#mabasolove visiting the Winnie Mabaso Foundation

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Today we were collected by Jerome. The two suitcases full of clothes were packed in the back of his van and we headed for Mid-Ennerdale. This is an area in the south-west of Johannesburg. Many informal settlements have grown up in this area and the foundation have a project in one of settlements called the Meriting. Here there is a pre-school, a grannie club, a big area of gardening for growing veg, a sewing room, and a health screening room/clinic. It is a unique and developing project that is helping the local women and children. We took a couple of photos which are below.
We then went to ilumala House where 21 girls are expertly cared for by the dedicated staff. We were given a tour of the house and had a great time with the girls - we played Jenga, we did jigsaws and had a seriously good hoola hoop competition ! What a privilege to see this amazing project, which is life changing for these girls and giving them life chances - as we arrived one of the older girls was heading out to college where she is studying law. She’s been at the house since a young child.
In South Africa there are currently daily planned power outages - “load shedding” - Jerome was telling us that so much electricity is stolen to supply the informal settlements that the power has to be rationed. During covid almost all of the overhead electric cables were stolen from the railways so there is no longer a functioning railway system in South Africa.

We are so glad we decided to visit Johannesburg - it has been an experience we wont forget.

You can read about the foundation here http://www.winniemabaso.org/

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