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Fact: three more orphan homes have been completed up on the Dvudvusi row and the 18 children moved in last Saturday.

This home is located in the neighbourhood of Dvudvusi (pronounced “doo-doo-zie”). Dvudvusi is a tiered hillside neighbourhood distinguished by its long rows of homes (if you’ve been to town this is the area at the very top of the brightly coloured village/smartie box houses).

This area formally housed migrant workers for the mine and these particular homes are located on the second row from the top of the hill (row yet to be named) just below a row of recently rehabilitated houses, which have recently (within the past six months) become home to many of Bulembu’s children. These homes are also located on the same row as the new centralized dining hall facility.

The process of renovating an orphan home is as follows:

Once a home as been structurally assessed, workers begin demolition - the old fixtures are dismantled, walls are taken down and the old asbestos roof is appropriately removed. Next, the home’s floor plan is reconfigured to include three bedrooms, one bathroom and a living room (remember, there’s no kitchen because all kitchen facilities are centralized). New windows and doors are installed, walls are prepped for new plaster, a new corrugated metal roof is installed and plumbing and electricity is run throughout the house. The final steps include painting, installing hardware and moving in all of the furniture needed to house six children and a caregiver.

And then last but not least the children settle into their new home.