Skip to main content

Regina and the Children of Mfuleni

Holger had met Regina on a camp.  He spoke about her a lot and often refered to her as the Mother Theresa of Mfuleni.  I met her on my first camp and too was taken in by this amazing woman who loved children and used all she had to meet their needs.  She ran a huge soup kitchen and fed many many children every day.

Holger and Regina worked together closely for two years.  We raised money and support to finish her home and expand her kitchen.  Regina and I started dreaming of our development plan for support structure for OVC that included psycho-social support groups and... we looked at halls, fields and were just about to run our first training together when we got the terrible call.

Regina had died...

We worked with Regina's daughter in keeping the home going.  Nondumiso is an amazing woman and she was committed to keeping her mom's work going but she also worked full time and really only wanted to have a home... she was very good to the children in her care.

But things had changed...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

  We are Kay and Holger Lorentz, and our journey as missionaries began in 1991 with several YWAM Schools.  After our wedding in 1995, we spent a total of four years in Texas.  Since 2000 we have been back in South Africa, where our work has had different focuses, but the central focus has always been on working with and for children in need. In 2014 we joined Globe Mission, and registered our Mercy Aids ministry as an NPO in South Africa. Kay has furthered her studies, gaining a diploma in counselling and specialising in adult education in cross-cultural spaces.  We continue to learn new things that add to the toolbox we have for the work we do. Currently we are involved in training adults in a variety of contexts, working in schools, supporting soup kitchens, gardening and other activities that promote, strengthen and support care for children in its broadest sense. For most of this time we were supported by individuals, churches, and organizations.  Our chil...

Patricia, camps and developing training

Regina died at the end of 2007 and with her went our dreams of a bigger work for OVC in the Mfuleni area.  We tried for a while to knock on different doors to see if it was possible to keep on without her, but kept hitting dead ends. At the end of 2007 we heard about Patricia.  Here I think it is important to note that the entire time we were looking to get funding to take work in Fisantekraal to a new level.  Especially with OVC work.  We had started a nutritional support program for people battling a terminal illness. When I met Patricia we immediately kicked off a a relationship. We were able to stay involved with Nondumiso in Mfuleni and at the same time work with Patricia in Du Noon. Our dream to come a long side a organisation that works with OVC but struggling kept us involved in Mfuleni. We got involved with Patricia at the same time, she had an amazing heart for OVC and for people suffering with HIV.  It was in these years that I was working out t...

Fostercare is a dirty word!

I have not blogged in a while.   It has been a crazy year that was filled with curve balls thrown at me and I was not always ready to bat.   However, I am still in the game! We are working with an organisation called Kin Culture and recently in collaboration with other foster/adoption organisations they launched the first ever WORLD FOSTER DAY.   The effort and the work done to promote it was amazing and I was blown away after years of working on Child Protection Week and other children’s campaign initiatives, how far this small little team were able to come and what they achieved. However, for me this day, this launch and this story was very difficult for me.   I was not sure at first what was going on in me.   I realised however at some point that I was in trouble, when by the famous May 31, 2018 in the early hours of the morning I found myself in a ball of tears at my dining room table after watching a clip that had been aired on National television a...