Mama Zelphina Maposela (founder & Director) moved to Nyanga from the Eastern Cape in 1974. She had always been interested in community development and worked for years with community health programs focused on home-based care towards patients suffering from tuberculosis (TB), and HIV/AIDS.
In 1981 Mama and her colleagues started a door-to-door mobile clinic to visit those who were sick and couldn�t help themselves. As many of these patients lay in bed dying, they worried about their children�s stigmatized future as AIDS orphans. So Mama promised to find them a safe home. When she couldn�t find foster homes for these children, she decided to create one herself. Mama Maposela wanted to stay true to her promise. Mama grew up as an orphan herself and therefore had empathy for the plight of the children. In 1994 she became an official foster parent to three of these AIDS orphans.