#5: 10 YEARS PAST

Fairhavens Opening

REFLECTIONS: LOOKING BACK ON THE PAST DECADE

Opened on January 20^th 2004, Fairhavens babies home has been helping abandoned children for the past 10 years. Destinies have been intertwined, life-time memories have been created, and countless lives have been impacted over the past decade. From humble beginnings in a small 2 bedroom flat, to 100+ changed lives in a beautiful house, Mickey Wilkins, Jenni Wallace and Mel Turner briefly reflect on the 10 Years Past…

 Mickey Wilkins: The Domino Foundation CEO: 2004 – Present

“What started as a desire to see that every abandoned or orphaned child has the right to be brought up in a loving family environment as a son or daughter, has proved to be inspired by God, blessed by God and rich with His wisdom. There have been so many examples:

–          Every child coming into the transition home has had an unjust, unfair start to life, but by the time they leave they are starting a journey filled with love, set free, with justice restored
–          The circumstances by which a child came into the home does not define who they are, so I find it difficult to mention individual children other than to say that all 100+ children are unique, special and God has a plan for every one of them
–          The Domino Effect, as our name was substantially inspired by seeing the photos of adopted babies years later, and the joy and beaming faces of the family around the child, showing that the one life set free, had so wonderfully impacted the new family making it whole
–          It was pointed out to us that to raise a child for over 10 years in a ‘Children’s home’ or ‘cluster home’ cost around R1million rand a child and the transition home/adoption model that we believe in at Fairhavens, has shown a cost of just over R30 000 per child.

So multiply that by 100 children and you will see God inspired financial wisdom, just by doing what we believe in

–          We had only R100 000 in a Building Fund, yet were able to buy a house, pay the deposit, get a bond when all banks said it was impossible, and pay off the interest and half the capital in only a few years, by a succession of generous contributions from people and companies which were totally unexpected – a miracle !

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Linda & Jenni

Jenni Wallace: Founder of Fairhavens Babies Home. Project leader: 2004 – mid 2013

“The last 10 years gave me the opportunity to see miracles almost daily and experience God’s love for orphans”. These words of Jenni Wallace, founder of Fairhavens, are echoed by all who have been involved in this miracle story. Jenni says she remembers how God always answered prayers, whether it was healing the little girl from depression when she thought no-one wanted her; companies donating money when funds were low or families coming as far as Denmark to adopt a child. Jenni always had compassion for street children and realised one had to intervene the moment they were abandoned and that is how it all started. Ten years down the line this passion, put into action, has seen the future of not only the 100 babies changed, but everyone whose lives they touched. But Jenni is adamant that it would have been far more difficult had it not been for crisis mother Linda Davis and her dedicated staff.

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Mel Turner: Project leader mid 2013 – present

“The impact of what we do has a very wide and far reaching effect in that, not only have we changed the future of over 100 children, but also the lives of the families and extended families into which they have been adopted or fostered.”

“Many of these families had given up hope of ever having children and all our children now have bright futures ahead of them, spite of their hopeless beginnings in life.”

Melanie Turner has been a supporter of Fairhavens for a number of years and has recently taken over the reigns as Project Manager of The Domino Foundation Babies Home.

“Being involved with this project for the last 6 months I’ve realised the privilege of being a part of something that changes the destiny of a child’s life…to give them a hope and a future and to change a negative beginning into a positive future. It’s definitely been a 6 month roller coaster ride, from experiencing new babies that have been abandoned, to meeting amazingly generous people in our community, to raising funds for the home, resourcing less advantaged babies homes and even consulting businesses on their BB-EEE contributions…plus all the happy and sad emotions that go with leading a project of this nature.”

This post is part of the “Fairhavens 10^th Birthday Celebration” campaign.  To read more posts, follow this link to The Domino Foundation Facebook Page, where new write-ups will be posted every hour.

If you have any memories, comments or quotes, WE WOULD LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU. So hop onto Twitter, give us a follow and send us YOUR memories of the home using the hashtags #sharedmemories #FH10

Read up on the rest of these posts in our #FH10 campaign:

#1 HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY
#2 WWW: Who, What, Why
#3 SHARED MEMORIES
#4 PHOTO DIARY
#5 10 YEARS PAST
#6 BABY STEPS: Milestones of the home
#7 BESTS: Best moments at the home
#8 UNKNOWNS: Things you didn’t know about Fairhavens
#9 SHOW ME THE NUMBERS: Statistics
#10 THE ROAD AHEAD: future plans for the Babies home Programme

Changing Amaoti community, one crèche at a time

Primrose with a few of her children

The world has just celebrated the life and work of Nelson Mandela and how this one man transformed lives and mindsets. Although not on the same scale, but with equal passion, DOMINO has just celebrated one woman’s dedication for the poor with the official opening of our new crèche, Thembelihle, in Amaoti.

Heading this crèche is Primrose Gcabashe, whose heart was stirred by the plight of children who had to fend for themselves because their parents were either too sick to look after them or were looking for work in the city. “Many of these children barely wore any clothes and they had nothing to eat while they saw their parents wasting away in shacks”, says Primrose. She started looking after 80 children in her modest 2-roomed house in 2006. “I fed them porridge and vegetables from my garden and helped them to draw and write”. Just providing the basic needs like food and love started changing the lives of these destitute children.But when she started working alongside Domino around 2007, the crèche really took off: “I felt encouraged that someone was assisting me; sharing the same love for the community and children. It is when you have a support system, that you start following your dreams and have the strength to look after the children who so desperately need hope in their lives”.

This hope has translated in a very tangible way in the success of Primrose’s children. She very proudly tells of how her first group of children just finished Grade 7 and that two of them have received the highest marks in their classes respectively. “I just want to hug them all the time and are so happy that they listen to me and follow my advice that you have to focus on what you’re doing”.

Old (left) and New (right)

1 room for 80 children when Primrose first started

New Creche with 3 classrooms for the children

Primrose has applied this motto to her own life. Through training with Domino’s partners, Primrose has grown the crèche and herself as a person which has led to the new crèche being built by Key Group (Pinetown), Childlife Foundation (affiliated to Key Group) and General Motors. “I’m very grateful for the companies who have built this new crèche for me. I can now see the way forward; I have grown confident as a person and a teacher and realise that anything is possible if you put your mind to it. But most importantly, God gave me the strength to show His love to the community”. This new crèche will also allow Primrose to grow the current number of 70 in the crèche as she will have more space and teaching resources to help the children.

Primrose has 6 children of her own and is very proud of her daughter Phindile, Grade 6, who has achieved the highest mark in her class.

This strong lady also has very strong words of encouragement to her community:

“Stand up and do something and when you’re successful, don’t live life so high that you forget the poor”.