Abandoned children from government hospitals are finding a new home in a far-flung corner of rural KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), as one foster family is giving hope to children in need of end-of-life care.
“The babies’ lives are like a butterfly. A flutter, a beautiful glimpse, short but the beauty lasts,” says Tarryn Bell with a smile.
Bell and her husband Dr Christoff Bell, are the founders of Butterfly Home, a foster home tucked away in the lush green landscape of Ingwavuma in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal. But Butterfly Home is no ordinary foster home, and only takes children in need of end-of-life care.
“We’re the only hospice setting as far as I know, that only takes orphaned and abandoned children. We take the children that are forgotten in the government hospitals, that are just laying somewhere,” says Bell.
Butterfly Home, part of Izandla zeAfrika, a registered NPO, turns two in May of this year, and Bell plans to register the facility as a full-time hospice for children.
The Bells are made aware of each child through their connections in the medical and social work field. Prior to starting Izandla, Tarryn worked as a social worker at Mseleni Hospital in the Umkhanyakude district in KZN and realised the need for a special home for orphaned palliative children.
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