Special kind of person

It takes a special kind of person to take in a newborn baby that had been abandoned by its parents and care for the child for almost a year as if they were their own. The type of person who has founded an organization to meet community need and even goes as far as paying the volunteers for transport costs and other business associated payments out of her own pocket. Someone who always gives and has not recieved a cent for those efforts and would not have it any other way. Marie van Schalkwyk is this person and as the founder and director of NeoBirth, her selfless generosity can be seen throughout the organization and its subsidaries. We arrived at NeoBirth this morning to find that a week old baby had been left their by her mother the day before who simply said that she could not cope and handed the baby to the NeoBirth staff. Angela took the starving child home with her, much like how Marie herself took in a baby who was born to a drug addict father and prostitute mother almost a year ago and has been taking care of the child amidst the long going court case to determine whether custody should be given back to the parents or if the child should be placed in the foster care or adoption system.
The humility and selflessness of the caregivers as well is highlighted by the fact that these women take care of about 20 children each. They hand-wash the childrens laundry, clean the households for those that a child-led, they help the children with their homework and even sometimes feed the children at their own homes and out of their own pockets. It takes a special kind of person to do the work that all of these women do daily.