ANNUAL NARATIVE REPORT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 2009-2010
Managing Co-ordinator’s Report
Emasithandane had a busy year whereby we continue with the vision of a home/shelter that provides education, food and extra mural programming, for orphans; abandoned, abused and otherwise vulnerable children; and those affected and infected by HIV/AIDS in South Africa. Currently there are 35 children living at Emasi, and the home provides meals for 25 children whose families cannot afford to provide them with food. We also run soccer activities for over 50 children from the community. Emasi celebrate its 6th anniversary this year. We have managed to move forward through the best and worst of times. Working under extremely high rates of unemployment, crime and overcrowding, our children face many obstacles. But despite these problems, our organisation continues to develop new strategies to improve the development and improvement in this community, which are guided by our organisational objectives and vision:
1.1 Transformation and community development 1.2 Providing skills to our vulnerable children in Nyanga 1.3 Securing the future of our children 1.4 Working collaboratively with different organisations
Our Vision
We strive to work towards providing children with the best possible quality of life. To reach this goal, we:
Provide a permanent home for orphans and vulnerable children. Provide a temporary home for children who seek shelter for a short time while their parents try to solve their problems. Provide meals, activities and programmes for vulnerable children living in the community.
Below you will find our annual report from 2009. Please let us know if you require any further information. We thank all our supporters and look forward to an exciting 2010.
Kindly Regards,
Mr Mbuyisi Sithole (Managing Co-ordinator)
A New Building at Emasi
Due to the growing number of children in the community who require our services, our home has become over-crowded. A group of volunteers from Austin, Texas, USA called Austin 2 Africa got involved with Emasi in 2008 and decided to dedicate their time to helping us build a new home. Over the past year, they were desperately working to raise money to renovate and expand our orphanage. In October 2009, the funds were secured and we built a double-story house behind the main house of Emasi. The new house has an office and bathroom on the downstairs level and two bedrooms
upstairs, one for the girls and one for mama Zelphina. This house has made a huge difference at Emasithandane by creating more space.
Progress in Building the House in Philippi
We have been working hard this past year to finally build a new home on the piece of land we own in near-by Philippi. We approached the architect who says that for the house we want, we will need R600 000, however we only have R200 000. Currently we still busy with fundraising the other R400 000. Our plan is to move in by the end of the year. This means we must either raise the additional funds, or scale down the plans, but it is very important that we have the second home soon.
The Children
During 2009 we received three new children from the age 1-2 who were in need of a home. We have not encountered any problems so far yet we still want to help more children in the community. The oldest boy passed his grade 10 and is doing grade 11 this year. We are happy to report that most of our children are progressing at school. The afternoon classes had a huge impact on the children and created an enthusiasm in the children to love their school work. There are two kids who started grade R this year and we are doing much to help them prepare for grade one. We also had three kids who went back to their families this year. In each case there were improvements within their situations at home, so they were returned to their families. Our staff do home visits to check on them regularly to see that they are safe and happy.
Entertainments:
Since day one, we have done our best to make sure that each and every child receives a birthday party, and 2009 was no exception. We also ask our donors to help us put on a Christmas Party or donate presents for the children who many of them have grown to love. And the kids always love it so much. Our wish is to make them happy and feel like children who have parents. Our goal is to be their family.
Giving Back to the community:
We also handed out some food parcels and some of the clothes that did not fit our children that were donated by various funders.
Staffing Updates:
Mrs Zelphina Maposela, remains the acting Founder and Director and oversees the continued implementation of the project. She is responsible for establishing standards for the project, maintaining contact with Emasi staff and administering project funds. She assures progress toward project goals, represents the project in national forums, and directs the work of the organisation.
Mr Mbuyisi Sithole remains Managing Co-ordinator and serves as a resource person. He maintains regular contact with the institutional project managers to resolve problems and issues and to ensure that work proceeds in a timely manner. He oversees the development of quarterly production goals for each project, monitors progress towards meeting the goals, recommends approval of payments to participants, and drafts quarterly progress reports to board of directors for review and approval.
Miss Hazel Maposela remains our Administrator. She provides clerical assistance for the project, such as filing, word processing, data inputting, record keeping, arrangement of meetings, and making travel arrangements. She also assists in communicating with project participants, preparing mailings, handling human resource & financial management, writing monthly & annual reports, office management and marketing of the organisation.
Mr Zamile Ncanywa remains Child and Youth Care worker. He is our soccer Coach and Fieldworker. He helps children understand their common objectives and assists them in planning to achieve their goals. He works to support children to do their best, encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. He enables children to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable futures. He runs workshops with the Co-ordinator and attends school meetings.
Caregivers: the six women remain as our Caregivers to do volunteering work at Emasithandane. They take care of the babies, monitor sickness, accompany children to clinic, cook, dish food, ensure nutritious diets for the children, maintain the kitchen, clean the house and yard. Of the six caregivers, two do the night shifts so that the children are under supervision at all times.
We managed to create a job opportunity, and as a result we recruited one more members of the staff. The workload is easier and flowing. People admire our work in the community that lead to be noticed by funders, companies and by the City of Cape Town. If in the community there is an abandoned child, abused, orphans, vulnerable children, and those affected and infected by HIV/AIDS the street committees of the community as well as the local police station contact us immediately.
Activities and Programmes
Soccer- In 2007 we joined Amandla Ku Lutsha the soccer league. It is design for children living in children’s homes like ours. As a result, we saw their soccer skills and life skills of those participating improve but that did not include all of the community youth that we serve. So we suggested starting another team Emasithandane Football Club that would include all community children. As a result in 2008 we joined Nyanga Local Football Association that gives the youth life skills, promoting their talent to the next level of soccer. The aim was taking them away from drugs and crime activities, and teaching them how to behave on and off the field. The soccer coach holds meetings every Friday with the Children/Youth. He then reports back to management and the management reports to the Board of Directors. Our training sessions run from Monday until Thursday in the afternoons. We have five different teams: under 11 with 16 players, under 13 with 16 players, under 15 with 15 players, under 19 with 18 players and senior team with 18 players.
Under 11, 13 and 15 were the champions of the Nyanga Football Association, they won fist prizes. In September we had a Spring Tournament where under 11 and under 13 were also the champions; they came home with the Cup. In Amandla Ku Lutsha we were participating with under 15 and under 19. Both teams won the league. We participated on one day tournament Would AIDS Day, where the aim was to bring awareness that children they can be safe through soccer. Our goalkeeper received a cup of being the goalkeeper of the tournament. The also received a cup in second prize and T-shirts. Our under 17 participated in Siyaphambi one-day tournament consist ting of eight teams and it was sponsored by the Youth Unlimited. We won the cup, medals, water bottles also our goalkeeper was the goalkeeper of the tournament and our coach received a voucher of R500. The team has received recognition among the community due to the good result and progress. Parents want their children to take a part at Emasithandane because we also teach them about awarenesses and life skills (drugs awareness, HIV/ AIDS awareness, crime prevention and also we do volunteering work in the community whereby we clean local clinics and schools). Our dream is to keep the standard of the team high and achieve more. In the near future our focus will be to uplift the team to the higher level and play with advanced teams.
Drama, Cultural Dance and Music- We promote creative skills because they are critical to the developmental needs of a child. Dance, movement, music and drama allow a child to feel, experience and express. They help sharpen a child's skills of observing, perceiving and discovering. Cultural experiences broaden and deepen a child's insights, attention to detail and nuance, and appreciation of balance and harmony. We encourage our children at school to take part opportunities for dance, music, and drama. We make our home a place where children dance, move, play an instrument, sing, hum... and experience the beauty and vitality of human spirit!
Afternoon Classes- We work with CHOSA (Children of South Africa) to teach general English classes focus on all four skill areas: listening, reading, writing and speaking, as well as the study of vocabulary and grammar. Twice a week, we work with CHOSA volunteers to put on after-school programming for the children. We help them to better understand their school work and assignments.
Trainings and workshops- Workshops are conducted by our experienced management team. Presentations take one-day or less in length whereby we raise awareness in HIV/AIDS and life skills for our children. We provide skills via teaching, direct experiences that are used to handle problems and questions commonly encountered in the daily lives of our children. Our staff members go for further training to other institutions that offer early childhood development programmes and other courses that will boost their understanding dealing with children.
Publicity and fundraising events
Donor Vicci Butler hosted an auction in England this past year to raise funds for Emasithandane.
Meetings:
We held our staff meetings every month, we held general meetings every quarter of the year and the management holds two ordinary meetings each year. We also held an emergency meeting when we needed to take a short notice decision with the board of directors. The soccer coach holds meetings every Friday with the Children/Youth to discuss their current needs. He then reports back to management and the management reports to the greater community.
Funding/Finance
CHOSA approved our proposal of R12 000 per month in September, which helped us a lot in the finical crisis we had. The list of other donors will be attached in our financial year statement.
This is a card we designed to appreciate our funders and supporters
We managed to improve the standard of the organisation; we bought lots of children’s needs like soccer equipment, made workshops and attended training etc.
Marketing Strategies
We did more networking with other organisations that do similar work as us; as a result we received more experience and more partnerships. We sent our staff to trainings at NACOSA so they can get more experience in this changeling industry. Companies saw our website they phoned and come to drop some food parcels such as Woolworths, Hebron International Ministries, ADT, Team talk Media, Liberty food Service Warehouse & Distribution, Umkhombe Bulk Bags (Pty Ltd), The South African Travel CORP, Shoebox Homes, Santa Shoe Box, Dog on Group, Kruiskerk Church Group. This created a harmonious flow in the organisation due to the fact that things were more easer. We had to consult a professional financial officer to do our books, so that we can have an audited statement at the end of the year and it is attached with this narrative report. Emasithandane improved a lot in 2009. We are still continuing with marketing the organisation due to the fact that we have so many activities that are running. We had to promote our children by trying to find ways of giving them a platform by organising events whereby they can perform drama, music and dance.