What if between changing the diapers, the laundry and the dishes a community of mothers around the world could change the future for a community of kids and their mamas, grandmas and aunties in South Africa?

What if 1 blog community could build 1 South African community a safe place for sustainable food, child care, economic empowerment, job skills trainings, a gathering place for church, classrooms for HIV/Aids education, and a playground for their kids?

This is the human blue print:



The goal is to raise $150,000 to fund the entire project between Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day – because love is more than a date on the calendar, and it never leaves anyone out. And Mother's Day is a 365 days a year adventure, always worth celebrating.

{Click here to read the full back story about this project.}

Phase 1: Community Vegetable Garden $5,000 FULLY FUNDED

Phase 2: Community Kitchen and Welcome Center

Phase 3: Community Outreach Hall

Phase 4: 12 Classrooms

Phase 5: Playground $3,000 FULLY FUNDED

This is Phase 2 - The Community Kitchen and Welcome Center

There's a community just north of Pretoria, South Africa, called Maubane. Home to about 150 adults and 250 orphans and vulnerable children.

For three years every Sunday they've been gathering for church on this vacant piece of land. For church and holidays, trainings, workshops and community celebrations.

Out here in the dust and the dirt is where they gather.

Where they serve meals.

Where they celebrate community events.

Where they meet for trainings.

The community has received permission from the local tribal council and government to build a community center on this land. 

Imagine a big community hall with kitchens and admin buildings, bathrooms and storage facilities, classrooms and training rooms and before and after school care spaces. 

Imagine a place that would provide shelter from the sun, the dirt and the dust to serve meals and practice hospitality for a community whose meals and trainings and services usually look like this:

The kitchen and welcome center will be the first part of the entire community center, each additional part designed by the architect so that they can be added on building by building.

By starting with the admin building a community of 400 will now have access to:

A base of operations - for the 20-30 volunteers who serve the weekly church meetings that currently take place under an open air shelter that was donated by a local church in Pretoria. What started as 15 kids has now grown to 250-300 children and 100 adults every Sunday for the last three years.

Hygienic Food Preparation - every second Sunday the volunteer group, Take Action, provides food and drinks to the community. But no running water, no kitchen, no bathrooms make it challenging to serve so large a group of people.

Sanitation - this portion of the community center will include male and female restrooms (5 stalls each).

Facilities for the caretaker who will farm the vegetable garden and provide security and maintenance for the community center site.

Conference Room - for launching economic empowerment with training classes in job skills, early childhood development and HIV/AIDS training for the community.

Safe storage for all the tables, chairs and equipment that serves the church and is currently stored in Pastor Norman's house.

So won't you be brave and give as big as these grins?

And then invite your family, your kids, your friends to join our virtual Valentine's Day celebration  --

Click to tweet this or copy and paste it into Facebook below:

Sometimes you change the world 1 carrot, 1 kid, 1 brick, 1 classroom, 1 mom at a time. #SurprisedByMotherhood → click to tweet

Love is more than a date on the calendar. Fall in love with the world next door. #SurprisedByMotherhood →  click to tweet

There is NOTHING ORDINARY about being a mom, especially to hundreds of kids who don't have one. #SurprisedByMotherhood →  click to tweet

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Phase 1: Community Vegetable Garden $5,000 FULLY FUNDED

Phase 2: Community Kitchen and Welcome Center

Phase 3: Community Outreach Hall

Phase 4: 12 Classrooms

Phase 5: Playground $3,000 FULLY FUNDED

Made possible by a collaboration with Help One Now and local South African organizations Take Action and the James 1:27 Trust.

All photos by Patrick Black and Yorke Rodda.