Robyn Borruso visited an orphanage of children whose parents died of HIV/AIDS in Africa in 2010 with her family, and on her return to Australia, wanted to do something to make the lives of the children a little better. She started her own non-profit charity and has made a big difference to the lives of those kids, and many more.
“Eniwe and its helpers have had a considerable impact on a large number of children that are desperately impoverished and vulnerable. We have a feeding program that feeds 100 children a warm, nutritious meal a day, every day of the year. We have housed 21 Child Headed Households – children who live alone after losing their parents – and set up a block of four classrooms and furnished them with desks and chairs for a school in rural Kwa-Zulu Natal. We also have funded some day trips for orphans to various fun places like the beach, museums and play parks, as we believe that we also need to feed the soul and make these children believe there are actually good days to be had, and to allow them to picture a different future for themselves.”
One of their most recent cases is an orphaned family living in Vrygrond, South Africa. There are six children ranging from 2-14 years. Eniwe has placed a trained and registered foster mother with the family to take care of them on a day-to-day basis. The family lives in dire conditions and have very little means of income. Eniwe ensures the kids are fed, and has plans to put in a veggie garden, kitchen and bathroom upgrades, an extension to the house and an income generator in place to help them sustain themselves in future.
With so much help needed, Robyn came up with a new way to raise money for the Eniwe Children’s Fund. It is called ‘Change Coffee’ and allows people to give to the charity when they buy their morning coffee.
“We came up with the idea of having a day where we rally coffee drinkers to buy one extra coffee. So essentially they pay for two cups, but just get the one and the value of the second cup goes to help the AIDS affected children. One Change Coffee will feed 15 children for a day or one child for 15 days. 25 Change Coffees will feed a child for a year and 285 will build a new home for a child-headed household. The café receives special Change Coffee Cups and information on Eniwe, and the coffee drinker gets a great cup of coffee and the reward of knowing that the donation they made will feed 15 kids in one day. It is simple, fun, and allows people to give a one-off donation without any long term commitment,” Robyn said.
The inaugural Change Coffee Day was held on 4 December, 2015 (the first Friday in December annually), with 57 cafés in Sydney taking part. The aim was to have 50 cafés this year and then next year go national in Australia and then in the future, go global. With almost $10,000 raised with 57 cafes, imagine how much can be raised when there are 1000? Anyone can make a donation by buying a virtual cup of coffee on the website at any time, and rally their local coffee shop to sign up for Change Coffee Day in 2016.
