Fikelela is truly an inspirational project, situated in the middle of Khayelitsha, a huge slum with hundreds of thousands of people living in extreme poverty, reaching almost from the Cape Town airport to the beach.
This project includes an emergency center that rescues tiny babies and infants found on hospital doorsteps, rubbish dumps, in the streets. It also run a long term community foster care program for young children orphaned by Aids and small family foster homes.
Tragically many of the children have been sexually abused. Trained music therapists help with the children's emotional care. In the case of more extreme emotional trauma, they are referred to a child psychologist. Often the older children have not attended school or are far behind in their educational needs. A small in house pre-school helps the children adjust to formal education before they enroll in local preschools and primary schools.
Each child needs a mother and to know that they belong to a particular family. The aim is to place each one with an adopted family, or with a long term foster family within the surrounding area.
Community based, local women are encouraged to adopt or foster the children welcoming them into their families in long term relationships.
Molly and her daughter Nikola visited the Fikelela project in 2005, and fell in love with the babies, small children and the carers. Global Angels provided food and resources for hundreds of children in this project and helped refurbish a long term home for orphans in the project.
