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Plans for 2011 - 2012
Background to our workWe help protect small children from abuse, we help care for those abused, and help to break the cycle of violence through:
- Working with pre-schools and other organisations
- to train the women [and men] to recognise and act on suspicions of abuse;
- to provide a safe place for children;
- to provide a knowledgeable place for people in the communities;
- The empowerment of women and men working in community services through training and awareness programmes.
- Diversion and support programmes, to do this we:
- encourage and promote a different pattern to their lives through development programmes using sports
- work with children whose lives are disrupted by poverty, abuse, malnutrition, illness or abandonment.
All our work is done in collaboration with partners in South Africa who are, themselves, not-for-profit organisations
CHILDLINE
Childline Limpopo – crèche and training
We anticipate that the crèche we helped to start and have been supporting for three years will, by June 2011, be self sustaining. We plan, again with Childline Limpopo, to help start a new crèche for toddlers who are extremely ‘at risk’ in another area in the province during this year.
We are planning a new Caring for Crèches programme due to start in this province early to mid 2011 for another 100 crèche leaders.
Childline Mpumalanga – training crèche leaders
We are planning the training of another 220 crèche leaders through our Caring for Crèches programme after April 2010. This is an enormously successful programme and, due to the rising levels of serious abuse routinely reported following this training, Childline has been granted funding for some community development work across the province throughout 2011.
Childline NW – training crèche leaders
With a further 100 people trained in 2010, plans are underway for another 100 crèche leaders to go through the Caring for Crèches programme in 2011. Again, this training has produced such high numbers of reported cases of abuse that Childline, in North West province, have also gained additional funds to start training parents and community leaders about identifying potential abuse, what to do and how to report their suspicions.
OPEN UNIVERSITY – JOINT PHD PROGRAMME
The programme is on track, and early reports from the fieldwork on why perpetrators abuse small children are showing some fairly awful and entrenched family, health, and cultural problems. We anticipate the research will be finalised in early 2012 and the findings formally published.
EKUPHOLENI MENTAL HEALTH CENTRE
This is a totally wonderful and committed service in the deepest darkest wilds of a very violent community of 2.5 million people. They work with very damaged communities where the spiral of violence seems to be ever increasing – especially now as jobs cuts really begin to bite and men are roving the streets unemployed, drunk and full of anger.
We continue to fund the stipend for Happy – the man we have supported from the early days of him being a volunteer worker through to qualifying as a Social Auxiliary Worker – as a football coach working with the Ghetto Boyz. This programme has shown remarkable results in getting seriously feral, dangerous and damaged boys back on track and once more into vocational and/or academic education and thus away from crime and into a decent future. Through kind donors we are able to also provide these boys with practice and team kit so they can play in proper teams and in competitions …. this is amazing for their burgeoning self-esteem and confidence. Happy is a crucial part of this programme.
We are also providing funding here to run a group for twenty five 3 – 6 year old girls who have been raped/abused, and for a group of eighteen 5 – 9 years old boys who are perpetrators of serious violence and abuse against younger children.
JOHANNESBURG CHILD WELFARE SOCIETY
This is a very specialised service with years of experience and expertise in working with and helping sexually abused children; here we are funding four different training programmes in 2011
- A specially commissioned programme for people who are, or are about to be, foster parents to abused/raped children of any age. This programme will last six months.
The other three programmes are in line with our intention to help people develop new skills and work their way up the ladder[s] as well as work with, help and support small children:
- Twenty one places for Level One training for community workers working with vulnerable children
… then if able
- Fifteen places for Level Two training for community workers working with vulnerable children
… then if able
- Ten places for people working with orphans and vulnerable children to train to be a Social Auxiliary Worker.
IMISEBEYELANGA
They do such astonishing work at Imisebeyelanga, in so many ways, that we would fund lots of things they do if we could …. meanwhile we continue to support their excellent training programmes for people working in crèches – this is a course where the participants attain a recognisable qualification so helping to secure their future as well as the safety and health of the children in their care.
This year we plan to fund the training of over 75 people. These are our ‘green brigade’As part of their extended programme Imisebeyelanga have been helping a very feisty young women who has set up a refuge for abused street children; she was an abused street child herself and even since starting the refuge has had to cope with several rape attempts, the latest in November 2009. This is a truly inspiring project and we will provide enough for the children’s food for a year.
FOOTBALL
In the light of the successful programme [Ghetto Boyz] at Ekupholeni and recent research we have devised a pilot project to divert boys from trouble through football that could be replicated all over the country – but initially through Imisebeyelanga. We have a promise of funds if we can find £10,000 find match funding
…. Offers??