The email from Children in Distress:
Good Afternoon

Children in Distress would like to thank you for the donation of 65 blankets.

From the happy faces on the photos you can see the joy the blankets brought to the children.

Children in Distress is a community based NPO. We have been looking after elderly people and vulnerable children in the greater White River area since 1989.

We operate through this non-profit organization, namely Children in Distress, with NPO number 088-246

We are currently looking after +-3 000 orphaned and vulnerable children and their 226 Care Givers, who are in distress due to poverty and the HIV Aids pandemic. These children are being cared for by relatives and distant relatives or elderly people with little means of support. They live in the Mganduzweni, Jerusalem, Cho cho cho, Phola. Mcogbaneni, Chweni, Kabokweni, Daizenzai and Phelandaba areas in Mpumalanga.

We are currently feeding these families with cooked meals on a daily basis, Monday to Friday, as well as supplying mealie meal and beans, clothes and a little something extra on a monthly basis for over the weekends. We also provide clothing for the children when the need arises.

The poverty stricken in the various communities are also encouraged to come and have a meal at our centres.

As an organization we are committed to our program on a long term basis, this being until the children leave school and are self-sufficient, thereafter when they will be replaced by other vulnerable children who are in distress. We believe in seeing to their physical, educational, emotional and spiritual needs, ensuring that they grow up and become social economic contributors to their communities.

Our experience is that it best for the children to stay in their communities with a “care giver”. We have found that the nutritional state of the foster families is often very poor so they are glad to accept orphans who have an assured source of food. Our foster parents are often elderly people with no pension or visible means of support, apart from what they can scratch together out of making mats and beadwork (as example). In fact, far more than +- 3 000 lives are being affected on a daily basis through the provision of food.

WISH LIST:

Stationery – glues, A4 paper, crayons Abacus for each child etc.

Toiletries (dignity packs for all)

Running costs for all of our projects

A full time nurse, social worker, field workers

Warm blankets and jerseys every year for our children and caregivers

Any donation to our annual Christmas Party for the children

COMPUTER & LITERACY TRAINING PROJECT

We have started a computer course with the children and caregivers, teaching them computer literacy, math skills, English reading, word association,

sentence structure etc This course works on auditory discrimination, visual discrimination, auditory short term memory, visual short term memory, concentration and your 30 high frequency words (40% of all text)

Education extended

Early Childhood development. Lego and math book programs were started to assist the Children.

BENEFICIARIES:

The beneficiaries of this project are 3 000+ children (this depending on various factors which result in either a decrease or increase of children) ranging from 1 year old to 21 years old, as well as the 226 care givers they live with.

ONCE THE CHILD IS ON OUR BOOKS:

The point leader will then:

See to the sick, abused etc. informing the social worker or nurse, so they can visit the individual

Personally check on children’s welfare

Pray for them and get them counselling when necessary

Make sure they are clothed, have received their food, blankets, clothing etc.

Make sure they are attending the feeding centres, school & church

Follow up on any queries that the main office has

They are also at the centres every lunch time filling out an attendance register

CHALLENGES

Our biggest challenges at the moment are:

The water situation in the areas, The lack of running water at our centres

Consistent funds to cover all overheads

MAIN OFFICE:

All data is processed at the main office and stored on a computer program designed to keep track of our children and their care givers.

Spot checks are done on our centres daily by office staff.

We ensure that our cooks at the centres are trained and that the kitchen and centres are also kept clean. We make use of unpaid volunteers at each family care centre – that in return receives a food parcel once a month and their children benefits from the programs at CID

We grow as many vegetables as we can on the properties, for which we use the volunteers for each centre.

We have trained Point Pastors that work with our care givers, teaching them on different topics, encouraging them and giving them counsel when necessary.

If you need any more information please feel free to contact us on the following

numbers:

Office: 082 466 2154 (08:30 – 16:00)

Project Manager: Lauren Weitsz 083 273 8636

Thank You.

Marthina Duminy

Distribution : Children in Distress

0824662154