South Africa
St. Joseph’s Children Home – a safe haven in Mbongolwane
Led by the nuns of the Oberzell Nunnery, the South African convent founded in Mbongolwane in 1959 soon developed into a safe haven for the local population, whose lives are often tragically touched by poverty and violence. Built in the late 1980s, the Antonia Werr Kindergarten provides safe childcare in this remote area, enabling women to go to work. Meanwhile, the St. Joseph’s Children’s Home, founded in 1988, offers a caring and peaceful home to children with extremely challenging family backgrounds or babies who have been abandoned in emergency situations.
The two sisters still living in Mbongolwane following the closure of the convent are now responsible for running both the kindergarten and children’s home. The latter is currently home to 33 children, including a good number of babies and toddlers. The Franciscan sisters work together with a team of employed caregivers, social workers and other staff to care for the children and ensure their personal development. They do all this while respecting the local Zulu culture with the goal of reintegrating the children into their families wherever possible.
The older children up to the age of 14 attend the nearby local school, while the younger ones are included in the sisters’ kindergarten. The most intensive – and of course expensive – care is that given to the newborns looked after at St. Joseph’s. With costs rising and institutional incomes falling and the already low government subsidies barely covering the essentials, times are hard.
This makes outside help all the more important for the children reliant on St. Joseph’s and the Franciscan sisters. Mix for Kids is one such donor and is as such a vital source of food, formula, diapers and school uniforms as well as other everyday expenses for the children.
2025
A healthy breakfast and Christmas surprises
By 2025, more than 30 children – including many babies and toddlers – had found a home at the St. Joseph Children’s Home. It is a place where they can live free from fear and violence, and where they receive a school education, adequate nutrition, and care. To provide financial relief to the donation-dependent children’s home in Mbongolwane in 2025 as well, Mix for Kids subsidized the food for a healthy breakfast for the children. Among other things, the little ones looked forward to porridge, muesli, oatmeal, milk, bread, tea, and local dishes after waking up.
In addition, Mix for Kids provided a Christmas bonus for a delicious Christmas dinner, which was supplemented by a special donation: The apprentices and students at Kräuter Mix, whose employees had founded the organization, diligently baked gingerbread cookies, which were distributed at the company during the pre-Christmas season in exchange for voluntary donations. The 2025 Apprentice Project donated all proceeds to the children’s home in South Africa so that small gifts could be purchased for each child.
2024
Enjoy new things: from shoes and towels to the fridge
Through a privately organised Christmas event for Mix for Kids a total of 3,000 euros in donations was collected in late 2023. Every single cent of that money went to the children’s home in Mbongolwane, not least thanks to the relationship of a family member to a sister at the Oberzell convent. “A great deal of magic was worked with these 3,000 euros, a sum the children urgently needed,” said Julia Scharnagl, who now works for the Oberzell Nunnery as their South Africa coordinator following a stint as a development aid worker in Mbongolwane. She was able to report on exactly what every euro of the Mix for Kids donation was spent on: new jackets, pajamas, clothes, (school) shoes, towels, writing and craft materials, a refrigerator for the kitchen for the youngest children and two big freezers for food storage.