EYES on the future

There is a great need for child care in South Africa with 3 500 children being abandoned annually.

Doing their best to help solve this problem is Education Youth Empowerment Studies (EYES), a registered non-profit organisation (NPO) on 4th Avenue, Roodepoort North that takes in children and prepares them for the future.

EYES has 38 children in their shelter and 14 babies between the ages of zero and eight months, all of which have been abandoned and are from impoverished backgrounds. The organisation feeds and clothes the children as well as sends them to school after which they work with colleges to give the children a tertiary education. The children are also helped with finding further employment.

Pastor Shepherd Fasi, the chairperson of the organisation is passionate about his cause saying, “I’ve always liked working with children and helping people”. He works with eight other volunteers to provide for the needs of all the children.

The organisation implores that any churches, organisations or individuals contribute to the running of the organisation through donations of clothes, food or any financial contributions.

According to www.cctvcambridge.org, child abandonment has many negative effects on both the children involved and the community. If the child survives being abandoned, many of which don’t, they face many challenges both physically and emotionally. Without care and guidance abandoned children grow up to be broken, dysfunctional adults. With the help of the community abandoned children can be raised up instead of becoming a burden to society.

Here are some statistics on child abandonment:

– About 8.4% of children in the world are abandoned.

– In Africa there are 60 million abandoned and vulnerable children due to diseases, poverty, conflict and disability.

– Girls in shelters reach puberty an average of two years later than regular children.

– An estimated 1.2 million children, mostly abandoned, are trafficked every year.

– 40 per cent of all estimated births go unregistered world wide.

To donate to EYES contact: Shepherd Fasi on 011 760 1850 or 074 822 0948 or Jenny Rambush on 011 760 6964 or 074 742 5883.

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