Who we are
Is it not horrendous to an African...., for what ever reason, for an adult man to rape a 9 month old baby? What has come over us? ……… What has happened to us? ………Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, September 2006
How we got started and the journey so far
Whilst on holiday one day in 2004 I spotted a UK newspaper on a table and, having no book with me, and been starved of news from home for at least a week I picked up the paper and began to skim through it. The paper being an old one was going to have nothing very topical so I passed the front pages and lighted on a piece in the central section.
The article featured the story of Claudia Ford and her adopted daughter {V} detailing the horrors that V had experienced having been very severely sexually assaulted and damaged by 2 men when she was 5 months old. The details of the story, even in this public article, were very graphic, very precise and very moving – all of the horror is on their website [ http://www.theprincesstrust.com ]. There was the detail of V’s injuries, the story of how Claudia found her and then of how she fought [and fights everyday] to repair this broken and wounded baby spiritually, mentally and physically. There was the history of how she struggled to personally adopt V and secure her future. There were details of the incidence of infant rape in the country, but the compelling thing was the story of one little girl. By the time I had finished reading this inspiring story I knew that I couldn’t walk by on the other side.
It took me a while to track down Claudia and find out what to do, as well as undertaking research what was going on – after all no point in reinventing the wheel if there is another UK body working with partners in South Africa to try to protect small children. So I plagued all my contacts and friends at the Dept of Health and in Child Protection in the UK, then went to South Africa myself to meet Claudia and other people to find out what, if anything we could do from afar to support and work with local folks.
Setting up and running the charity
The company was finally incorporated in March 2005 and the infant trust registered as a charity in May 2005. We submit annual accounts for both Companies House and the Charities Commission
We started with three trustees and have now expanded to 5, all very experienced in health, training or business and two who have very close personal links with South Africa. As founder I am both Chief Executive and Treasurer.
The project work
Following my initial visits and setting about raising some funds I was clear that, above all, we must work in partnership with local South African organisations to enable sustainable change; and training as well as supporting safe havens for the vulnerable children, funding research and community awareness are the most vital things – we do give grants, but they are very small and only one-off. Initially I was determined to keep away from the whole HIV/AIDs bandwagon but it is blindingly obvious that HIV/AIDS has a huge impact and makes thousands and thousands of small children extremely vulnerable once they have no biological parent. It also rapidly transpired that communities, and women in particular, feel very disempowered and although they see terrible things going on around them they don’t know what to do, or who to turn to. Evidence from our many training programmes now show us just what women [and men] who have skills and knowledge can, together do to change things. It is one of the most amazing things to see and to be part of.
By 2008-09 we had a total of 21 projects agreed; they ranged from a tiny project to a single programme training over 90 people. 16 projects were completed, or continue successfully, with the remaining 5 either falling by the wayside or having to pause due to the xenophobic violence in South Africa earlier this year. In 2009 – 2010 we have 21 projects underway, most with existing partners or known linked projects. Many are very small projects and, although we must keep in touch with small grassroots projects, we are moving to larger more extensive projects as we have assurances of more funds.
I believe that one of the real factors of our successes so far has been my very personal connection and growing relationship with the organisations we partner; this enables me to visit, to see, to watch, to listen, to think and to work together with our friends to undertake new work that is vital in protecting children both in the short and the long-term.
We are already developing three major training projects over the next three years aiming to train around 600 people – indeed the first one started in November 2008. Alongside this with the additional funds we expect to raise will be other training projects, funds for baby homes, stipends for people working in ECD / safe havens / outreach teams and some for research.
Now we know what works, and what makes a real and sustainable difference we concentrate on setting out to protect small children concentrating on:
1. empowering women, and men and communities
2. areas where small children are even more vulnerable due to the HIV/AIDS epidemic
We have, up to now, concentrated our work mainly in the north of the country to consolidate our partnerships; because of good developing relationships with local services we next will expand to the Cape area.
Governance
We have a properly constituted Board with regular meetings with a set agenda including finances, projects, fundraising, and publicity actions. We have a set of policies that are highlighted on the website and we record everything, have robust and noted debates and our trustees keep a weather eye on activities, projects, fundraising, income, and expenditure.
As a Board we meet every three months and the meeting in July or September is our AGM where we sign off the accounts and reappoint any trustees whose time is due –we reappointed the original three trustees in September 2008.
Funds & Fundraising
For most of the first year we worked on donations from family, friends, trustee fundraising, and some basic external fundraising. From the outset funding has been made available through a single donor for my travel – initially in air miles and subsequently through ring-fenced donations specifically for my travel. This has enabled me to build relationships and plan projects, small at first, with our partners in SA and has been absolutely critical to our growing success.
During that first year I wrote and submitted 36 external funding applications all to no avail. Our big initial breakthrough was in February 2006 when a single donor was so moved by the plight of the small children that we were offered a very large donation spread over 3 years. After that we started to gain more and more donors.
We now gratefully receive funds from all over the place and have a very treasured relationship with Bright Future Trust [ http://www.bright-future.org.uk ] and the faith and support shown to us by one of our Patrons, Dr Chai Patel; and the other philanthropic organisations - the Joffe Charitable Trust and Persula [ http://www.persula.org/aboutus.html ].
Our band of donors who regularly support us or who set-up standing orders grows all the time and we are endlessly grateful for the faith placed in us by these generous people.
Publicising our work in the UK
We publish a bi-annual newsletter in print and circulate it through Royal Mail. It is well received and, to date has more than covered its costs through the additional funds it attracts. In October 2008 we were shortlisted for Guardian Small Charity of the year; unfortunately we didn’t win but to be shortlisted from over 600 charities was a real boost for us
We have amazing support for our website which is tirelessly managed, at no cost to us, by Gay and David Jennions – it is regularly updated and we receive copywriting and design advice from Abbe Opher … another of our critical friends! We know the website is visited by many people from NZ, USA, Aus, SA, and UK. Whoever you are, and wherever you are – welcome!
Who does the work?
Apart now from a paid book keeper, an accountant who does the financial sections of the annual report, a fundraising / organisational development specialist who acts as my mentor and some expert marketing/profile raising skills all the work is freely undertaken by me. In this I am supported by the trustees who, with all their amazing array of skills and expertise, effectively act as a challenging group of critical friends
Apart from the other website and publicity expertise and advice we have external support from our Patrons who promote our ‘cause’ whenever they can.
Our trustees take various roles:
- Liz – visits SA and our projects with me about once a year.. she self funds her trips.
- Linda – keeps a keen eye on all the governance issues, she is raising funds through running the London marathon and making connections with the footballing world.
- Lindsay – is involved in the strategy and fundraising at a corporate level and is setting out to link into her huge network of South African friends.
- Mike – has knowledge of the issues in SA as he visits regularly and has expertise in training.
- Jane MacKay – is our newest trustee and is a Child Protection specialist with experience as national Chair for Serious Untoward Incidents. She has a high profile, excellent contacts and will bring rigour to our Child Protection work; she will be involved in the strategy development work.
This all means that we can spend 97% of all donations on our project work with partners in South Africa.
So now to the future
In the light of our steady growth and development, and with good processes in places, excellent partnership arrangements and a breathing space to think about our future it is time to plan for the next stage, whatever that may look like.
We will keep you posted
Lesley Rudd
Chief Executive
the infant trust
Lesley and Claudia at Melville House, Johannesburg. April 2005