nursing, e.g. draw sheets, linen savers, nursing kits, hospital-type cots, cot linen and nappies.

Our dream is to build our very own centre.

We would like to have counsellors who can help our traumatised children after school and volunteers who can help them with their homework. We would like to have a daily feeding scheme for the children, before and after school. These children have experienced so much pain and suffering through the loss of their parents, hunger and abuse.

We need to try and help these children; they are the future of this community. We hope that you will be able to assist in any small way and thank you very much for considering our little organisation. All help is very gratefully received.

Beginning of the Valley of 1000 Hills, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa