Springs and KwaThema Child Welfare is reaching out to the community

Members of Springs and KwaThema Child Welfare held their annual general meeting on Wednesday morning in New State Area.

The NPO aimed to help children who are sexually and/or physically abused in their homes find safety and shelter.

Their team is made up of social workers, who try to remove children from abusive homes and place them in foster care.

The meeting addressed the NPO’s finances, progress reports and challenges that they faced this year.

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The year 2017/2018 was one of the NPO’s most difficult years, with increasing amounts of cases and diminishing funds from their stakeholders.

The majority of their funds come from the Department of Social Development, who have lately told them that they no longer have the funds to fully support the NPO.

“What we need is innovative ideas to get funded to help with our running costs and future developmental programmes, as most stakeholders steer clear of the organisation’s running costs,” says chairman Dario Froli.

Unfortunately, the NPO has also lost many board members due to time constraints and other work commitments.

Therefore, one of their commitments this year is reach out to the the Springs community to get involved in fund-raising, internet exposure, social channels and sourcing new potential board members.

Another challenge is the growing number of foster care backlogs.

Their team of social workers are unable to deal with so many cases and the Department of Social Development has apparently indicated that they do not have the funds to subsidise more social-worker posts.

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This leaves the community with 284 cases involving 294 children, who are unable to benefit from foster care grants.

The lack of funds also makes it difficult to maintain the vehicles that are essential for their operation.

However, the NPO wishes to thank board members Johan van Niekerk, chairperson; Vanessa van Niekerk, secretary; Corne Roux, treasurer; Dario Froli, deputy chairperson; Eunice Mabusa, Pastor Skhumbuzo Nzutha and Chevonne Nortje.

Their continued efforts have been the sole reason the NPO is still afloat.

Social work students from Unisa are afforded the opportunity to work for the organisation as social auxiliary workers while completing their studies.

Volunteers from the recently disbanded Asibavikele project are continuing with their food garden projects, which have been of great help to the NPO.

The organisation is still fully committed to helping abused children find better homes, but they also wish to reach out to the community to volunteer and help them in their efforts in any way they can.