Just five minutes from the N3 and overlooking the houses of Fredville, the 1 000 Hills Community Helpers Care Centre is an unassuming place with a heart of gold.
That heart is Dawn Leppan (pictured, far left). Warm and welcoming, the words she uses most often are “blessed” and “humbled”, and despite the troubles in the community, there’s an overwhelming sense of joy at the centre.
Having set up a feeding programme with Alan Paton in the Inchanga Valley in 1989, Dawn has dedicated her life to helping the people of this impoverished community. When we arrived, a group of about 300 – mostly elderly – people sat singing in the rain, waiting for lunch, which is served to up to 2 000 people a day, using donated food. Others were at work in the computer room, typing up their CVs and doing homework assignments on the internet.
Behind a small library (the only one in the Valley of 1 000 Hills), a room was packed with bright-eyed, smiling children – the centre’s own Grade R. There’s also a clinic, where volunteer doctors and nurses visit four days a week, a preschool for toddlers and a crèche for babies, a veggie garden, where locals are taught to grow their own food, and a chapel.
Small changes
On sunny days, the children play outside and the adults are led in stretching exercises on the lawn. “It’s the little things that add up to the big things in life,” says Dawn.
From handing out food from the back of her bakkie in 1989 and with the help of other volunteers, Dawn has created this centre, which she says is “the realisation of a dream”.
It’s a place where she and her team can treat the whole person, offering people of the community a safe place where they can enjoy companionship, a warm meal and even a shower. This is especially important to the elderly, whose arthritis makes it almost impossible for them to carry water from the communal taps, let alone lift a jug.
Keeping it in the family
And it’s a family affair – Dawn’s daughter Karen is a qualified nurse and volunteers at the centre two days a week, her other daughter Helen cares for the toddlers, while Dawn’s granddaughter Jessica offers counselling at the centre, from play therapy for the little ones to trauma counselling for adults.
“For me, the most important thing is the love that the community and I share,” says Dawn, “the gratitude that they show for what we do, and seeing someone who you treated on death’s door walk in to the centre.” And that’s what keeps her coming back, day after day.
You can leave donations at the Kloof Methodist Church, marked ‘1 000 Hills Community Helpers’. Phone 031 783 4013, e-mail 1000hch@zamail.co.za or visit www.1000hch.co.za