Butterfly Palliative Home is a hospice providing end-of-life care to orphaned & abandoned children.
08/12/2025
Last week we were absolutely showered with kindness by the wonderful team from South32 , and our hearts are still so full! 🥰
They blessed our staff with the most thoughtful goodies baskets and spoiled every one of our Butterflies, both in-house and home-based, with their very own special gift. And if that wasn’t enough, they arrived with open arms, sharing love, hugs, and the kind of warmth that truly makes a difference in our home. 🫶🏼🫶🏼
We are SO incredibly grateful for your generosity and the joy you brought into our children’s hospice in Empangeni. Thank you for seeing our kids, loving our kids, and standing with us in this work! 🙌🏻💪🏽🥳
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05/12/2025
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL VOLUNTEERS DAY! 🌍🙌🏽✨🫶🏼
To our incredible village, our lovely peeps, and our absolute superheroes: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!
To every lovely person who has poured time, energy, money, skills, resources, and love into Butterfly Home (both our Empangeni and Ingwavuma children's hospices) this year, we appreciate you more than you know.
We sound like a broken record, but we mean it: We couldn't do this without you. Thank you for loving our Butterflies and helping us create a safe haven for them.
We are so immensely grateful to have you on this journey with us and our Butterflies. Thank you for caring so deeply for the vulnerable little ones in our care.
🦋 They are the reason we do this, but YOU are the reason we can. 🦋
04/12/2025
We want to send a heartfelt thank you to the wonderful team from St Catherine's School in Empangeni. We are so grateful that you took the time to visit our children's hospice. Your generosity, love, and Christmas gifts were a true blessing to our kids. Thank you for your support!
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St Catherine's School - Empangeni
01/12/2025
Last week was a busy one at Butterfly Home. We also welcomed sweet Siphesihle into our care. This girl is sassy and knows what she wants. We can see that she will soon rule the house😂👑
Go for it queen, we love to see our kiddos bloom 🌸🌼🌻
28/11/2025
Look who is ready for summer🐶☀️
Mr Teddy had a lovely bath and shave today as he had been struggling in the heat. Look how cute he is with his bow tie🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹
Thank you to Wiggle Butt for treating our boy like the king he is👑
27/11/2025
Sweet baby A is settling in well at Butterfly Home and receiving some extra cuddles from Sister Marlene.
You are a little miracle, perfectly formed. You are beautiful, loved and safe.
Thank you to each and every one who donates and helps us care for little ones like precious baby A🦋🦋🦋
27/11/2025
"Restore to me the JOY of Your salvation, and sustain me with a WILLING spirit."
As the year draws to an end and we start feeling tired and a bit spread thin, let Psalm 51:12 be our prayer today = joy renewed, spirit strengthened.
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25/11/2025
Friends, we are in need of a sturdy, low reclining, stroller to give to a mom with a seriously ill baby. Due to the baby’s complex medical condition it is very difficult to carry her.
Anyone willing to bless this family with a new or preloved stroller can please drop it off at Butterfly Home Empangeni @ 1 Eland Crescent, Nyala Park.
Siyabonga! Thank you! Baie dankie!🫶🏻
25/11/2025
Tenderness... 😍❤️🥰
22/11/2025
We are SO proud of longtime volunteer Chante Louw who finished her studies this week and is now officially Dr Chante Louw!🎉
Thank you for always loving our butterflies and pouring your heart and soul into everything you do. You will be one amazing doctor🙌🏻
22/11/2025
On Friday, our Co-founder, Tarryn, had the privilege of presenting at the KZN Department of Health Dietetics Symposium in Durban.
Withholding feeds at the end of a child’s life to allow natural dehydration and ketosis to benefit the child’s overall feeling of wellbeing can be a contentious topic due to widespread misconceptions.
The human body, designed to live, is also designed to pass away, and remarkable protective and comforting processes occur naturally if we allow death to progress.
Did you know that the human body can produce endogenous opioids during natural dehydration at end-of-life? Your body can create its own medicine to help alleviate pain and promote calmness and comfort! How incredible 🙌🏻
20/11/2025
At Butterfly Home, we see every day how friendships change lives. Our children may have tiny hearts, but the love and joy they share is enormous. We’re inviting you to be part of this love and joy through our campaign. 🦋
Our non-profit children’s hospice in Ingwavuma is on a mission to gather 500 amazing friends who are willing to step up and make a difference in the lives of orphaned, abandoned, and neglected children facing life-limiting illnesses.
If 500 friends out of our nearly 5000 virtual friends give R500 each month, our salaries and overheads will be fully funded! That means we can focus on what matters most, caring for the most vulnerable little ones in South Africa. 🙌🏻
We still have a loooooong way to go, but with your help, we can get there. Please spread the word, tag your friends, and rally with us to reach our goal of .
A massive thank you to all the incredible friends who have already signed up. Your kindness and generosity mean the world to us! 🥰💖
If you feel called to help, DM us your name and pledge or reach out to Tarryn at tarryn@butterflyhome.org.za. We can’t wait to welcome you to the Butterfly Home family! 🏡❤️
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Nestled on top of the picturesque mountain community of Ingwavuma, South Africa, is a very special place called Butterfly Palliative Home. Here we care for orphaned and abandoned babies from all over South Africa who need a family and special medical care due to life-limiting conditions. All of these little ones have a story to share. Their stories are mostly heartbreaking, filled with sad memories and many visits to the hospital. But they all have one thing in common: they are survivors - they are little warriors - and they now call BPH their home...
It all started in January 2018 when our founders, Christoff and Tarryn Bell, received a phone call about an abandoned baby boy from Soweto who needed a home. This tiny person happened to be discovered by a jogger out on his morning run who heard a noise and found a tiny baby discarded in the bushes. At the time baby Si was thought to have Down Syndrome and was estimated to be about six months old. Cold, dehydrated and emaciated, little Si was rushed to a nearby hospital to receive emergency medical treatment.
The Bells adopted their son Joshua, who has Down Syndrome, in 2015 and the hope was that they might be interested in adopting another little guy with the same diagnosis. Christoff Bell, a medical doctor at Mosvold Hospital, and his wife Tarryn, a social worker, were running a Christian non-profit called Izandla ZeAfrika at the time. It soon came to light that baby Si’s condition was much more serious than anticipated and he was diagnosed with Trisomy 18 or “Edwards Syndrome”, a condition which is widely regarded as not being compatible with life. Baby Si was in bad shape and not given long to live.
The Bells could not shake the feeling that they were called to help this little one as well as others like him. After much deliberation and prayer they decided to take Si into Foster Care and opened Butterfly Home for babies with palliative needs. The little home was started as a project under Izandla ZeAfrika and started with four home-based caregivers who were trained to look after children with special needs. A week after Si arrived at Butterfly home the next butterfly was placed, and soon after that another one. The little ones kept coming and the home grew and grew. Si began to flourish and was quickly surrounded by five brothers and sisters.
Today Butterfly Palliative Home is a registered Non-Profit Company and in the process obtaining full Hospice status. We are growing from strength to strength, with the help of amazing sponsors and volunteers and a team of twelve staff members ensure that our children receive only the best care.
