Set in the crime ridden township of Khayelitsha, inhabited by one million people and located just 20 km northeast of downtown Cape Town, Baphumelele grew out of one of the most destitute shack settlements in South Africa.

In 1989 Rosalie Mashale, a trained primary school teacher, moved from the Eastern Cape to Khayelitsha. She was extremely disturbed to see young children going through garbage dumps and looking for food and without any supervision while their parents were away at work. One day, when an abandoned baby was left on her doorstep, Rosie took him in and tried to find him a new home. Soon, her reputation in the community grew as someone who had too much heart to turn a needy child away. As more and more children were dropped at her doorstep, she took this as a sign from God that forming a Children's Home was to be her work on Earth. Through hard work, determination and the help of the community, Baphumelele has rapidly grown into a Children's Home a daycare centre for over 230 children, a wood workshop, a community clinic, a neighborhood soup kitchen, a second hand shop, and will be adding an HIV/AIDS family education and refuge center in the near future.

The Baphumelele community has become a unique safe-haven for children of all ages. Centered on the Children's Home that takes care of about 100 children, the Baphumelele community provides food, healthcare, education, a refuge from the surrounding violence, and a loving family to orphaned and vulnerable children from all over Cape Town. There has been incredible progress at Baphumelele: It now employs 22 permanent staff, get regular visits by a doctor and two nurses, provides services for over 250 preschool aged children, and assists hundreds of other people throughout the community. The Home's newest project is the construction of family oriented cluster homes with six children and two permanent careworkers that will simulate the traditional Xhosa extended family and its ideas of reciprocity and cooperation.

Although there has been tremendous improvement, Baphumelele still has a long way to go. They have only just begun to focus on the children's educational and psychological needs but still lack the resources to do so. The children's future is at stake: Baphumelele needs your help to make sure each and every child becomes well educated and compassionate citizens able to handle the demanding and dangerous city in which they live."