Boksburg Child Welfare is continuing to help the children of our community against all odds.
The welfare’s operations recently received a boost after receiving a Wi-Fi sponsorship from a local business, Imagine Internet Protocol Solutions.
“The welfare is an NPO that usually relies on the contribution of the Department of Social Development to keep going.
“With the current economic situation for the last five years, money is tight, so we have to to keep our operational costs as low as possible,” said Vanessa Naidoo-Pillay, director of Boksburg Child Welfare.
“We have three offices in Boksburg and have up to 45 staff members as we are one of the biggest child welfares in the Ekurhuleni district.”
The local welfare used to buy airtime and data to access online banking and emails, but this proved to be extremely expensive.
Naidoo-Pillay said the sponsorship is making their day-to-day job so much easier, as they can now also purchase new laptops that will be able to update software regularly, which they were not able to do before.
“We’ve had full Wi-Fi connection in our head office since last week and the other two offices will be connected soon.”
Bradford Lotriet from Imagine told the Advertiser that they were pleased to help the local welfare.
- Subsidy reliant
Child welfare is reliant on government subsidies, and where there is non-payment, as in the case of the Benoni Child Welfare, then such an NPO suffers.
“We usually also receive subsidies for both our child protection project and our HIV project,” said Naidoo-Pillay,
She stressed non-payment of subsidies has been ongoing for a few years now.
“We are, however, able to continue with the child protection project, which is also one of our biggest projects, due to other sponsorship and fund-raisers.
“If non-payment continues for whatever reason, it will definitely cause extreme difficulty.
“I sympathise with the Benoni Child Welfare, as I completely understand the stress and struggles that goes along with a financial crisis. After all, Boksburg Child Welfare was there not too long ago.”
According to Naidoo-Pillay, issues with subsidy non-payment and the lack of funding highlight the determination and commitment of the staff of child welfare, who are willing to work hard and protect the community’s children even in times of desperate financial stress.
“It is extremely difficult. Although staff of child welfare work towards a good cause, they still have families and responsibilities to take care of.
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