Dear Thandanani Supporter
We currently maintain 3 different projects on GlobalGiving and this particular project (Transform 22 Children's Lives in Johannesburg) has not had any support for over a year and so we have decided to de-activate it. That doesn't mean that Thandanani is changing, or that we don't still need your support, we will still have the following 2 projects where you can support us:
By way of a reminder of who we are and the challenges we face in this upside-down world that our children live in, I wanted to share one final report with you on this specific project.
Thandanani is located in the informal settlement of Zandspruit which is a sprawling mass of shacks which has grown exponentially since we established our children’s home on the outskirts almost 20 years ago. Unfortunately, with the growth of the settlement comes an equal growth in crime which the authorities are challenged to contain, resulting in the residents taking the law into their own hands. The ugliness of this form of so called “mob justice” is what we try to shield our children from, but it becomes increasingly difficult to do so as Zandspruit now completely encircles us, and although we have been spared any incidents involving our children, we have come to the conclusion that we need to find a new location for our home. Of course finding a new location is easier said than done, not to mention that the cost far exceeds what we can afford, nevertheless it’s a challenge that we believe we must rise to.
But it’s not all doom and gloom as we see our children successfully progressing with their education.
And of course as winter approaches we’re now facing our 3rd wave of Covid-19 with the challenges which that will bring. We are extremely grateful that none of our children has contracted the virus to date, but we’re going to have to continue to be vigilant over the coming months.
So we continue to be thankful for all the positives things that we see happening, and we remain confident that we will find a way to overcome the obstacles that face us, and we will never forget you our supporter who has walked a long road with us for which we are eternally grateful, and we trust that you will see your way clear to continue support us via one of our other projects.
Best wishes
Paul
Links:
In my last report I said that “… we were well past the peak of the pandemic … “ but little did I know at the time that the 2nd wave was about to hit us, which it did in December, and our challenges of the early part of 2020 have returned including the challenge of online education. Fortunately our school summer holidays started mid-December and ran through to end-January, so the impact will only be from February onwards.
During the holidays it is always our goal to try and re-unite some of our children with their extended family members so that when they eventually leave us they still have a support base. Of course this is not always possible for a variety of reasons e.g. they were abandoned and the family can’t be found, or the home environment of the family member is not considered safe. But I am pleased to say we were able to re-unite a high percentage of our children this year, even if it was only for a couple of weeks, the only sad part is that it re-enforces the feeling of abandonment for those left at Thandanani knowing they don’t have family outside of Thandanani.
As in any family it’s always sad when a family member leaves, and so it was when our Social Worker (Zandile) resigned in October. Zandile had been with us since 2005 and had become an integral part of the family and a confidant of the children. But there was also a silver lining because one of our house moms (Claudia) had been studying for a Social Work degree by correspondence, and had just qualified earlier in 2020, so it was an ideal opportunity to promote her into the role of the new Social Worker. Of course this caused a chain reaction and left us short of a house mom, but I am pleased to report that we found a lovely new lady (Sibongile) who has come on board and has fitted in from Day1.
So as we move into 2021 with it’s ongoing Covid challenges we do so ever thankful for you, our supporters, that have supported us through some difficult times, and for this we are eternally grateful.
Best Wishes
Paul
Links:
The name of this project is “Transform 22 Children’s Lives” but the Covid events of 2020 were not quite the transformation we were expecting.
South Africa seems to be well past the peak of the pandemic and although the country didn’t survive unscathed, we seem to have experienced a lot less deaths than what were being projected, and most importantly we have managed to keep our Thandanani family free of the virus. This has not been without its challenges but I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Thandanani house parents who have stuck to the task, sometimes at the expense of not taking their off-days (when they were entitled to), so that they wouldn’t be going back into a foreign environment where they may have picked up an infection and brought it back to the home.
The children are now all back at school but it’s definitely a whole new experience for them with stringent measures in place to prevent the spread of the virus, for example some schools are only meeting on alternate days so that they can achieve the correct social distancing in the classroom, and they are obliged to wear masks all the time while at school.
But having said we’re making good progress we nevertheless need to continue to exercise vigilance, and being vigilant means in some instances extra cost for us, for example, children that would normally have gone to school in a mini-taxi (16-seater microbus) no longer do so because of the risk of the virus in that environment, and in place of that we have decided to take them to school and back ourselves, with some schools being up to 20 kms away and the resultant cost of fuel and wear-and-tear on our vehicles.
But we’re not complaining, and we’re extremely grateful that we’re surviving the pandemic, and we owe a debt of gratitude to you our supporters, and thank you once again for every donation whether big or small that has been helping us to survive the Covid-19 challenge.
Best wishes
Paul
Links:
As I write this report we are still in a state of semi-lockdown, with our children just starting to tentatively go back to school, which is being spread over the coming weeks with a grade at a time going back. We just hope that it proves possible to keep them socially distanced, and that we can keep them wearing masks as the current law dictates in South Africa.
Life in South Africa has certainly been a challenge for the last 3 months, not least for our children at Thandanani – imagine keeping 22 kids indoors for the whole 3-month period !!! I take my hat off to our dedicated house parents who have stuck to their task during this time, and have done a sterling job, but who are also very thankful that the schools are starting to open!
Of course education didn’t come to a standstill while we were in lockdown, as every school started presenting online lessons, and Zoom classes. This of course presented us with the challenge of not having enough PC’s or tablets or mobile phones to keep everyone connected when they needed to be, and created an exponential cost in data charges. But we were blessed with many coming to our rescue in the form of PC’s and donations of data.
But Covid-19 has also presented us with another challenge namely a funding challenge, due to the fact that a lot of the money that we would normally have received from corporates has been re-directed to Covid relief schemes, not to mention the fundraising events that we would have run which are now in jeopardy, hence the new project that you would have seen that we launched on GlobalGiving to try and fill the gaps of lost income.
But I have no doubt that we will survive this challenge and come out the stronger for it, and of course we are forever grateful for your support to help us over these hurdles.
Given the current situation I unfortunately don’t have any recent photos of our children that I can share with you, so I’ve included a photo of two of our children that was taken at a cycling fundraising event at the end of 2019.
Best wishes
Paul
Links:
As much as it often distresses any parent when one of their children decides to move out and establish themselves on their own, it is no different when one of our "children" at Thandanani decides it's time to move on, as was the case at the beginning of this year.
Unathi was one of the first children that Thandanani took in back in 2003 when she was presented to us by the police as an 18-month old baby who had been found abandoned on the street, and in December 2019 she graduated from high school!
As much as there is anxiousness at her moving out, there is also a real sense of pride in her achievement, and at the end of the day this is the way it's supposed to be, and this is ultimately our purpose to empower abandoned and abused children to become responsible members of society who can stand on their own 2 feet.
Unathi plans to study further, and she was also fortunate that we were able to find an uncle with whom she could re-unite and has now moved in with him as she embarks on the next phase of her life.
But not all of our children are so fortunate, and when they finish school at the age of 18 we often have to make plans to assist them and care for them until they can find their feet, and be in a position to sustain themselves.
And that is the reason that we are so thankful for everyone of you who have been so generous with your giving, which has allowed us to care for these children who would have otherwise been lost to society.
Best Wishes
Paul
Links:
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