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The Homestead is a Non-Profit Organisation established in 1982 to care and support neglected, abused children and those who lived on the streets. Due to extreme family environments children either live in adverse and extreme realities or end up living, begging, or working in the streets. We have a Prevention and Early Intervention Programme where children receive psycho-social and developmental support and a chance to have normal growth. Placement of children in residential facilities is the last resort.
Every child has a right to family or parental care, in the absence of such a proper alternative is provided. The Homestead has two Child and Youth Care Centres, the Bridge CYCC in Khayelitsha and LaunchPad Transitional CYCC in Observatory, caring for boys and youth until they realise their full potential.
To reduce and prevent the risk of children ending up in the streets, the Homestead has six Prevention and Early Intervention Programme centres (also known as Drop-in-Centres) and a Risiha Programme. The programme fosters positive development of children living in dysfunctional family environments or exposed to harmful experiences that hinder normal growth. It is intrinsic in our intervention that all staff working with our children are trained.
It is the Homestead’s vision that no child should live, work or beg on the streets of Cape Town and that every child should live in a community with a family.
To help street children reconstruct their shattered lives, and to provide prevention and early intervention services to children and families in disadvantaged communities
Leadership
Liezl Smit
Operations Director
Yolanda Zikhona Dingaan
Acting PEI Programme Manager
Zibele Qwemesha
The Bridge CYCC Programme Manager
Nura Patel
Accounts Admin
The location of our projects span across the following areas:
Maria Sikaundi is passionate about empowering marginalised groups through community, literacy and education to be able to give the vulnerable resources to take charge of their own lives and meet their needs and goals. Maria is a seasoned leader with over 10 years of senior management experience Most recently, she was the District Manager at IkamvaYouth where she gained invaluable experience in the education sector and afterschool space working on engaging strategic partners and mobilising resources and stakeholders, to manage and oversee the implementation of the programmes. Prior to that, she worked as a Management Consultant for niche strategy firms in Johannesburg. Maria completed her studies in Business Management MPhil, BCom Honours Statistics, BCom Economics, and holds Certificates in Programme Management M&E, Business Risk Management, and Project Management.
Nozuko Nothwanya holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work and is currently finishing her Master’s in Public Administration both from the University of the Western Cape. She is currently working as a the Programme Manager for the Prevention and Early Intervention (PEI), focused on the provision of psychosocial support and family preservation to disadvantaged children and families in Khayelitsha, Manenberg and Valhalla Park. Prior to this she conducted play therapy and counselling for child victims of sexual abuse, bereavement, and trauma counselling. She strongly believes that a safe and conducive family and community makes a well-rounded happy child and therefore a child cannot be “helped ” in isolation.
Zibele Qwemesha is a Registered Social Worker with keen interest in child protection, rehabilitation, child development and staff development. Zibele also has a passion for developing interns, student Social Workers and volunteers. Zibele’s journey with the Homestead started in July 2019 while working as a Social Worker in Town Two in our PEI programme. He then moved to the Khayelitsha CYCC as a Deputy Manager in October 2020 and is currently working as the Acting Programme Manager at the centre.
