Project Report
| Jul 6, 2020
Miraculous Providence and Enduring the Unexpected!
By Faith Abrahams | Communications Manager
![There's Always One :D #PhotoBomb]()
There's Always One :D #PhotoBomb
Dearest TLC Tribe,
We hope you and your loved ones are all keeping safe and well. <3
Apologies if you are reciving this in duplication from your contributions to multiple of our projects. We accidentially sent this update to an expired project instead of our active general project "Support a Baby, Build a Family". It is important for us to send these updates out to make sure our valued supporters are all receiving up to date news and that we keep our GlobalGiving profile in good standing. Please comment or rate our projects to help us in this regard it is truly a great gift to us when you take the time to engage in this way. <3
Well, what a year it's been! One where we are continually and astoundingly blessed and provided for. Our cup runneth over with gratitude and love.
We had barely sent out our last report announcing our plans to move when the unexpected and severe effects of the international response to Covid-19 started to hit the world. It has been a crazy couple of months here at TLC while all "business as usual" ceased and we started making provisions to keep our little ones and our caregiver team as protected as possible from the risk of coronavirus infection.
This meant that many of our staff were sent home for the first few months of lockdown, while a number of our dedicated caregivers selflessly put their hands up and offered to weather the initial lockdown onsite at TLC, away from their own homes and families. Miraculously we have been blessed to be able to survive this extended lockdown and are slowly beginning to resume more of our regular operations as the lockdown eases. However, things are certainly far from "normal".
During this time placements all but ceased, and dispite being at full capacity we were desperately requested to take in more babies as our nation saw and increase of babies and children getting abandoned by desperate and destitute mothers. With much serious consideration we decided to answer the call and have taken in 4 newborns during this time. They came to us as tiny little wimpering bundles and we have been amazed at how quickly they have chubbed up into gurgling little cherubs. We have also found a silver-lining to the lockdown, in that our babies and children are absolutely settled and flourishing in this much more contained and predictable environment, where they have had the same set of loving caregivers for weeks on end. This is definitely a great opportunity for learning as we set in new operating procedures in our new home.
Speaking of which, of course, this has all had a major impact on our moving plans. Whilst undoubtedly necessary, the lockdown set us back quite a bit financially. Much of the funds we had reserved for the the move were diverted to weathering the severe lockdown restrictions here in South Africa, and ensuring that our little ones maintained their consistency of care by providing for the caregivers staying onsite during this time.
Nevertheless, we are confident and hopeful that the amount is quite manageable to fundraise for and are preparing to extend a call to action, mobilising and guiding our international family of supporters in helping us raise there funds through their own networks. The amount needed to help us start this phase of TLC's new journey debt-free will be R1.8 million (about $105000). We will be formally announcing our fundraiser for this at our up-coming virtual Mandela Day Event, so be sure to keep an eye on our social media pages for when we announce this.
As always we are so incredibly humbled by your consistent and courageous support.
If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or feedback I'm always eager to hear from our valued supporters.
Blessings of health, security and peace to you and your loved ones during these uncertain and unsettling times.
With Heartfelt Thanks and
Kind Regards,
Faith
P.S. Please take the time to give your recommendation rating of TLC's project below. This is such a grate way to help us get more visibility on GlobalGiving. <3 Thank You!
![Sunshine and Smiles]()
Sunshine and Smiles
![Play Time]()
Play Time
![Bouncing Baby Boy]()
Bouncing Baby Boy
Links:
Mar 6, 2020
A New Decade - A New Beginning!
By Pippa Jarvis | Managing Director
![Baby Bums]()
Baby Bums
Dear Friends,
Thank you for your patience in our over-due report to you all, our treasured supporters! We just noticed that we mistakenly sent your quarterly report to the wrong project! Oops!
As always we are so incredibly grateful for all those who believe in our work and decide to support our home. It is literally what keeps us going and able to continue providing love and quality care to the little heroes in our home. For those who are able to pledge monthly support this is one of the greatest gifts we could ask for in helping us to realistically predict our financial sustainability from one month to the next.
In the past few months we had to say some difficult and heartwrenching goodbyes as some of the little ones in our home were placed in their forever families as well as one of our oldest charges was transferred to a home that will be able to better provide for her severe special needs. It definitely put strain on all our hearts, but, as the seasons of life and love continue without rest in our home we are always reminded of the need to focus our attention on the vulnerable babies who need us in our home. And just before Christmas we welcomed 4 newborns into our home, and they have been such sweet delight. It is always such an honour to play this vital role of support in the foundation of their little lives. Thank you for helping us in achieving this.
In other news... We have a big announcement to make. TLC is moving.
It’s been just over a year since TLC communicated that it was going to have to close its doors. But thanks to your unwavering support and real commitment we have survived another year! Thank you so much! We are confident that your longstanding support reflects your interest in our efforts to keep, the important work TLC does, going. We encourage you to read this note with an open heart and mind.
2019 was a difficult year and the Management Team and our deeply committed Board have had a long hard look at the issues we face and how to make our home more resilient in the face of these many challenges. I am happy to tell you we have found a way but it is a big deal and so here I am sharing with you some of the details around our plans to move TLC Children’s Home from its home for the last 22 years.
A move of this nature is a big decision and was not one made lightly. The current TLC premises represents not simply just our home, but also a significant part of who we are, as it may for you. We have memories here that are interwoven into our very selves. We have invested the deepest parts of our hearts into making this place “Home” for hundreds of babies when they needed us, and we did a lot of soul searching before coming to the realisation that we could still do that but from a better location.
We have been communicating our biggest challenges for years now, and they remain our financial sustainability and our physical security.
After a rigorous year we believe the best shot we have of continuing the important work we do is to move the Children’s Home to a smaller, more safely located premises, not far from our current site.
By reducing the size of the property, we would naturally reduce the expense incurred in its maintenance, staffing and securing.
The additional benefit is that the property we have identified is in a “secure suburb”, (an area with restricted access) and on a panhandle property buffered on 3 sides by neighbours. It is a much more secure environment and not near the Informal settlement, where our current, continuous crime incursions stem from.
By staying within a 10-minute drive of our current site we preserve our local support base and maintain our government registration which depends on us providing our services in the area.
We really hope you will support us during this transition and that you may even consider going out of your way to help us grow our network of supporters so that we can mobilise as many resources as possible to make this happen quickly.
We will be able to literally pick up and move our operations as soon as the site is ready, so from that side there will be minimal expense.
The bigger challenge of course is to raise as much of our goal of $330 000 (R5 Million) as possible to cover the costs of the purchase and renovations to make the property work as efficiently as possible for our purposes. We are already working hard at nurturing some great construction and supplier partnerships, which is helping to bring down costs considerably.
I know it seems like a lot, but we are going to make a push for it so that the loan we are securing from the bank can be as small a burden as possible.
Please join us in putting your thinking cap on and let’s find a way to keep TLC working!
We love and appreciate your support so much. Please feel welcome to connect with me directly if you’d like to talk through any ideas or if you just want to chat about things.
Hopefully yours
Pippa Jarvis
Managing Director
pippa@tlc.org.za
![As The Sun Sets]()
As The Sun Sets
![A Long Road]()
A Long Road
Links:
Dec 2, 2019
'Tis the Season of Blessings
By Faith Abrahams | Communications Manager
![Christmas Angel]()
Christmas Angel
To Our Treasured Supporters,
As the year draws to a close we would like to send out a massive Thank You to all of you. Your contributions towards our work have made a HUGE impact on our ability to make it through this difficult year. Without your support we would not have made it through this year. As the seasons have changed, TLC has also started to contemplate new and exciting changes for our future. We can't wait to share the news with you soon, but for now we'd like to share what's happened in the past few months.
While placements of our little ones into families are frustratingly slow we have place a few of our precious ones in to families and over the past few months welcomed 3 newborns. While our day to day lives are filled with all the joys and dramas that come with fullitme, family-focussed childcare our team are always pushing themselves to do their very best on all fronts.
On the 5th of September Joanna (our CYCC Manager) and Pippa (Our MD) attended the Hope and Homes Seminar.
There were many great lessons shared throughout the day, but the main thoughts I came away with were shared on TLC's LinkedIn Page:
"The key to implementing the strategy of De-institutionalisation is strengthening the links between all stakeholders! Families (both biological and Foster families) must feel and be supported by an accessible, competent and comprehensive support system that is flexible enough to find individual solutions for the complex nature of the human condition. We are excited to be part of the South African Child Protection support system and are always looking for ways to reach across to bridge the gap where need exists in our community. We have always believed that Families are best for babies... And we will continue to support and strengthen families to make this happen!" - Pippa Jarvis.
Beyond this we have also been trying to raise the the profile of TLC to get much needed exposure in hopes of expanding our support base. We had a few great opportunities to talk about TLC on local radio a few times recently. Click here to listen to these interviews on YouTube. Remember to subscribe to get notifications sent to you whenever we post new content.
We also recently decided to enter the sme.africa and Sasfin unseen heroes competition a couple weeks ago. We never imagined the kind of amazing support we'd get from so many people rallying around us to help us realize this amazing opportunity of winning prime billboard space! We were able to get to 2nd place in less than a week!
We are completely blown away by the support and want to share our deepest, heartfelt thanks to each and every person who has helped us get this far! We really hope we can get to the number 1 spot and maintain it until 16:00 on the 3rd of December.
If you haven't voted and shared yet please do! Share the below image with your friends and family over to encourage them to vote.
And Lastly, in the build up to Giving Tuesday we have posted a couple Adopt-A-Cot Video Visits between a selection of our Adopt-A-Cot members and the babies they sponsor. It has been a truly beautiful opportunity to facilitate these meetings between our little ones and the people who are personally invested in their well-being.
We will be sending an Project Appeal on Giving Tuesday to ask for a little gift on the day;. If you are able please help us to achieve our target of 100 unique donors on Giving Tuesday.
It is our hope this festive season brings each of you special blessings and joyous memories. Thank you for being a part of our village. We are excited for the future and can't wait to see what 2020 holds for all of us!
As always if you ever have any questions, comments or suggestions I'm always eager to hear from our valued supporters.
With Heartfelt Thanks and
Kind Regards,
Faith Abrahams
![As 2019 Draws to a Close]()
As 2019 Draws to a Close
![The Newest Member of our Family]()
The Newest Member of our Family
![Enjoying the Wind in the Trees]()
Enjoying the Wind in the Trees
![Fun in the Sun!]()
Fun in the Sun!
Links: