Help our hero ‘Mama Rosie’ to be CNN Hero
WHAT started as lending a helping hand to hungry and abandoned children nearly 30 years ago has now put Rosie Mashale’s NGO, Baphumelele, on the world map. Mashale has been nominated for the CNN Heroes award.
“A German friend of mine entered me into the competition… I only found out when I had been chosen as a runner-up and the people from CNN started contacting me,” she explained.
To bag the $100 000 (R1.3 million) grand prize for her organisation, Mashale needs your votes. The award ceremony will be held in New York next Sunday. Baphumelele helps 107 children, some battling with chronic illnesses such as HIV/Aids and TB.
Baphumelele was born after Mashale saw little children scavenging at a dump site near her Site B home in Khayelitsha in 1989. As a former foundation phase teacher in Matatiele and with a child of the same age herself, she took the seven children in.
To keep them busy, she helped them learn nursery rhymes, fed them and put them to bed. This is when she decided to start a day-care centre.
“Today those seven children are either social workers, lawyers or some or other professional. I am proud of my children,” she smiled.
In 2000 Mashale started to take in abandoned children and give them a place they could call home. Many of the children call her “Mama Rosie”.
In 2007 she decided to stretch her helping hand to child-headed households, the reason she has been nominated for the CNN Heroes award.
Out of 17 000 entries worldwide, Mashale has made it to the top 10. To vote for her, log on to cnnheroes.com