Sinethemba Children's Care Centre

ABOUT US

The Sinethemba Children’s Care Centre has been operational since the late 1990’s.

Founder and chairlady, Signoria Qolani, cares for and houses orphaned and abandoned girls and boys between the ages of 1 and 18 years.

The centre, currently located at 26 Stanford Road, Port Elizabeth, comprises of two renovated pre-fabricated houses previously used by the Korsten Police Department.

Having grown up as a street child herself, Signoria Qolani vowed to dedicate her life to helping children in the same situation. She began her work in the late 90’s from a church hall where she would provide meals, medical attention, and haircuts for abandoned children.

In 2001 Signoria moved Sinethemba to Stanford Road where she had found and fixed up two pre-fabricated houses which were previously used by the Korsten Police Department, allowing her to provide housing for homeless children. The first house, renovated with the help of companies such as Aberdare Cables, offered housing to boys. A year later the second house was also renovated with donations from Visteon South Africa meaning that Sinethemba could now care for both boys and girls from age 1 to age 18.

With the help of sponsorships and donations of school clothes and stationary from companies such as SAB, Aberdare Cables, Visteon SA, and Mercantile Hospital, Sinethemba was able to enrol the children in schools in the area.

Since starting her mission to help abandoned and orphaned children, Signoria has completed child care courses, can provide council for children that have had traumatic experiences, and has been able to reunite children with their parents when possible. Sinethema has currently helped and educated over 60 children over the last 8 years, even proudly assisting one of their charges to begin his university career.

Our Mission

It is the mission of the Sinethemba Children’s Care Centre to educate, guide, instill discipline in, and provide love and attention for abandoned children so that they are able to one day reenter society and lead a normal life.

Our Goals

We wish to see the children we care for grow into educated South African citizens with bright futures and good values and principles. Sinethemba aims to make sure that all of their children feel that they are part of a family or community. In the future Signoria hopes to continue to grow the children’s home, assisting in the development of small children into educated adults who are able to be independent and create lives for themselves.

SERVICES

The Sinethemba Children’s Care Centre takes in homeless, abandoned, and abused children of all ages. The children come to the home through concerned neighbours, the police, and hospitals.

Sinethemba currently houses over 26 children; providing them with shelter, clothing, food, health care, counselling when necessary, and ensuring that they receive an education. When her charges are eventually ready to leave, Signoria helps them to find work and housing. In the past eight years Sinethemba has cared for and educated over 60 children.

Where do your donations go?

The Sinethemba Children’s Care Centre does not currently receive any financial support from the government. As such the majority of our funding comes from donations to the home. These donations are used for:

• School fees
• Groceries
• Clothing and school uniforms
• Transport and petrol
• Electricity

If you are interested in making a donation please contact me for our banking details.

How to help Sinethemba

You can help Sinethemba in the form of financial or material donations.

What do we need?

• Volunteers- if you would like to volunteer at Sinethemba please contact us and we will set up a meeting.
• Clothing
• Washing powder
• Petrol
• Groceries
• Funding for transport, food, water, and electricity