Emmanuel Homes

Ivy Hammond, founder of Emmanuel Homes, came to South Africa as a Missionary. She was moved by the plight of destitute street children and young unmarried mothers.

Ivy opened 2 homes, Alpha Emmanuel for girls and Beta Emmanuel for boys.

A third home, Gamma Emmanuel, will house girls who are pregnant but would like to continue with their schooling. Ivy says, "I feel girls who have made a mistake are still entitled to be educated. This will help them to be better mothers and more independent and capable adults."

May 1, 2008:  Here is the current news received recently from Luise.

Emmanuel homes is doing OK - we gave them some roof insulation material, so that , if it can be installed before the onset of winter, it can make the house warmer and cozier than in years before, and keep the electricity bills down (the elec price may go up by about 50% this year !!!!!). (Thank goodness we installed gas !!!!!)

Another snippet : the buddhist girl who lives at Emmanuel homes is abiding by the rules of the home and is attending a church service every week (quite willingly, I believe) !

Bafana has "graduated" and is very proud! Hans has given him a short-term job so he can start sniffling around various aspects of the mining industry. He seems to be doing ok, according to Hans, and he's working jolly hard!
He got his very first pay cheque, and mentioned to Ivy how
hard-earned it was !

Throughout the easter holidays, the teens did a little bit of schoolwork every day, so that they would do better when they return. This I found quite encouraging.

Ivy's highlight of the whole week is the Thursday evening Bible study, which all kids attend. She says it is amazing what sometimes comes out in the discussions, and what questions they come up with. I think they're doing the gospel of Matthew currently. As far as Christian input and life skills training, this evening must rank very very high. Please ask people to pray for these evenings.

That's it for this time. Please keep all in this home in your prayers.

February 12, 2008:  Here is what is happening now!

1) For quite a while now, the house has been connected to town gas , and as a consequence, the gas stove can be used (THANK YOU AGAIN TO THE DONORS!) as well as the two gas geysers serving the bathrooms. And what a blessing this has turned out to be : South Africa's Electricity Provider (called Eskom) has not been maintaining existing infrastructure nor building much needed new infrastructure so that since beginning of 2008 SA is in a power crisis, with daily power cuts happening in most suburbs, often several hours at a time. But Emmanuel homes can still function (at least partially) due to the fact that the stove & geysers are powered by gas ! Unlike other people living in the same street, they can cook and wash themselves ! Hopefully Ivy will acquire a gas heater too, so that there will be some warmth in winter. (This may be a hint folks!)

2) There are problems with the telephone land line, as well as with putting the water and elec bill in Ivy's name. Please pray that these things will be sorted out soon, since they are consuming (unnecessarily) a lot of Ivy's time and energy.

3) At the moment, there are 16 teenagers/young adults and 2 babies in the house. The 16 are made up of 8 boys and 8 girls.

4) Some of the people living in Emmanuel homes wrote their school leaving examination (Matrik) last year. Here is short news about each one of them :

- Nellie (the girl who you felt was so good at doing plumbing) and her little Thabang are living elsewhere but visit regularly. She is training as a nurse specialized in "home-based care".

- Pappi is living in the township where he originally comes from and is working at a filling station/garage there.

- Solly is still living in the Emmanuel house because he is rewriting his Matrik. Meanwhile he is doing piece jobs for an electrician and is also earning some money as a waiter.

- Isaak is also still residing at Emmanuel homes and is studying at the City of Johannesburg College to become an aircraft mechanic.On Saturdays and school holidays he works in a factory to earn some pocket money.

Now, all of the above may not impress the casual observer. But bearing in mind that the unemployment rate in SA is up to 40% and that the last thing that street children would normally do is go out and look for a job, it is wonderful to see that each one of these youngsters is actually doing something productive and not resorting back to begging or lazing around.

5) 2 youngsters will be writing their Matrik at the end of this year , so please pray for them :

- Solomzi, whose wish for quite a long while now has been to train as a pastor.

- Thembi, a girl who only joined Emmanuel homes in Jan 2008. She is a Buddhist, but according to the house rules she joins the others every Sunday for the church service at Melville Union Church!

6) The other youngsters are all at the "New Nations School", a school which specializes in orphaned street children who are in various homes and shelters.

As you can imagine, the staff has a very difficult task.

7) Apart from looking after her 16 + 2 young people, Ivy also tries to reach out to people in really poor communities :

At a rubbish (=garbage) dump in Denver, which is not only a city in the USA but also a suburb of Johannesburg, there is a group of approx. 200 families living amongst the garbage, making a living by fine combing it to find anything useful or edible. Ivy visits them every Tuesday and Sunday and brings them food such as stews (cooked, yes, you've guessed it, on the gas stove), rice, corn-pap, rice and bread. She particularly loves giving the small children a treat (approx. 50 children)

8) Several times a week, Ivy visits a group of 27 homeless boys inhabiting the "dungeon": an ole derelict house which is completely uninhabitable but which has a hollow underneath it which the boys sleep in. She brings them whatever food she has available : bread, vegetables etc.

Ivy is seriously considering doing the Alpha course with these youngsters.(She has the books, but not the video tapes). Possibly kids from Emmanuel homes can act as group leaders during the discussion times.. If this plan is put into action, it could have quite a positive impact on the kids' lives.

End of this entry, submitted by Luise