Hisense South Africa Opens Its Heart To The Orphans Of Tongaat

Hisense has donated R120,000 - R10,000 per month for the next year - to the Haven of Rest, which will use the funding to feed, clothe and educate the orphans in its care.

The Haven of Rest, an Apostolic Faith Mission-run centre based in a former hospital in the KwaZulu Natal town, offers a wide range of services to the Tongaat community, including the orphanage, a halfway house for recovering drug addicts and alcoholics, a clinic providing primary health care to the local community, a hospice, foster care for children infected and affected by HIV, an old-age home, a hope centre for survivors of domestic violence, a disaster unit providing emergency services to the community, HIV counselling and testing, and a school and créche. In addition, it manages four orphanages in Malawi.

"The Haven of Rest offers an impressive array of services to the community in which it operates, catering to all the most vulnerable sectors of society: the elderly, children, survivors of violence and the ill," says Hisense South Africa managing director Jerry Liu.

"Organisations such as this often struggle to make ends meet, and to continue providing critically-needed support to their communities. Hisense believes that corporates should give back to the communities in which they exist - it underpins their moral licence to operate - and the Haven of Rest is certainly deserving of our assistance."

Pastor Ronnie Naidoo, who established the Haven of Rest at the turn of the millennium, has praised Hisense South Africa for its support.

"From the bottom of my heart, I say a big thank-you for your kind donation ... Thank you for your loyalty in standing in the vision of the Haven of Rest. We appreciate folk like you who stand with us in this enormous vision," says Naidoo.

For Liu, the Hisense South Africa donation will go a long way to giving the orphans at the Haven of Rest a better start in life than they would otherwise have had.

"With clothes and food, they will have dignity; with an education, they will be equipped to make the most of their lives. What we have donated to the Haven of Rest is not merely feel-good monetary support - it is an investment in the lives of these children, from which we look forward to enjoying the dividends one day," he says.