Orphanage hopeful funding challenge will be resolved

The founder and director of a Vosloorus-based orphanage home called Dzulani Child and Youth Care Centre (DCYCC), Nelisiwe Nelikau, is optimistic that the home’s challenge of non-funding will be a thing of the past.

This follows the MMC for Community Services (Health and Social Development) and SHRAC Bridget Thusi’s visit to DCYCC to access the condition of the home on June 5.

DCYCC has been struggling financially for the past decade after numerous attempts to apply for funds since its inception in 2012.

Nelikau ran the home from her own pocket with support from her husband. They survived through donations from various donors.

In 2019 the home received a once-off funding of R100 000 from the Gauteng Department of Health.

However, they have never received funding from the Gauteng Department of Social Development (DSD), let alone the children’s grants for beneficiaries who are said to be placed by DSD based on court orders since 2013.

The orphanage accommodated over 100 children in the past decade.

According to Nelikau, some of the children were reunited with their families, some left to further their studies and others were removed by DSD before taking the matter to court.

DCYCC is home to eight girls and a boy aged between five to 13 years old.

After her visit to DCYCC, Thusi tweeted photographs of their meeting with Nelikau with a caption that reads: ‘CoE MMC for Community Services Bridget Thusi at DzulanI place of Safety in Vosloorus, for abandoned, abused and neglected children. The home is compliant in all aspects, but they are not receiving any funds or grants from the provincial government because she refused to pay a bribe of R10000.’

Thusi told Kathorus MAIL that it does not make sense for DCYCC to not get funding from the provincial government given that the home has obtained every certificate from the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) and Gauteng Province, in terms of the orphanage home compliance.

She said that based on what they told her, they only got a lump sum of R100 000 and since then they have been surviving on donations.

She said that even if there is no funding for NPOs, her main concern is that there are children who are supposed to be on grants.

“Where are those funds going?” said Thusi.

She said she has already engaged their member of provincial legislature Beverley Badenhorst to give her the background and she will send her everything in writing and attach DCYCC’s certificates.

Thusi noted that she would like Badenhorst to ask questions to the MEC in the legislature to ask for an investigation on this matter and the MMC must answer questions as to where are the grants for the children going.

When asked what could have been the cause for the lack of funding, Thusi replied that she does not want to speculate until she gets more facts.

She said she would fight for the matter to be resolved because if anything the grants of the children must be paid.

“The worst part is that DSD keeps bringing children without providing funds to sustain them. It does not make sense to me,” she concluded.