Our Story

In 2012, Sarah Sibiya, together with her family, went into Vusimuzi informal settlement as directed by the word of GOD to serve the poor. She identified families within the community, that were destitute and in dire need for help. The plan was to supply these families with monthly groceries and clothing donations. Over the ensuing months, more and more families, mostly from child headed households and single parented homes, approached Sarah Sibiya for similar donations. It became apparent to her that more families needed help. Like in most informal settlements in the country, Vusimusi has a high level of unemployment and most of the people in the community are struggling to make ends meet. Sarah Sibiya also realized that most of the children in the community were orphans, staying with grandparents and with no regular meals. Some of the children would go to bed without food, while others sourced food from nearby dumpsites. She decided to build a shelter from corrugated iron, ‘Mkhukhu’, where she could provide the children at least 1 decent meal for the day and a safe place for them to be cared for during the day. This is how Tshepang Care Centre was born. Tshepang, which means ‘Have Hope’, was registered as a Non-Profit Organization in January 2013. The centre takes care to over 500 children, from ages 1 year to 20 years old. The centre depends and relies heavily from Individuals, Groups of Individuals, Churches and Companies for food donations, clothing, and money to buy essentials for the centre. The sacrifice from Sarah Sibiya and her family, together with the volunteers have managed to open the Centre 6 times a week to feed the children with a meal once a day. The centre has become a haven for the community and a source of hope in an otherwise hopeless area. Late in 2018, many companies like Knorr bremse, Ford Motor, Siemens, Safmarine and many other individuals from companies intervened and provided Containers and money to build proper structures and buildings. The Care centre is now equiped with a Kitchen, Library, Early Childhood Development facility (ECD), Three Bedrooms, An Office and a Leaving room. The Early Childhood Development facility (ECD) caters for the under privileged children, for free. The Library is a resource Center for the learners, students and for the community to do their homework, study, and Research. Due to the desperate situation within the community, the centre have since expanded to cater for Teenager’s Social Development to assist them with their schoolwork and exposing them to individuals and other Entities. This is to stimulate and contribute to their Mental, Emotional and Spiritual Growth. The centre has a vegetable garden, for its own needs. Tshepang has adopted 4 underprivileged children and 8 orphans, of the 8 orphans, 3 are staying with Sarah Sibiya at her house. The centre is serviced by 9 Volunteers who are getting no pay. It is one of the Centre’s nightmare that the Volunteers might not continue for too long doing work without pay. Their departure will affect the center’s operability negatively. Various interventions were sought on behalf of the volunteers including requesting funds from the government to pay the volunteers. Unfortunately, the government responded negatively that they do not sponsor people in the informal settlement.