HOME OF HOPE CHILDRENS ORPHANAGE
Aisling Foley
In December 2007 I left Ireland to work in a children's orphanage in Cape Town South Africa for six weeks. I had never been away from home for this length of time and it was my first volunteer project overseas. To say it changed my life is putting it mildly!!
The home is quite unique in that it looks after babies up to one year old who are HIV positive and who have been abandoned or taken from their parents (usually due to drugs or prostitution). Usually there were between eight and eleven babies in the Home at any one time. I had never looked after babies for any long period of time but I learned quickly in the Home, with the help of the other volunteers, how to make bottles, change nappies and bathe the babies. Our days were spent looking after them and playing with them. Some days we even got to take them out for walks in their prams or across to the beach. The orphanage is located in an affluent suburb of Cape Town called Table View, so called because of the magnificant views of Table Mountain from the beach opposite the house. On average I worked 40 hours a week in 1/2/3 day shifts. On my days off I tried to see as much of Cape Town as I could. This is hard as there are so many things to do like sailing, winetours, museums, gardens etc. I managed to fit in a short safari overnight and also a 3 day trip up the coast. The scenery in South Africa is magnificent as is the weather and the food. I can't imagine anyone not adoring this country having spent time there. Sometimes if other volunteers had the same days off we did things together like watching sunset from Table Mountain. All the volunteers lived together in a modern type house 10 minuntes' drive from the Home and we even had a pool around which we could have bbqs in the evenings. The project was a great way of meeting like minded people from all over the world who all came to Cape Town to look after its babies.
My six week stint in Cape Town has been the best experience ever. I fell in love with the country and the babies and although it was my first time there, it won't be my last. Working on a volunteer project is totally rewarding and magical and I'm already making plans for my next one !!!