At the organisation’s recent annual general meeting, chairperson Mrs Heather Hart, said the organisation’s finances continue to be well-administrated.
“Finances still remain our biggest concern. We are vulnerable to budget cuts from the department and we have to rely on the community to assist with our shortfall,” said Mrs Hart.
She added that the Lotto seemed to be on-board with assisting the organisation again.
“We anticipate a slightly larger donation in the coming year but we are in real need of a specialist to assist in funding, especially in the area of company social responsibility funds. We hope that someone out there knows someone who can step in and help out,” said Mrs Hart.
It costs roughly R100 000 a month to run the organisation, which only receives R60 000 from the department.
Child Welfare South Africa – Edenvale – is left to self-fund the remaining R40 000.
This is done through school fees and paid for social services by those who can afford it.
Donations received also help cover the shortfall.
During her report back for the past year, Mrs Hart said social welfare or development could arguably be one of the most crucial ministries in South Africa.
“When one considers its role in poverty alleviation with some 16-million of a population of 55-million relying on social grants, often to survive, one can appreciate its importance,” she said.
“Within its portfolio of services, it is the ministry tasked with managing and reducing drug and alcohol abuse, addiction, child abuse and neglect. It sees the combined effects of these manifesting in and around our towns and townships,” said Mrs Hart.
She said that because the department is underfunded and failing seriously in its mandate, the plight of orphans, addicts, the elderly and vulnerable continues to worsen year after year.
Mrs Hart also spoke about the dire shortage of social workers in South Africa.
“The minister admitted in Parliament that South Africa needs 66 498 social workers just to implement the Children’s Act. Yet we only have 16 164 social workers registered with the South African Council or Social Services Professions as of June 2013,” she said.
The main function of the organisation is to render a range of social services to those in need.
“With regards to social work, our long term cases include monitoring the many foster homes under our jurisdiction while short term cases include abandoned babies, child neglect and abuse, child custody and access cases which puts severe strain on our resources,” said Mrs Hart.
The organisation’s outreach into primary schools where social workers are made available on a part-time basis to counsel children or families continues to be a valuable service.
The programme has been the key in identifying possible problems timeously so that necessary interventions can be put in place.
“Unfortunately, our regular outreach programme to the Makause informal settlement has come to an end, mostly as a result of a lack of resources,” said Mrs Hart.
The past year saw significant changes to the Pinocchio Edu-care Centre, which started with the early retirement of Loni Brown its then-principal.
“Another transformation was brought about by the renovations undertaken by a donor who wished to remain an unsung hero. Paving, carports, new gutters, plastering and painting were done to make our premises look brand new,” she said.
She added that the centre also realigned its focus, from an all-day care centre that also provided early childhood development to the educational side only, by reducing its operating hours.
