Nawhal Kara

Mama Angel is honoured to help the Bathabile home-based care project prepare for winter by providing much-needed blankets and warm clothes.

Bathabile's aim is to alleviate poverty, particularly in families affected by HIV-Aids. The group at present services three communities in Diepsloot, Zandspruit and Soweto.

The group is a non-profit organisation that has been in operation for a year.

"Our main sponsors are individuals," Bianca Marais, Bathabile project director, said.

Marais and her partner, Erica Gibbons, started their volunteer work by helping other organisations. She said Bathabile had minimal administration costs due to its home-based care programme.

"The experience we've gained has taught us that it is preferable for families to be kept together. Our main focus at the moment is income generation and skills development for the communities that we service," Marais said.

"Charity is disempowering. It is our goal for families to be in a position to support their children long after we have moved on."

Theresa Serowe, a care worker at Bathabile, said: "It is necessary and important for us to improve living conditions in the informal settlements."

The organisation has helped build shacks in some of the areas it serves.

"At the moment we teach the ladies in Diepsloot how to sew. We hope this will help them earn some money because most parents in these areas are unemployed and can therefore not afford to send their children to school," explained Serowe.