Project: Children of the Dawn (COTD) - Ermelo 
MAMA: Nabila
Started in: 2007  
Partner since: 2018 
Location: Ermelo, Mpumalanga
Number of children: 35 (supported by MAMAS), 130 (total)

Special because: The Children of COTD Ermelo play an amazing sport called Frontball which has taken some of them overseas!

Children of the Dawn Ermelo is a very lively programme that offers a wide variety of services to underprivileged children of the Ermelo townships and informal settlements.

Children of the Dawn works to provide 130 children with daily and practical care during their school year. A vast majority of these children have lost one or even both parents, mostly to AIDS. Children of the Dawn watches over them, provides healthy food, afterschool care, fun activities and personal attention and guidance. This way, these children can be children again and have the same opportunities as every other child. Children of the Dawn Ermelo now has several beneficiaries who have reached tertiary education levels.

The project started in Mathabatha, Limpopo in 2002, as a pilot-project to support communities in remote rural areas in their care for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC). Now Children of the Dawn has grown into a professional initiative which operates in eight rural areas with 5 of the 9 South African provinces, namely: Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Free State, the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal.

Children's Fund MAMAS supports 4 of the 8 Children of the Dawn's projects: Matatiele and Mpumaze on a large scale, and Lenyenye and Ermelo on a smaller scale.