Under our roof

Like any house we constantly need to maintain our homes and ensure they are a safe, warm and happy place.
Kids Haven is made up of eleven different buildings. Plumbing, repairing locks and broken windows, and painting the interior and exterior of the buildings, among others, are continuous jobs on the go.

Being kind to our environment is also important to us so we are very pleased to have safely got rid of the asbestos in our roofing in 2023 and have added water tanks for rain harvesting. The installation of our solar panels is almost complete and we are currently improving the water supply and pressure for showers for the boys. All these projects ensure the sustainability of Kids Haven.

As you can imagine all this takes considerable work and money. Our maintenance team, James, Tshepo, Trust and Thumelo, are amazing at finding fast and effective solutions to the many maintenance issues we face daily. And putting in the hard, physical work required to get jobs done. We are so grateful to have them.
We rely on the generosity and goodwill of our Kids Haven donor community to assist us with the upkeep of our buildings. Helping us fix a building means helping our children have a home.

James, our maintenance star, getting the braai going

How can you help?
We currently have a wishlist of items needed to do maintenance on our bathrooms and kitchens. These include:
* PVC 50mm waste pipe fittings
* Conex fitting 15mm
* Flush unit push button
* Toilet cistern flush toilet kit
* Dual Flush Toilet Unit
* Dutton plastics ELF cister white 11Lt
* Flex hose 15mm
* Sink taps mix
* S-trap
* Dutton plastics ELF cistern white 9lt

We also always need paint (interior and exterior, waterproofing, roofing), general tools and specific items as they need replacing.
If you have one or more of these items or could make a monetary donation for us to purchase these items please get in touch – hello@kidshaven.co.za.

Home is where the heart is

When children and young people arrive at Kids Haven, often from very challenging and sad situations, we open our arms and hearts to them. We have 145 children currently living at Kids Haven with our youngest being five and our oldest turning 20. They receive love, a warm, comfortable bed, nourishing food, a chance to go to school, access to counselling, and time to socialise and play like all children should.

Each child is seen and loved for who they are.

Under our roof we have three sisters whose mum is on the move and not able to care for them. Two siblings who live under our protection and care while their parents work on their struggle with addiction. One young boy who preferred to spend time out of school and out of his family home but is happy to be safe and well cared for now and attending school. Children on the move from another country in desperation still separated from their families and needing care and protection. A child without food in the home and a mum who is more out than in, more self-focused than daughter-focused. Every child has a unique circumstance and that is why Kids Haven exists – to help these children in an individualised way and to give them a home.

Become a monthly donor today to help us continue this important work.

Did you know you can adopt a house?

Yes it’s true. Kids Haven runs an initiative where a corporate or individual donor can adopt one of our houses. We track the maintenance work and bills for each of the six houses. It would help us tremendously to have help when we need it. We can supply all slips and proof of work done. By adopting a house, you would assist with household things that need continuous replacing or repairs such as window latches, broken windows, flushing mechanisms in toilets, a stove repair and so on – not major repairs. The funds also go to soft furnishings such as pictures for walls, curtains, duvet sets for single beds etc.
We also work closely with communities not only in the Benoni area but also in informal settlements and townships as far as Nigel (Alra Park) and across to Windmill Park (Boksburg) and Marikana informal settlement in KwaThema. We assist numerous households in these areas by providing food, clothing, toiletries, furniture, bedding, counsellors, whatever is needed to support the family living there.
Where possible we will help start a food garden to help the family feed itself and possibly earn an income from the vegetables grown. We have over 250 food gardens running, some of which (around 20%) started from nothing and have grown into thriving micro-businesses. Our gardens need seeds, seedlings and financial support.
Our young people also need support when the time comes for them to leave Kids Haven. As part of our care-leavers programme we assist our young people by finding them accommodation, paying rent and providing furniture, appliances etc to get them started in their first independent-living homes. We are so proud of how so many of these young people take this responsibility seriously and care for their homes while looking for work or studying further.
With so many ways to get involved, consider supporting one of these worthwhile initiatives.
If you would like more information, please email hello@kidshaven.co.za or click here for our donations page.
Every donation matters.

New mattresses! We are so grateful

We were very excited to take 104 mattresses into our Kids Haven homes this month. Our children are sleeping on lovely, fresh new mattresses and loving them!
Our heartfelt thanks go to the generous donors who either donated mattresses or gifted us the money to purchase them.
Thank you to:
* S&N Labels a Division of Bidvest Paperplus
* Giant Leap
* Absa Sandton Force for Good
* Nedbank Sandton Local Hero Programme
* Engel & Völkers Southern Africa (Pty) Ltd
* David Odiye
We appreciate you!

Our website is up! Check it out

We are super excited to share our new website with you – www.kidshaven.co.za – and would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to CubicIce for so expertly putting it together.

Please take a look around and enjoy the new, fresh, look and feel and content.

Easter eggs – yes! – but maybe you’d consider something different

Easter is heading our way and it is a very special time for our children. We are always so grateful for any donations of Easter bunnies or Easter eggs but if you’d like to donate something perhaps consider something more permanent. Some ideas may include: fluffy slippers, dressing gowns, warm pyjamas, stuffed bunny toys, mugs, bowls, cute underwear for boys and girls, toiletries, fun stationary.

Or why not sign up to become a monthly donor. By donating monthly – even just R100 – we can rely on a steady stream of income which helps us so much in terms of budgeting. New monthly donors mean so much to Kids Haven and would be a wonderful Easter gift.