Umbatu Crisis Center

As part of my service learning class, I’m required to spend at least 60 hours volunteering around Pietermaritzburg. The site I’m working at now is the Ubantu Crisis Center in Edendale. It’s an orphanage for about 40 girls ages 4 to 17. Almost every girl there is infected with HIV or AIDS. The girls were brought to the center because they’ve been raped, abandoned, abused at home, or have parents in prison. There’s also a group of 4 girls and 3 boys there whose mom was stabbed to death, and had nowhere to go.

Words cannot do justice for the experience of visiting a place like this. It fills you with about 50 different emotions of sadness, love, frustration, happiness – just everything all at once. When we first arrived, all the girls came running out of the house to our khombi. As soon as we stepped out, we were swarmed with hugs, kisses, and I had one tiny girl trying to climb on my back for a piggyback ride. It was the most amazing and warmest welcoming I’ve ever received in my life.

We then went inside the orphanage for some refreshments, and to meet “Magic”, the guy who runs the center. He’s basically the coolest person I’ve ever met in my life. He explained to us that he was horribly abused when he was a child, and he didn’t want any other child to ever experience what he went through. So he takes in these girls, and gives them proper education, healthcare, and love. Magic spends hours every night doing homework with the girls, plays soccer with them, and sees that every cent of his and his wife’s paychecks goes to them. Even spending 5 hours there today was overwhelming for me - I have no idea how he does it.

Magic split us all up into groups of 10, so we could get to know the girls individually. We played a name game; duck duck goose, and did a Zulu dance. We also got a tour of the orphanage. There are 2 big bedrooms with old ripped up mattresses on the ground. Each single sized mattress sleeps 2 to 3 girls. I definitely need to do some fundraising when I get home to help Magic out and maybe buy him bunk beds. He can barely afford food for the girls. They get bread for lunch and rice for dinner. Everyday, he spends only $1 per girl to feed her 3 meals a day.

After the tour, we went on a walk up a small mountain. The walk up really wouldn’t have been so bad, but I had one girl who insisted that I carry her almost all the way up, so I was huffing and puffing by the time we reached the top. On the top of the mountain was a large cement platform. Every Sunday the girls have church service there.

When we finished our walk, we played a few more games, and then it was time for us to leave. It was so difficult and heartbreaking to go. One little girl, Mbali (which means “flower” in Zulu), who I had been giving a piggyback ride to for most of the day, did NOT want me to go and clung onto my waste until Magic had to pull her off. I am looking foreword to going again next week, and I’m thinking I’ll bring some toys, and DEFINITELY art supplies. I asked the girls if they’ve ever drawn or painted before, and none of them ever had. So crayons, hula-hoops, markers, and paper are for sure on my shopping list for the week.