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Raising money for ...
We are always raising money for lots of things, but if you particularly want your donations to be designated for specific projects then just let us know through the contact page, or when you make a donation via Just Giving/Paypal
So …. in no particular order, this is what we need funds for particularly in 2011:
- A diversion programme for street boys
- Supporting a refuge for abused children
- Caring for Crèches
- Training community volunteer workers
- Training auxilliary Social Workers
- A safe place for small children
A diversion programme for street boys.
We have been supporting these types of programmes for 4 years and they are immensely successful. These are always street boys most of whom have the most terrible histories – they have always suffered abuse themselves and, with no help, have found themselves excluded from school, in gangs, toting guns, abusing and terrorising others. We know from research that an abused boy is likely to go on and abuse between 200 and 300 younger children until stopped by death or prison, so it is crucial to do something to break this vicious cycle of brutality. The diversion programme works by using football as the draw and then a panoply of life skills including vocational training. The programme really works, and has an immense effect on the lives of the boys, what families they have, and their futures. It costs £15,000 to support a programme for 35 boys for a year plus lots of donated kit.
Supporting a refuge for abused children
Just once in a while, amongst all the amazing work that is done to help children in South Africa, we come across a shining star.
One such is Wilhelmina who, despite the most terrible childhood [or because of it …] she determined to setup a refuge for abandoned children. With the help of our friends at Imisebeyelanga http://www.imisebe.org/ Wilhelmina now cares for 22 children and struggles day in day out for food and water and power and clothing.
There are many places and projects setup by people like Wilhelmina in out-of-the-way places and it is not too trite to say they provide quiet salvation and hope for children who have suffered rape, beatings, being trafficked, abandonment, and loss of family.
It costs £2,000 to provide simple food for 12 months.
Caring for Crèches
I guess this is our flagship programme as we have now, in partnership with Childline SA and thanks to our donors, got this going in three huge rural provinces.
We have developed a training manual that is delivered, in the local language, to people who run informal crèches.
These informal crèches are setup by well meaning but mainly poorly educated women [and a few men..] to keep children safe from harm during the day and to try to earn money for their own families – there is a tendency in rural areas for the remaining living relative to leave children alone during the day to find whatever work they can in order to survive. 
Unfortunately this often means that the children – some as young as 6 months - are left alone with an older sibling … either that or a young mother was raped and can’t finish her schooling unless the baby is cared for.
So the women set up informal day centres or crèches or nurseries. Through Childline we have been accessing these crèches and providing six days of free training – including taxi fares and meals – instructing the carers in childcare, health including HIV/AIDS, nutrition, and how to recognise and react appropriately to suspected abuse.
To date, for every crèche that has had carers trained, we know that at least four children are subsequently identified as abused and most of the women have, for the first time, had the opportunity to talk about their own experiences of abuse; over 90% of the women have suffered serious abuse.
Add to this their developing courage and determination to tackle suspected abusers, the community talks they do, the tackling of families suspected of abusing children and the impact of our C4C is immense.
Through this programme alone:
- we have trained nearly eight hundred people,
- we know of over fifteen hundred cases of abuse reported
- a further twenty five thousand children have been positively affected by the skills developed by the learners.
In 2011 we will have Caring for Crèches programmes going in North West Province, Mpumalanga Province and Limpopo Province. We, and Childline, want to extend this to all provinces – it costs around £25,000 to train 150 people in a year.
Training community volunteer workers
Through several other partners we train many community volunteer workers – not like volunteers in the UK, these are full-time workers who do this work through a combination of commitment to their communities, to help what they can see around them, and, frankly, because there is no other work for them.
We aim to give these volunteer workers a range of skills in recognising abuse and knowing what to do about it, some basic knowledge of illnesses [usually linked to HIV/AIDS] and how to treat people, bereavement skills, information about what welfare benefits are available and how to refer people/children in need to social services.
In all this we also try really hard to dispel the raft of myths about death and illness that swirl around the communities and can be so damaging to children; ie the ‘Virgin Myth’
In addition we aim to provide courses through certified training organisations so the end certificates have some value for the future of the learners.
You may have seen pictures of our ‘green brigade’ – these are the folk trained by our friends at Imisebeyelanga and who are given a very bright green T-shirt with our logo on the front; as they have got so well known, the community recognises them as they go about their work.
A range of courses is provided from six days to six weeks through six different partners and the costs range from £120 per person to £550 per person.
Training Auxiliary Social Workers
In 2010 – 2011 we are funding the bursaries of 10 people training to be Auxiliary Social Workers in organisations helping abused and traumatised children.
These are folk who would otherwise be community volunteer workers and who have great potential to work with and help the local children and have a positive and paid career.
This is similar to an NVQ level four in the UK and we are working with Johannesburg Child Welfare Service in this and in other training courses.
The cost for a single bursary is around £1,500 per person for 18 months.
A safe place for small children
In 2007 we became aware of many small children needing protection in the central rural areas of Limpopo province where unemployment is high; there are high death rates in the young adult population and pockets of extreme poverty.
In this province of South Africa the statistics show there are more children under 18 years old than there are adults over 18 years old; here there are poor welfare structures, high malnutrition, few social workers, adults have to travel far for work and many traditional cultural activities continue – children are at very high risk.
In 2008, in partnership with Childline and with the support of the local primary school Head Teacher, we helped to fund the setting up of a new nursery for pre-school children. The aim was to take in 25 of the most ‘at risk’ children. There are currently 77 children in the nursery all flourishing and doing well. Their ages range from nine months to 4½ years.
We have funded the carers' training, paid for the stipends for carers and cook for three years and helped with funding for materials, and a Jungle Gym. There is now electricity, some earth latrines, and a cook providing decent nutritional food every day. The children thrive and are safe.
Our intention is to help get this crèche fully registered within the three years and then help start another crèche. The costs are around £7,000 a year.