Sponsor's update from Cape Town
26/03/2008
Update from Spring 2007
We extend a warm greeting from all the children, youth, management and staff at the SOS Children’s Village Cape Town to you our sponsor abroad. It is with great appreciation that a report of this nature is once again submitted on services rendered at this facility since our last facility report during November 2006.
The Cape Town Village was exposed to a number of highlights and challenges throughout the first quarter of 2007. The purpose of this report is to celebrate and share these highlights and challenges with you, our sponsor.
One of the biggest highlights of 2006 / 2007 is without a doubt the SOS Cape Town youth girl who completed her studies at the SOS SOS International College in Ghana. She past her IB2 level at the end of May 2006. She was awarded a scholarship to study Psychology at the Luther College in Iowa, USA, and left for the USA on 4 September 2006. She has settled in well and is starting to adapt to new cultures and practices.
We are proud to announce that we have successfully added an additional eight children to the SOS Cape Town family during the first quarter of 2007. We care for 105 children at present in our 15 different family houses. Four young ladies have moved from the family houses to the girls’ youth house during April 2007 and four young men have moved from the family houses to the boys’ youth house over the same period. Since the last facility report we have successfully integrated and reunified eight family house children with their extended biological family members in the different communities throughout the Western Cape Province.
The youth girl who studies at the Swaziland International College has successfully completed her last phase and has enrolled for her IB2 level. The youth boy who studied at the same facility was unfortunately released from this school due to the possession of illegal substances. The SOS Cape Town Child and Youth Care Team, after various discussions and consultations with this boy, decided that it will be in his best interest to be enrolled at a drug rehabilitation programme. He decided however, to leave this rehabilitation programme out of his own accord. He is presently being assisted by the Village to seek avenues to further his academic qualifications.
Our boy who studies at the world renowned Drakensberg Boys Choir has progressed in accordance with his academic abilities. And our child who first obtained a Grade 12 qualification at the end of 2005 completed her studies within the Professional Chef “Environment”. She is progressing well within her field of business studies to enable her to one day open up her own guest house. She enjoys this challenge and is prepared to first work in the hospitality field to enable her to one day realise her dreams.
We are pleased to announce that the two youth boys, who we reported on in the previous facility report, who were in Grade 12 during 2006, both passed. The one youth boy is enrolled at a computer company and studying towards a computer technology qualification, whilst the other youth boy is enrolled at the University of the Western Cape studying towards a Bachelors of Arts qualification. We have fully integrated two youth boys during December 2006. The one youth boy finished his course in Boiler making and is now permanently employed within the open labour market.
The other fully integrated youth boy is employed at a ministry for the homeless and destitute. He is a staff member at this ministry and enjoys his work as a chef at this placement.
The SOS Nursery School at the Village have 80 pre- scholars for 2007 which comprises of 63 children from the surrounding community, 4 scholarship children from our Family Strengthening Programme and 13 children from our Village. The Nursery School Staff continues to seek opportunities to work closely together with the Family Strengthening Programme in focusing on Community Development through education. They have already hosted one training workshop during 2007 with Nursery School Teachers within the surrounding communities. A successful Parent Child Workshop was completed at the nursery school this quarter.
It was, once again, our Judo children who took the honours in the category: “Children excelling in sporting codes”. Six of our children participated in National Ranking Tournaments in Stellenbosch, Wynberg and in the S. A. Championships in Bloemfontein.
The children of the Village made us proud with their performance of the “African Dream” at the Annual Village Celebration. They also excelled at the combined athletics event with other Children’s Homes.
The SOS Children’s Village, Cape Town, hosted the National Directors from Ghana and Ethiopia respectively, together with the National and Deputy National Director from South Africa during February 2007. SOS Cape Town also had 2 Paediatricians doing volunteer work at the Village. They completed a medical profile of every single child in our care and at the same time did an educational workshop at the nursery school. The Village also recently hosted the Administrator and Vice Rector from the University of New York with some of their students and we will continue to build this relationship.
The Village was privileged to entertain and host fifteen Regional Directors during April 2007 as the Continental Directors meeting was held in the “Mother City”. The Village provided technical support and entertained them through song, poems and dance by SOS children, Moms and Aunts.
The Village held a very successful Reach for the Stars Event on 3 March 2007. A number of SOS and community children and youth were acknowledged due to their achievements in cultural, sport and academic fields. The Moms and Aunts were complimented as their children’s behaviour at the function were extremely good. The Village held a Valentines dance for the twelve years and older children at the Village. Children from four different Children’s Homes attended this function.
It was once again a privilege to share and give an overview of “Village Life” at the SOS Children’s Village Cape Town.
On behalf of the children, youth and staff we would like to, once again, take this opportunity to thank you our sponsor for your continued and loyal support to our children and facility. It is important to take note that without your contributions, in whatever way, we as the staff would not be able to render these quality services to orphaned, abandoned and destitute children accommodated at the SOS Children’s Village Cape Town.
We salute you and wish you well for the remainder of 2007.
Yours sincerely
Dawie Marais
Village Director
Child sponsorship update from Nelspruit
Update from April 2007
It is autumn in South Africa, this is depicted from chill air in the mornings, days are getting shorter and nights cooler than usual. Tree leaves are gradually changing from greens to vivid colours of gold and red. The Nelspruit SOS Children’s Village is abuzz with activity, there are sounds of children laughing, screaming in excitement and happy chatting.
The village is growing in leaps and bounds, eight children were admitted to the village since the last report. In total we have seventy six children in the village, thirty nine of which are boys and thirty seven are girls. Most of our children are doing well and are very happy. We have been fortunate to partner with a local medical doctor and a psychologist who are rendering remedial support to our children at reduced rates. This has to a large extent reduced strain on our multi remedial expenses; most importantly we are grateful for the positive change this contribution has made to the lives of the children. Three new enthusiastic SOS Mother Trainees have just joined the organisation bringing the total number of child care workers to eighteen SOS Mothers and Aunts.
It is however unfortunate that crime is threatening the security of our SOS families. In the past three months, we have had three burglaries. These happen in the houses during the night when the families are sleeping. The affected families are traumatised by these incidences and have had to be referred for psychological support. We are pleased to report though that through community mobilisation, the Nelspruit police are now patrolling the community and crime is subsiding.
Of the seventy six children in the village, two are in high school, forty six in various primary schools, thirteen in a special school; nine are in the SOS Kindergarten and six are toddlers. The pass rate in the academic year 2006 was ninety three percent; this is attributed to the tireless efforts of the SOS Mothers and educational programmes in the village. The children that are struggling with school work are enrolled for Special Educational Needs (SEN) classes wherein literacy and numeric lessons are taught. We are optimistic that the pass rate will increase at the end of this academic year.
The village has reached yet another academic milestone, on the 20th March 2007, two of our girls received awards in the form of trophies for the Best Academic Achievers 2006. They were selected by the Department of Education, Nelspruit circuit. Both girls, in grades two and seven respectively are ambitious and have a positive attitude, they were not short to encourage their peers to take their school work seriously.
Our SOS Nursery School is striving towards self sufficiency. All children are fee paying. Enrolment is currently at forty eight children, nine of which are SOS children and thirty nine are community children. The two nursery school teachers are also involved in community outreach programmes where in they mentor preschool teachers in the neighbouring disadvantaged communities. These ten preschools are adopted by our Family Strengthening Programme (FSP). The nursery school teachers provide expert knowledge through workshops on lesson planning and creative arts.
The FSP is an initiative to prevent child abandonment through three keys of self sufficiency, namely, material support programmes, ability of caregiver to provide child care and sufficient family resources. With this concept, the orphaned, vulnerable child (OVC) gets support in his or her own community. We are currently reaching out to four hundred and eight families consisting of seven hundred and twenty one children and three hundred and ninety four adults. The beneficiaries get support in the form of emergency food relief, scholarship for preschool children, school uniforms and stationery. Alternative parents (caregivers) are equipped with child rearing skills through workshops on child care and parenting. Self sufficiency projects are established to ensure that these families reach a point where they can stand for themselves.
We are proud to report on the successes of one of these projects. The beadwork project, now consisting of sixteen women, started last year, it has grown to be a corporative clamping its feet towards independence.
It is through your relentless support and commitment that the orphaned and vulnerable child has found a home to live his/her childhood the way it should be lived. Thank you once again for your kind generosity.
Soka Jameson Matlala
Village Director.