Zinhle and Musa were placed at St. Anthony’s in 2006. They came from a very disadvantaged family in a rural community where they lived in a small, mud room with no electricity or water. Their mother was suffering from alcohol abuse, a common and very understandable problem, brought on by the poverty which they must try to endure. As a result of neglect and lack of parental supervision, the children were removed to St. Anthony’s.

In 2010 we decided to launch a new programme as part of Family Reunification whereby we work to find practical and lasting solutions to the problems faced by the families of the children staying with us. Many of our children have families whom they love and want to be reunited with, but physical barriers stand in their way. We want to do our utmost to remove whatever those barriers might be, and in the case of Zinhle and Musa, it was poverty and alcoholism.
Over the past 4 years their mother has made a great effort to turn her life around. We make regular visits to their home and she has overcome abuse of alcohol and now takes pride in keeping her house clean and caring for her grandchildren. But the one barrier between her and her children was the fact that the room they stayed in was not suitable for accommodating two teenage children. 
       
We proposed the idea of assisting this family by building them another room, and our staff and Board of Management were extremely supportive. In March 2010 we began to set in motion a building project, to reunite this family “brick by brick”. Many of our own staff donated money for the purchase of materials and we acquired skilled builders in the family’s local community to build the house voluntarily.

Two days before the build was due to start a visit to the site confirmed that there was no running water at the house. The family had to fetch water from a neighbour’s tap. Mr. Mazibuko, the builder who had so generously lent his services for the project, saw this and identified a way of routing a tap into the yard. He promised that this family would have water within 24hours. All he needed was a length of pipe and a tap, materials which we purchased for less than R250. A family which had been without water for years was given that gift within a day. Such a small monetary price gave them a gift which is priceless, water, the gift of life!

On March 6th the project commenced, with over 50 people at the site including 30 teenagers from St. Anthony’s. Key members of the local leadership were involved with the project. The Principal of the local Primary School secured the voluntary help and co-ordinated the purchase of building materials. The local Councillor for the area was even on site, digging the foundations himself! It really was a wonderful example of a community showing love and care for their neighbours in order to see a family reunited again.