Sep 30, 2014 - dedicated Database Administrator (M&E) who has been able to complete ... Although the accidents were
Donor Report April – September 2014
DONOR REPORT: APRIL 2013 – MARCH 2014 DIRECTOR’S REPORT It’s been a good first six months of the year for Thandanani. We have secured the funds we need to implement our planned activities and, by enlarge; staff have settled into our reorganised structure and have been working hard in implementing our projects and activities. This includes our volunteers who have now all been formally contracted as Fieldworkers for 45 hours each month. With our funding having been secured; our restructuring having been finalised; and our relationship with our Fieldworkers having been formalised; we have been able to all our energies at implementation. This has been further enhanced by the fact that we now have a dedicated Database Administrator (M&E) who has been able to complete further development of our database and work with teams to ensure more effective planning in the implementation of our Family Strengthening and Health Outreach activities. Other positive developments in the last six months include the successful introduction of Self-help (micro finance) groups as a new service; increased cooperation with the local Department of Health in the roll out of our Health Outreach activities and a new working partnership with the local Department of Agriculture in the roll out of new household food gardens. Also pleasing was the turnout at our recent Open Day which saw 75 local stakeholders - including Ward Counsellors, School Principals, Local Magistrates, other NGO representatives, learners from local schools and community members - visit our displays in just two hours. On the negative side, we have again been victims of theft at our offices and two of our vehicles have been involved in accidents. Although the accidents were not too serious they did have a negative impact on service delivery while the vehicles were in for repairs. We also received resignations from our Programme Manager, Finance Manager and one Family Strengthening Team Leader during this reporting period. With the exception of the Programme Manager’s post, these posts have been filled on a temporary basis while we finalise formal appointments to these positions. Our Finance Managers post has been temporary filled by Richard Moodley who is keeping our financial cogs turning. Zikhona Dladla has been promoted to Acting Team Leader within our Family Strengthening team and her post - as Auxiliary Social Worker - has been filled by one of our previous Lay Counsellors - Nontsikelelo Mkhize. All these staff have settled into their new roles and disruption as a result of these changes has been minimal. With regard to the Programme Managers position: While we did advertise this post, we have subsequently decided to delay this appointment as we are currently functioning well even in the absence of a Programme Manager and we do have some concerns that we may not be fortunate enough to have our current contract with Lotto, which ends in December, renewed. Our focus in the next six month is to maintain the momentum in our service delivery and to work with our fundraising consultants and our new 4Kids Coordinator, Genéye Starling, to raise funds for the next financial year. In this regard, we have put a lot of effort into our new 4Kids fundraising strategy in the last 6 months. We have conceptualised and developed our 4Kids concept as a means of attracting support for our activities from private individuals and small companies. As someone who is interested in our work we invite you to visit our 4Kids website to find out more about this exciting new initiative (www.4kids.org.za). If you like what you see please help us spread the word by inviting your family, friends and colleagues to visit the website and sign up as 4Kids Supporters! On that note, I would like to end by once again thanking all our donors, sponsors and supporters – it’s your generosity that enables us to reach out and change the lives of the many vulnerable children and families we support. Thank you! Sincerely
Duncan Andrew Director
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OVC/FAMILY STRENGTHENING PROJECT REPORT OVERVIEW: Thandanani’s OVC/Family Strengthening Project involves capacitating and supporting community based teams to respond to the basic needs of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) within their communities. This is done through a structured, holistic and time-limited system of household support that is designed to address basic material, physical, cognitive and emotional needs and move families from a state of vulnerability to increased stability and self-reliance within a two to three year period. Once this happens households exit our system and function independently of our support. This movement of households through our system ensures that families do not become dependent on Thandanani and that Thandanani itself is able to take on new households without creating an unsustainable demand on our capacity and resources. This sequencing of interventions is summarised in the table below. Stage 1: Identification (Months 0 to 3)
Stage 2: Support (Months 4 to 24)
Stage 3: Withdrawal (Months 25 to 36)
Household baseline assessment
Household baseline re-assessment
Volunteer assignment & fortnightly home visits
Monthly home visits
Quarterly home visits
Caregiver placement (needs based) and Document & Grant applications
Grant access & grant usage monitoring
Grant usage monitoring
Emergency food relief (needs based)
Emergency food relief (needs based & until grant secured)
Provision of critical furniture & equipment (Needs based)
Food garden development & support (Voluntary) Access to Self-Help / Micro Finance groups (voluntary)
School attendance & performance assessment
School attendance & performance monitoring
School attendance & performance monitoring
School uniform provision (need & criterion based) Health assessment, education & testing
Health monitoring & treatment compliance support (Voluntary)
Health monitoring
Access to individual or family counselling (voluntary)
Access to individual or family counselling (voluntary)
Family engagement in memory work (voluntary) Access to OVC life-skill program (voluntary) Access to Children’s support group (voluntary) Access to Caregiver support groups (voluntary)
ACTIVITIES & BENEFICIARIES Thandanani is currently providing support, via this structured system of household support and development, to 1409 children and 431 caregivers in 431 households across 6 historically disadvantaged communities. A detailed breakdown of our beneficiaries in the current reporting period is provided in the table below: Beneficiary Numbers as at 30 September 2014 April – September 2014
Total 388
Active Households (At the start of the Period)
77
New Households (During the Period)
34
Withdrawals from Households (During the Period)
431
Currently Active Households (At the end of the Period)
465
Total Number of Households Supported (During the Period) Number of Caregivers Number of Children Number of Other Adults (Indirect Beneficiaries)
Total
Males
Females
18
413
431
752
657
1409
487
905
1392
Males
Females
Total
Children 0 - 5
199
169
368
Children 6 - 10
246
198
444
Children 11 - 15
217
205
422
Children 16 - 18
90
85
175
Males
Females
Total
4
4
Caregivers 18 - 35
11
101
112
Caregivers 36 - 55
4
173
177
Caregivers 56+
3
135
138
Males
Females
Total
Other Adults (Indirect Beneficiaries) 18 - 35
336
486
822
Other Adults (Indirect Beneficiaries) 36 - 55
94
232
326
Other Adults (Indirect Beneficiaries) 56+
57
187
244
Caregivers 16 - 18
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In line with our staged model of household support which is aimed at moving households from vulnerability to increased stability and self-reliance within a two to three year period, 34 households reached independence in the current reporting period. However, we also took on 77 new households during the same period. The net effect being that the number of families supported by Thandanani has increased from 388 on 1 April 2014 to 431 in the current reporting period. The activities undertaken with these beneficiaries in the current reporting period are outlined below: Activity Allocate a community fieldworker to care for and support each household
MATERIAL WELL-BEING
Facilitate emergency equipment of OVC households
Facilitate access to ID documents / Birth certificates
Needs based
Facilitate the establishment / support of household food gardens
Facilitate Access to self-help / Micro Finance Groups
COGNITIVE WELL-BEING
Facilitate access to school fee exemptions
EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING
Up to 100 households per annum
Up to 100 households per annum
Facilitate access to foster care grants
Facilitate the distribution of school uniform items to qualifying OVC's
Outcomes for 2014/15
Between 400 & 500 families per annum
Provide emergency food assistance to households identified as being in dire need
Undertake grant usage monitoring
Number of active households currently receiving support
431
Number of home visits by Fieldworkers
1683
Number of monitoring home visits by Staff
254
Number of households provided with basic household equipment
32
Number of children benefiting from equipment provision
106
Number of adults benefiting from equipment provision
107
Number of households issued with food vouchers
86
Number of food vouchers issued to households
78
Number of individuals benefiting from food vouchers issued to households
556
Number of ID documents / Birth certificates secured
10
Number of Full-Birth certificates secured
Between 30 and 50 applicants per month
Between 400 & 500 families per annum
Up to 100 new household food gardens per annum
Up to 210 adult member of households 0 - 20 OVC's p/a who meet DoE criteria but who are not at fee exempted schools At least 100 OVC's who meet TCF's school uniform item replacement criteria
Facilitate memory work with OVC households Facilitate Life-skills programs for OVC's Facilitate Children's groups for OVC's
Engage caregivers & OVC's in general health and HIV/AIDS awareness & education
Facilitate access to VCT services
Undertake treatment monitoring & support
All school going OVC's (850 to 1000 OVC's)
At least 100 households per annum 180 OVC's between the ages of 11 and 17 120 OVC's between the ages of 7 and 10
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Number of intake interviews conducted
101
Number of new grant applications submitted
141
Number of renewal applications submitted
65
Number of new grants approved
58
Number of renewal grants approved
47
Number of visits involving grant usage monitoring (Fieldworkers)
238
Number of visits involving grant usage monitoring (Staff)
183
Number of new household food gardens established
15
Number of support visits to new food gardens
294
Number of existing food gardens supported
79
Number of support visits to existing food gardens
177
Number of adult members of households joining the self-help groups
31
Number of children benefiting from adult participation in self-help groups
120
Number of other adults benefiting from adult participation in self-help groups
106
Number of fee exemptions secured
2
Number of OVC's receiving school uniform items
7
Number of school visits by Fieldworkers Facilitate monitoring of school attendance and performance
Facilitate Support Groups for Caregivers Undertake general health monitoring of OVC's & caregivers
PHYSICAL WELL-BEING
Targets for 2014/15
300
Number of school visits by Staff
35
Number of children benefiting from school visits
316
Number of caregivers completing Memory Work Awareness Workshops
167
Number of households where memory work has been completed
47
Number of children benefiting from Memory Work
115
Number of OVC's completing Life-skills groups
25
Number of OVC's completing Children's Support groups
43
120 caregivers per annum
Number of Caregivers completing Caregivers Support groups
28
Between 400 & 500 families per annum
Number of home visits involving Physical well-being monitoring (Fieldworkers)
875
Number of families where health education has been completed (Lay Counsellors)
270
Number of children undergoing basic health assessment
559
Number of adults undergoing basic health assessment
549
Number of children offered VCT
553
Number of adults offered VCT
516
Number of children who undertake VCT
450
Number of adults who undertake VCT
338
At least 144 households per annum
At least 432 individuals are tested per annum
Needs based
4
Number of children who test positive
5
Number of adults who test positive
7
Children referred for CD4 Count /TB screening
3
Adults referred for CD4 Count /TB screening
10
Number of children receiving regular treatment monitoring & support visits
1
Number of adults receiving regular treatment monitoring & support visits
3
Highlights: Overview: In the first quarter of 2014 Thandanani reorganised the structure of its Family Strengthening Project Team. Where before we operated on the basis of three distinct “professional” teams delivering services across all our areas of operation; now we operate on the basis of two multidisciplinary sub-teams each tasked with implementing Thandanani’s OVC family strengthening model within designated areas of operation. This reorganisation was completed just ahead of the start of the current reporting period. Despite some “teething problems”, it would seem that this reorganisation is resulting in more coordinated and intentional service delivery to the families currently on our database. This has been enhanced by the fact that Thandanani now has a dedicated Database Administrator (M&E) who is assisting these teams to plan service delivery on the basis of more up-to-date information extracted from our database. As teams settle into this new structure and way of working, we anticipate that this more systematic approach will result in improved service delivery - particularly with regard to the sequencing of services to families. Ultimately that is our goal: to maximise efficiencies in the implementation of our staged model of household support. So far - so good!
Material Well-being: In an effort to strengthen the Material Well-being of the families we work with, Thandanani has initiated some important changes in last six months. Firstly, we have introduced Self-Help (Micro Finance) groups as a new service with the aim of providing Caregivers with access to structured and affordable savings and loans which they can use as seed capital for micro enterprises to strengthen the economic security of their households. These groups have been very well received with 15 groups having been established to date with a total of 283 community members participating in these groups. Of these, 31 are from Thandanani supported households. To date, these groups saved a total of R8708 and have recycled these savings in the form of shortterm loans to a total value of R25,567 (with R11,131 still due for repayment). These loans have earned an additional R2480 in interest and fines.
Self-Help Group Financials: Mar - Sept 2014 30000
25569.5
25000 20000 14438
15000 10000
8708
5000
1447.4
1033
0 Savings
Fines
Loans Taken
Loans Repaid
Interest Received
Secondly, we have employed a specialist with qualifications and experience in urban agricultural projects with the aim of refining and improving the implementation of our food garden development activities. While the full impact of this appointment has not yet been realised a new working partnership has been formed with the local Department of Agriculture (DoA) aimed at strengthening the capacity building component of our food garden development activities. DoA Fieldworkers will now conduct practical training for Caregivers from Thandanani supported households where food gardens are being established and Thandanani’s fieldworkers will then assist these caregivers to establish gardens at their households. As a result, we anticipate seeing both an increase in the number of new food gardens being established and an improvement in the maintenance and management of these on the part of the caregivers as a consequence of this additional capacity building. Thirdly, in terms of processing Foster Care Grant applications, Thandanani has establish a positive working relationship with Edendale Eyethu newspaper who are assisting us in placing advertisements for the “missing” or absent parents of children whose other parent and primary caregiver has passed away. This is a legal requirement in such cases but Thandanani has often struggled to secure reasonably priced advertising for these cases. With the assistance of Eyethu we have placed tracing adverts in relation to 109 such cases in the current reporting period and can now begin to finalise these cases. During the current reporting period, Thandanani received a donation of food parcels and clothing from the local Woolworths store as part of their support for Mandela Day. This donation has augmented our Emergency Food Relief activities and has enabled us to provide additional food relief to some of the families on our database. Physical Well-being: Thandanani continues to conduct basic Health Assessments and Education with families on our database. Many Caregivers are elderly and it is difficult, both physically and economically, for them to access clinics for routine check-ups or to take their children to the clinic when they are ill. With our Home Care Fieldworks monitoring the health of family members during their home visits they are able to alert our Lay Counsellors to possible concerns and Lay counsellors then visit the family to do basic health screening and testing and refer to the clinic if necessary. It is this routine monitoring and screening that family members are so appreciative of, as it saves them having to travel to the clinics for routine check-ups. Families also seem more willing to undertake the trip to the clinic if the screening conducted at the home does indicate the need for further assessment and possible treatment.
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In the current reporting period our Lay Counsellors have done tremendous work in ensuring that health education and assessments have been conducted with almost all active households on Thandanani’s database. In fact, they have already exceeded their annual target and have made up the backlog in the delivery of this service that existed at the start of the current reporting period. This opens up the possibility of Thandanani expanding the health services we offer families. Possibilities currently being discussed include: more intensive treatment support & compliance monitoring; more in-depth education & screening in relation to tuberculosis; more in-depth engagement with families around child nutrition & development (with a particular focus on under 5’s); and more engagement with teenagers regarding sexual health and reproduction. Cognitive Well-being: During home and school visits Thandanani’s staff and fieldworkers monitor the school attendance and performance of the children in the households we support. Through this processes one of our Family Strengthening Facilitators identified a child who was not performing well at school. When she visited the school, teachers confirmed the fact that the child was indeed struggling with her school work. In consultation with the school and the Caregiver the child was then sent for a formal assessment with a psychologist at the Department of Education. The assessment revealed noticeable learning difficulties on the part of the child and, as a result, the child will be placed in a Special Needs school at the start of the new school year. In a similar but more tragic example of the importance of school attendance & performance monitoring by Thandanani; staff recently identified a 12 year old in a newly enrolled family who has never attended school. The family indicated that she did not have a birth certificate because her birth had never been registered and, as a result, she was reportedly not enrolled at school as policy requires a birth certificate for enrolment. The sad fact is that, while policy does require proof of a child’s date of birth for enrolment purposes, no one has – until now - taken the trouble to assist in this situation and secure proof of birth for this child. Thandanani has now assisted the family to secure a birth certificate and has engaged Department of Education officials regarding this case. The challenge now is that the young girl is considered too old to be placed in Grade 1 and the Department of Education has to assess the child and make alternative arrangements for her to begin school next year. Emotional Well-Being: In the last quarter four new Home Care Fieldworkers and one Social Worker were trained to undertake Memory Work with families. This means that all our Home Care Fieldworkers have now been capacitated to undertake Memory Work. We have also started to proactively identify households on our system who have not yet been offered the opportunity to construct a Memory Box and to approach these households. This has resulted in some improvement in the roll out of memory work in the last quarter and we expect to see this continue in the next quarter as our Home Care Fieldworkers are now required to dedicate 8 hours a month solely to Memory Work. Although many Caregivers continue to be nervous about memory work, Caregivers who complete the process often express their gratitude indicating that they are now able to talk to their children about loved one’s who they have lost. It is this improvement in the relationship between Caregiver and child in the processing of loss and grief that is the strength of the Memory Work process, and the reason why Thandanani intends persevering in the roll out of memory work despite the resistance we experience from some Caregivers.
Challenges: Material Well-being: Despite having secured the support of Eyethu newspaper for the placement of advertisements related to the processing of grant applications, we continue to experience challenges in the grant application process. Caregivers sometimes do not keep their appointments with Thandanani or fail to submit the documents required for the grant application submission. In other instances, inefficiencies in the processing of applications by Thandanani itself, the Courts or the Department of Social Development give rise to delays. For grant renewals this is particularly problematic as delays on the part of the Department of Social Development often result in existing grants lapsing with the consequence that a new grant application has to be prepared and submitted by our Social Workers. This results in an increased workload for our Welfare staff and frustration (and often hardship) for the children and families concerned. Unfortunately, other than trying to improve internal efficiencies, many of these challenges are beyond our control. Physical Well-being Although most families are appreciative of the health assessment and testing offered by Thandanani and most do undertake clinic visits when these are recommended, our Lay Counsellors remain concerned that some families do not act on their referrals. This is a worry because health concerns could result in unnecessary complications and, in some instances, even prove life threatening if left untreated. However, Thandanani cannot force compliance and so we are left helpless in such instances Our Lay Counsellors have also expressed a concern regarding the fact that they have come across a couple of instances where teenagers, who have been on ARV’s since childhood, have chosen to stop taking their medication. Our Lay Counsellors associate this with denial in the face of the child becoming aware of the fact that they are HIV positive and their having to deal with the implications of this as they mature and enter their teenage years. Our lay counsellors have responded by providing support and counselling to these youngsters and more frequent treat compliance monitoring.
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Cognitive Well-being Thandanani is currently exploring ways to streamline its attendance and monitoring visits to schools. To date when Thandanani Fieldworkers have visited schools they have usually done so with the aim of monitoring the school attendance and performance of particular children from the households they support. This means that educators may be visited by the same fieldworker on several different occasions during the course of the year as these fieldworkers follow up on different children from the households they support. At the same time, other Thandanani fieldworkers may also request appointments with these educators to follow up on the children they support. This seems like an unnecessary duplication and Thandanani is exploring ways to streamline our attendance and performance monitoring visits to schools. It would seem ideal to be able to meet with educators from a particular school in a single visit to gather attendance and performance information for all Thandanani supported children attending that particular school. However, this may be difficult for the schools to arrange as it would require almost all educators from the school to be available to engage Thandanani on these matters during such a visit. Thandanani intends engaging schools in discussions on this matter in the months ahead to see if we can develop a more streamlined approach to school attendance and performance monitoring. Emotional Well-Being: The roll out of our Life-skills programmes and Children’s & Caregiver support groups has been affected by the recent process of our engaging our volunteers as Fieldworkers. During this process three of our four Home Care Volunteers in one area resigned as they had other work commitments that prevented them from being formally engaged as Thandanani Fieldworkers rather than as volunteers. As a result, Thandanani was forced to redeploy its Life-skill volunteer in that area as a Home Care Fieldworker to help close this gap while we recruited and trained new Fieldworkers. As a consequence, service delivery in this area has been negatively affected including the roll out of our life-skills and support groups. However, with training now having been completed, we expect to see an improvement in the roll out of these activities in the next six months.
Future plans: Material Well-being: To establish more Self Help groups with more members from TCF supported households (past & current) participating in these groups To increase the pace of the rollout of new food gardens. To review Thandanani’s grant processing systems to improve internal efficiencies. To improve the delivery of emergency equipment and food relief and increase adherence to our model’s time frames & criteria in this regard. To conduct further awareness campaigns in communities in which we work to identify new households that are caring for orphans and other vulnerable children and struggling to provide for their basic needs. Physical Well-being: To continue providing health education and assessment to households on our database. To increase compliance monitoring & support for those individuals on treatment. To explore the possible expansion of our health service “package”. Cognitive Well-being: To explore ways to streamline our attendance and performance monitoring visits to schools and monitor the attendance and performance of all OVC’s on our system more efficiently. Emotional Well-Being: To improve the roll-out of our emotional well-being activities including: Memory Work and Life-skills, Caregivers & Children’s support groups.
Case studies: *not their real names Material Well-being: One of our Home Care Fieldworkers recently came across a family of three children whose father, their only parent, is neglectful of them. He seems to be absent much of the time and the children are often left without adult supervision and basic necessities like food. Given this situation, Thandanani’s fieldworker agreed to care for the children on a temporary basis while our Social Workers investigated the situation further. To support her in this Thandanani provided her with food vouchers to purchase food and prepare meals for the children. Thandanani’s Social workers completed their investigation and felt the need to find alternative care for these children. Unfortunately, we were unable to find a foster family that was willing to take in all three children and, not wanting to separate the children, our Social Workers decided to place the children in a Children’s Home. Feedback from the Children’s home is that the kids have settled in and seem to be coping well both academically and emotionally. Only the eldest child seems to needing a little more support in making the transition to the home. Physical Well-being: Ms Dlamini* is a 34 year-old women who is caring for a 5 year old orphaned child Siyabonga*. When our Lay Counsellor conducted a home visit to assess the health of the family, the caregiver informed her that she was on ARV treatment but that she was still
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experiencing significant health difficulties. She also informed our Lay Counsellor that Siyabonga was also losing weight. On the basis of this information our lay Counsellor screen for TB and referred both the Caregiver and Siyabonga to the local clinic as indications were that they may both have TB. The Caregiver did test positive for TB and is now on treatment. Fortunately, Siyabonga tested negative for both HIV and TB. Our Lay Counsellor is now conducting regular treatment compliance & support visits to the family to monitor the Caregivers response to treatment and Siyabonga’s weight. Mrs Sithole* is a 65 year-old Caregiver living with HIV. When recently visited by our Home Care Fieldworker, she was found to be so ill that she had been unable to travel to the clinic to collect her medication. This not only exacerbated her immediate condition but also threatened to compromise the efficacy of her ongoing treatment. With the assistance of our Lay Counsellor, arrangements were immediately made to transport the Mrs Sithole to the local clinic where she was assessed and collected her medication. As a result her condition has improved and she is once again able to care for her 7 year old foster son. Cognitive Well-being: The Malinga* family consisting of 3 adults and 6 children were recently visited by some of our 4Kids Champions (See directors report for more information on our 4Kids Initiative). During the visit, which took place in the early evening, the impact of the lack of electricity was clearly apparent. The house was dark with the only light coming from a few strategically placed candles. As a result, the 4Kids Champions & Thandanani decided to provide the family with a solar lantern. The Caregiver has since reported that they love their solar light and that the children now even do their homework at night using the light. Emotional Well-Being: During one of our recent community awareness campaign one Caregiver shared the fact that two of her own children had recently been killed in a car accident and that she now had to care for her three orphaned grandchildren. In telling her story the Caregiver was clearly very distressed and tearful. She also reported that the children, who are all still very young, keep asking when their mother is coming back. Upon hearing her story, Thandanani staff recognised the need for support and referred the Caregiver to a psychologist. They have also invited her to attend Thandanani’s Caregiver Support Group which will be starting in her area soon. Our Home Care Fieldworkers will also undertake regular support visits to the family to monitor their well-being. One of Thandanani’s newer households consists of 23 year-old Sipho* and his younger brother Sifiso who is 15. They were recently orphaned and had absolutely no means of supporting themselves when Thandanani first make contact with them. Thandanani provided them with food vouchers and assisted them in accessing the foster care grant for which they qualify. They boys are now in receipt of their grant and are using this to meet their basic needs. In addition, Sipho has participated in one of our Caregiver Support groups. During the course of one session he expressed the fact that he and his brother had felt absolutely abandoned and alone after the loss of their parents as no one in their extended family had been willing to assist them. He said they had started to lose hope and were slowly dying inside because they did not know what to do. He said that they really appreciate what Thandanani is doing for them, not just in terms of material support, but also in assisting them to deal with their loss and face the challenges that lie ahead.
Special Projects: School Make-over As a Child Focused NGO, Thandanani has longstanding relationships with schools and crèche’s in the areas in which we work. As such we are well position to identify under resourced schools in these areas and to facilitate “School Make-over” projects at these schools. For several years Epworth Independent High School & Deloitte (Pietermaritzburg) has partnered with Thandanani to implement a number of School Make-Over Projects with the aim of improving the environmental circumstances for learners at less “well off” schools while providing Epworth learners with exposure to learners and environmental circumstances of less fortunate peers. In this reporting period a “Make-Over” was undertaken at the Nqoba Crèche in Dambuza. The crèche has an enrolment of 189 preschoolers and a passionate staff of 7. However, its premises were in need of some significant repairs and the classrooms needed cleaning & repainting. As a result Epworth learners spent 4 days on site revamping the play area, painting and repairing the jungle gym and clearing and painting the classrooms while local contractors repaired the floors, the roof and broken windows. The Nqoba Crèche is now a safer, brighter and more fun care facility for children. So well done Epworth and Deloitte!
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Subz Packs Twenty eight young women from Ingwengele High School in Snathing were recently invited to participate in a talk on sexual reproductive health and were all given Subz Sanitary packs consisting of panties and washable sanitary pads courtesy of sponsorship from J Leslie Smith Attorneys as part of their Mandela Day outreach. The young women were extremely appreciative of this opportunity and expressed their gratitude to the donors and Thandanani for making this all possible.
A photo collage of some of Thandanani’s other Family Strengthening activities:
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HEALTH OUTREACH PROJECT REPORT OVERVIEW: Thandanani’s Health Outreach Project involves implementation of a comprehensive HIV combination prevention program in two Local Municipalities in the uMgungundlovu District (Richmond and Msunduzi Municipalities). Thandanani is one of four organisations in the uMgungundlovu District that are in partnership with the Aids Foundation of South Africa (AFSA) in the implementation of this program which is funded by the United States’ Centre for Disease Control (CDC). The program is focused on three core HIV prevention intervention areas:
Biomedical Interventions: Including voluntary counselling & testing (HCT); voluntary male medical circumcision (VMMC); the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT); and facilitated access to Anti-Retroviral Therapies (ART) via local clinics and hospitals.
Behavioural Interventions: Including general health and HIV education; condom distribution; and education on condom use.
Structural Interventions: Including addressing issues such as Gender Based Violence (GBV), Drug and Substance Abuse, Men having Sex with Men (MSM), and People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) through dialogues and targeted support groups.
All the activities involved in the implementation of this project are provided on an “Outreach” basis with services being delivered directly to community members within their community. The core activities include:
Door-to-door campaigns where HCT, VMMC promotion and Health Education is undertaken, free of charge, within the home
Health Days where general and sexual reproductive health education; general health assessments and screening; HCT and VMMC promotion are provided at a central venue free of charge to community members.
Community & Support Group Dialogues where we engage with targeted participants addressing issues such as Gender Based Violence (GBV), Drug and Substance Abuse, Men having Sex with Men (MSM), and Living with HIV/AIDS in order to educate people on associated risk factors and risk reduction.
ACTIVITIES & BENEFICIARIES REACHED The activities undertaken and the beneficiaries reached in the current reporting period are outlined below: ACTIVITY
Engage individuals in age appropriate health and HIV awareness and education during health days, home visits & Dialogues (VMMC & SRH)
OUTCOMES Number of health days & dialogues held Number of people attending health days Number families where health education & assessments has been completed Number of people receiving health education & assessments during home visits Number of boys (
