THE CHILDREN

“…I love little children with a perfect love; and they are all alike and partakers of salvation.”  Moroni 8:17

In April 2003, Gogo Rosy Mthembu found a little boy on the doorstep of her house in Katlehong, South Africa – the second-largest township after Soweto.  He had been abandoned because he was infected with the HIV virus.  Rosy took him in and went on to open her home to children who are infected with HIV/Aids, abandoned or abused.  This was the start of the Fountain of Love Orphanage Center.   The orphanage houses 35 children in Rosy’s home, provide a day care center between 5:00 am and 8:00 pm for 47 HIV/Aids infected children that provides three meals a day and their medication and a soup kitchen that feeds around 120 orphans and other vulnerable Katlehong residents twice a week.

On Saturday, 17 October, we went to visit the Fountain of Love orphanage and saw Rosy’s work first hand.  The children embraced us with such warmth and love.  The little ones immediately ran up to us with their arms held out for us to pick them up.  Rosy was not there but the oldest girl in the orphanage, Lindiwe, greeted us and introduced us to the children.  This has been her home since she was 13.  There were just a few rooms in the home and we asked how all of them slept.  She showed us where all the foam pads were piled.  Then we saw the clothes.  She told us that no one has their own clothes.  They all share….. even she does. 

After we gave them some clothes, toys and food, they sang for us.  Voices never sounded so sweet. 

Let me introduce you to the children at the Fountain of Love Orphanage…..

The girls bedroom

Lindiwe, the oldest orphan – the center sponsored her through the university and she graduated.

She makes these bags out of jeans and sales them.

 

Leaving Rosy’s home….

Scene right around the corner of the orphanage.