• To provide each child with access to appropriate developmental and therapeutic care
• To empower, support and facilitate capacity building within families and community
• To provide opportunities for the children and young people to learn necessary skills to meet their needs and that of their families.
• To mobilize ourselves to impart knowledge and skills to families and communities so that people can feel empowered within themselves and help to bring about changes.
We receive a subsidy from the Department of Social Development that covers approx. 45% of our costs.
The Types of Services the Project provides and Those Who Will Benefit
Besides the physical nurturing, love and security so important to these children, it is the intervention by means of counseling that is required to help them reach their full potential and break the cycle of abuse and poverty from where they come. This counseling would be either individual or in group sessions i.e. life and social skills, conflict resolution and capacity building. Outside of our own resources of in-house social and child and youth care workers, we utilize the services of volunteers, NGO’s and CBO’s. These would include Rape Crisis, Safe-line, Child and Family Unit, Adolescent Unit and SANCA, hospitals and clinics. This project is fully committed to the concept and practice of Individual Treatment & Development Program.
All our children access schools in the community. Presently we send our children to 12 different schools across the Peninsula because schools in our district cannot accommodate them. The implication is that we need to transport 80% of the children to and from the schools, 10% travel with public transport and the rest walk to school. The costs over the last 2 years doubled because of the rising costs of petrol and diesel. The costs for ALL the pre-school and
Gr. R learners need to be paid and there is no exemption for these learners. Some children in the social welfare system have a backlog in their learning ability and need to be placed in special needs education programmes. The costs for all children attending special needs schools also has to be paid as there is no exemption for these children.
An important facet of our services is the Family Reunification Programme. With this program we have succeeded in reunifying many children with their families. The aim is to have full re-entry of the child into the family system, which affirms the child’s membership in the family. This program is not only valuable for the children but also for the families and communities.