Anna and Phina Mojapelo and the New Jerusalem Children’s Home

At the time Anna was a practising advocate and businesswoman. Her passion to help orphans and children in distress led her to work actively with the needy within the settlements around Midrand during her spare time.  However, she found the situations of the abandoned children so distressing that she was soon bringing the children home to live with her.

News of the help that she was providing quickly spread amongst the local community, and the police, hospitals and community members started bringing vulnerable and abandoned children to Anna. She subsequently had to stop practising as an advocate to make time for the children in her care.  When the number of children grew to such an extent that it became too much for her to handle alone she asked her sister, Phina Mojapelo, a professional social worker, to help her provide a home for all the children.

New Jerusalem Children's Home was officially opened in August 2000 by Anna and Phina Mojapelo.  The home now cares for 75 children with the help of a dedicated staff and volunteers. The sisters also carry out HIV and AIDS education programmes in the surrounding areas to try to address the problem at source.

Anna and Phina are deeply committed to the holistic care of the children and go to great lengths to ensure that they all have the opportunity and facilities to play, develop, participate in sports and extend their learning as much as possible. With the help of a Dutch organisation called Orange Babies, they have recently built a Montessori pre-school on the property. The school can accommodate 80 pre-schoolers. Half of these children come from the Home, the other half from the local community.  In time, Anna and Phina hope to be able to build cluster family homes, each with a house mother, so that the children can experience a more normal family life situation.

Find out more about the New Jerusalem Children’s Home or call 011 8050809.