The St. Anne’s Homes Gift Shop

By establishing a place for residents of St. Anne's to sell their work, we hope to establish in them a sense of pride and accomplishment.

Through the Gift Shop vocational training opportunity for the residents in the shelter exist.  Employment opportunity is being created for ex-residents in the shop as well as in the Skills Training Centre.

While our aim is to put our gift shop ‘on the map’ and attract tourists visiting our beautiful Cape Town, our local invaluable Capetonians will find some really special and affordable items for their loved ones too.

About the Products:

While there are some regular gift shop items, we will have a special line of uniquely St. Anne’s items. Each of these items will be personalized with the name of the artist i.e. the woman who has handcrafted the product.

The handcrafted Articles include semi-precious stone/shell and glass beaded jewelry, hand decorated boxes and canvas bags, fabric painted African print skirts and t-shirts, mosaic frames and mirrors, Ostrich Egg Shell plates…with more attractive lines to come! 

Acknowledgement & Support:

We acknowledge our skilled volunteers and donors for their commitment and investment into the lives of the women and children in our care. An invitation is extended to you to help change the course of these vulnerable yet amazingly talented women who seek to become economically self-reliant. You can make a difference by donating your funds or materials.

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Speech by a resident at the launch of the Centre in September 2005:

My name is Belinda Mahanjana, the St. Anne’s resident. In 3 months ago, I was homeless and having nowhere to go. My family and friends had rejected me but the St. Anne’s Homes had provided me with shelter and make myself to be part of the St. Anne’s House family member.

During these 3 months of my time at St. Anne’s, there had been a new baby girl born and named Skills Training. In her first days at St. Anne’s as she was a small baby, I did not like her as I thought she just came to take my time to be busy caring for her, although I felt like relaxing and having my time to think about the difficulties that I have faced in my life. It is amazing, when I have realized that this baby girl had been born at St. Anne’s purposely for me. It is when I have enjoyed my time to be at Skills Training room and do lots of these amazing, beautiful things that are on this room now.

Something that I liked the most about the skills training is that: every resident was given an opportunity to raise this baby girl to empower themselves with lots of skill especially in doing the beads to make this baby girl to be attractive when she wears it in occasions like today when we are launching the skills training. You can guess what was the next step that resident have also done in making this baby girl to be more beautiful now: they have done the sewing and painting as the baby girl is expected to be dressing powerful clothes which builds up her confidence and stand tall in facing the world.

I wish for this Skills Training project to develop into a stage where it can also train the people outside the St. Anne’s Homes. I think this might be also a form of fundraising for the St. Anne’s Homes. I thank the St. Anne’s Homes for giving me an opportunity to explore myself in skills training.