LIV Village provides long term foster care where children have a sense of belonging in a supportive community. Orphaned and vulnerable children are placed in a family environment with a trained foster mother to love and care for them. They attend school and receive spiritual discipleship, thus ensuring that all their needs are met - physically, spiritually and emotionally - and thereby equipping them with essential moral values and life skills so they can live lives that will influence and inspire others and be a compelling generation of leaders.
Tich Smith and his wife Joan started Lungisisa Indlela Village (LIV) in 1997 after Tich Smith had a vision of an all-encompassing village for orphaned and vulnerable children with sustainable support systems being ensured through job creation opportunities for individuals in the surrounding communities so they could earn an income and look after their own families. Tich and Joan visited the Watoto villages in Uganda where they saw 19 years of successfully transforming broken lives. The vision was the same and they brought the model back to KwaZulu Natal.
Today LIV is an established organisation with a national footprint. They have fully operational villages in Durban and Gauteng as well as LIV Lukhanyiso in Grahamstown/Makhanda, which is still in its infancy, and also LIV Cape Town which is involved in building an Early Childhood Development Centre on land they have purchased. There is also LIV Thokomala – a project initiated by Unilever and taken over by LIV at the beginning of 2018. LIV Thokomala consists of homes in rural communities across South Africa. Each of these operational LIV communities has its own board of governors, upliftment programmes and fundraising initiatives. They operate independently whilst being overseen by a larger management team.
Local TV visited LIV Durban in the community of Cottonlands. Here Carita McRire, who works in Marketing for the LIV team, heads up volunteers, works closely with the women in the factory to design the crafts and other products, and organizes LIV choir bookings and tours. Carita expanded further on the day-to-day activities and various successes of the now 10-year-old Durban Village which currently has 29 Mothers, and 180 Children. “Our children wake up everyday in a home with their brothers and sisters, mom gets breakfast ready and then they head off to school, either early learning development or junior or high school. In the afternoons there are sport activities, choir, fun time and in the evenings, they help with food and cooking and do homework.”
“We also have released a few stars which we are exceptionally proud of” continues Carita.” Siyabonga who never got Matric got a bursary to study in Cape Town at a Bible College and is flourishing. Lindiwe who worked on the Mushroom Farm at LIV Village, saw an opportunity in our LIV Clean business when we started this LIV business and joined this cleaning business and became a supervisor. Later Lindiwe moved into our Culinary Training Centre and became part of the culinary training programme for a year. Today Lindiwe is running a café at our LIV Store in Glen Ashley. From these successes we can see the amazing impact that LIV Village has on the surrounding community and the opportunities they obtain”.
Because LIV Villages are also about job creation and opportunities for the community members to provide sustainable support, an additional LIV Business Pty Ltd was formed which enables self-sustainability through LIV Investments, plus they also have farming and various enterprises jobs, all providing for employment opportunities. LIV has partnered with various companies and has a Culinary School and a Welding Academy, and their successful candidates are all fully employable when they leave.
Rescue a child, restore a life, raise a leader, release a star is an incredible Motto but, LIV actually does achieve this, and truly does make a difference to the lives of vulnerable children.
If you want to make a difference in a child’s life, contact your nearest LIV Village to enquire about assisting with funding or volunteer work.