Heaven s Shelter House in Mitchell s Plain (Südafrika)

Heaven s Shelter House in Mitchell s Plain (Südafrika)

Heaven Shelter House For the homeless, abused women and children, abandoned babies, aids orphans and street children Original Location : 25 Rambler Street, Beacon Valley, Mitchell s Plain, 7785, Cape Town, South Africa. Second Location : corner of Orion/Orpheus Crescent, Old Woodlands, Mitchell s Plain, 7785, Cape Town, South Africa. Heaven Shelter was established in 1998 and is a registered under Sect 30 Child Care Act, 1983 Act74/1983 Reg. No. C6690 Heaven Shelter Reg.No. 009-142NPO Contact Details - Zulpha or Abdul Morris : cell nu 073 205 9807 local or (+27)73 205 9807 int Heaven Shelter : tel 021 376 4423 local or (+27)21 376 4423 international Email : heavenshelterhouse@gmail.com and heavensshelther@telkomsa.net Banking Details Standard Bank, Mitchell s Plain, Branch 026609, Acc no 070 776 660 Accountant Details Irvin Peters cell no 082 956 9598, email mwirv@mweb.co.za, PO Box 10118, Cape Town, 8000 of Makan, Peters & Associates, Practice No : IAC 300737 PO Box 30324, Tokai Tel/Fax 021 712 9948

Back ground Heaven s Shelter was started in 1998 in response to God s calling due to an urgent need of destitute people like abandoned babies and children, aids orphans, street children, abused and homeless woman and children. Our philosophy is to provide immediate relief with food, bed and shelter. We aim to help the residents to restore their dignity, faith and hope in God and Mankind. We also provides rehabilitative, aids awareness and legal support. As residents regain their selfconfidence and their hope is restored we investigate each person s individual circumstances and welfare. The next step is to find and re-unite them with their family or we help them find employment and take care of their children in the mean time until they can become self-sustainable. We also teach skills like beading and sewing using repaired sewing equipment. We sell the necklaces, earrings and bags to raise funds.

Since the shelter started more than a 1000 mothers and over 800 children were cared for at the shelter. The shelter survives on donations from individuals, churches and various companies and organisations. Our staff members are volunteers from many professions and assist in the infra-structure of the shelter. At the moment there are 5 abandoned children (2 to 17 years old) that are permanently at the shelter. There are 3 mothers with 6 children that have been with the shelter longer than a year. One of the mothers and her baby are HIV positive. Most mother and children families stay an average of 3 months (sometimes up to 6 months) with the shelter. That is normally enough time for them to find employment or family or adequate guidance to enable them to get back on their feet.

Matthew Matthew (on the right) was found abandoned under a tree 10 years ago. Matthew is still with the shelter.

Zulpha and her husband Abdul run the shelter and are doing what the Bible says in James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this : to look after orphans and widows in their distress They are showing Christ s love to the world by taking care of widows and children. The shelter started from Zulpha s home in 1998. She took destitute people - complete strangers into her home. In 2001 the shelter was registered as an NPO. In 2002 they bought a council house and left their home as a full time shelter. In 2005 the shelter was changed into a double story dwelling so more people could be accommodated. Based on Heaven Shelter s reputation in the community in 2006 they were given a large abandoned building (a former community centre) and they are in the process of restoring the building whilst a few destitute families live there.

To really understand what Heaven Shelter is about you need to know Zulpha Morris s (founder and mother of Heaven Shelter House) personal testimony. Personal Testimony of Zulpha Morris In September 1998 Zulpha and Abdul Morris and their 4 children were married for 15 years as a Muslim family. Zulpha was very unhappy in her marriage and her religion. She wanted to leave her husband, but the only thing that stopped her was that she had nowhere to go. One night in September she went to bed with a very troubled spirit. That night she had a dream of heaven with God and the angels. The next morning she woke up and gave her heart to the Lord. She told her husband she had to go to church. She started going to church regularly while her husband still went to the Mosque.

Eventually her husband told her to get a babysitter to look after the 4 children, because according to him she spent too much time on church matters. Determined to show him that God was real she prayed for a babysitter. That night she dreamed of a woman Maria sitting on a wooden box with a wine glass with an Ackerman s sign board behind her. She asked her husband the next morning where Ackerman s was. He told her there were many Ackerman s stores all over the City. There was one close to them in Mitchell s Plain and there was one close to where he worked in Wynberg. She got excited about the one in Wynberg and with her friend Iris de Monzi she went to the Ackerman s Store in Wynberg in a taxi. She couldn t ask her husband to take her on account of her dream, because he would have laughed at her. She found Maria on the wooden box as in the dream and asked her whether she would come home with her and be a babysitter for them. Maria agreed and they just hugged each other. Zulpha took Maria home and cleaned her up. She was full of bruises from abuse by her boyfriend. Maria stayed in Zulpha s home as her babysitter. Zulpha then told her husband Abdul that God does provide for needs you pray for.

After taking Maria in, Zulpha let everyone in her community know that she will provide shelter for destitute people. A social worker Charmain Marman brought Matthew to Zulpha. Matthew was found abandoned under a tree with his umbilical cord still attached. He is still with the shelter and he is 10 years old. Over the next 4 years Zulpha took many homeless, destitute, abused and abandoned women and children into her home. She provided in their basic and spiritual needs and prayed for them to be healed. In this time her husband observed everything and saw how really broken people became healed and so Abdul also turned to Christianity.

Heaven Shelter featured in a South African TV program and a private donor became involved by just donating money initially. Zulpha told this donor that she had a dream that he will make the shelter bigger by turning it into a double storey building. The donor did not have as much faith in God as Zulpha did at that stage, but he felt that he had to turn the shelter into a double storey building, because he did not want to be reponsible for a woman like Zulpha losing her faith in God.

So in August 2005 the rebuilding of Heaven Shelter started.

Zulpha continued praying for more land and space so she could help more people. In 2002 her husband bought a council house and they moved out of their home which became Heaven Shelter House. From August 2002 the shelter was turned into a double storey dwelling with space to accommodate a lot more people. Zulpha dreamed of another much larger building. She asked her pastor Randall Craighton to make a cardboard model of the building with a large parking area and little cars in it. A pastor Carelse told Zulpha about an abandoned building in Woodlands that seemed to fit her description. She never went to look. A whole year later a Muslim woman told Zulpha about an abandoned building in Woodlands that fit her description. She suddenly realised it was what she had been praying for. She went to see the building and it looked just like the cardboard box model with the large parking area.

The building was a Community Centre donated by a charity from Norway. It was left to trustees from the community. They locked it up and over time the building was stripped of all its windows, doors, roof, plumbing, sanitary ware and electrical wiring. It had become a place for vagrants and drug users. In 2007 the trustees handed the building over to In 2007 the trustees handed the building over to Heaven Shelter House and the restoration/rebuilding process is currently underway as funds become available. There are a few families and abandoned children living there in the mean time helping with the restoration and keeping others from stripping the building again.

So as funds become available, mostly from a single private donor in the beginning, the long process of rebuilding is still ongoing. As progress is made more people are donating to get the building completed.

The state of the building on 5 September 2008.

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