Project: I am Special Ministries

I am Special Ministries focuses on children from Gr R – Gr 7 in five different schools from Kraaifontein, Durbanville and Ndbeni. Most of the children in the schools are from under privilege communities. They need to realise that they are also SPECIAL not because of who they are or where they come from or even of what they do - they are Special just because God made Them.

Our aim is to help children realise that they are special, for the love of God is not only ours to keep, but His to Share. And who better to share it with than the leaders and followers of tomorrow. We mostly focus on children from deprived and underprivileged communities. We don’t want to change their circumstances or promise them a better life, but we want to inspire them with hope and guidance. With both school-based skills and biblical principles, the curriculum teaches a child to keep up with the mainstream and to succeed in all areas of life. We visit every child once a week, spending quality time with each one by playing games, creative art, storytelling, ministering, loving them and showing them they are special.  This is an ongoing project every day during the school term hoping to help 2 000 kids.

Project: I am Special Ministries - Winter School puppet show

The Bridgetown Moravian Church is having their annual Winter School on the 3rd of July, ministering to children during the school holiday, and also a way to help keep children off the street during this holiday by means of a weekly programme.

I am Special Ministries are going to do a Puppet show on the 3^rd of July for the children - helping them to realise just how special they are.

Project - On top of the library

Perivale Primary School in Grassy Park:  Most of the learners come from an economic – deprived area of Marble Flats, Ottery where unemployment is high and the school struggles financially. Gangsterism, crime and overcrowding are three of the most common obstacles encountered daily by learners at this school. Perivale also receives a low subsidy from the government because they are situated in a better off part in Lotus River, but the children who feed into the school are from close surrounding areas that are more disadvantaged. This creates a problem at the school as they do not receive enough money to run the school effectively which is evident if you look at the state of some of the classrooms, an old non-functional library. Upgrading the library will assist in creating a culture of reading and empowers reading learners to become independent learners and to participate in a global society.

Levels of change - Renovation: Cleaning the library, sorting the books out, new shelving, painting, attractive environment for learners, bean sacks etc. - Donation of books: New books for intermediate (Grade 3,4,5) and senior phase (Grade 6,7) Mostly story books, comics, magazines - Operating library Librarian, cataloging to books, categorizing, library policy, afterschool programs and reading to learners.

Project: Ray of Sunshine house

Candice and a few individuals from work and church have been involved in the Ray of Sunshine house.  This house is situated on a smallholding in Klipheuwel, where children in need live and play to their heart's delight in a safe and loving environment. The home takes in abandoned and abused babies.  Some of the children stay for a very long time and one of the little girls have even been adopted.  Even though they cannot adopt them all, they are blessed, honored and fortunate to be able to make a difference in this world, by changing and enriching these children's lives.  There are 14 children (from newborn to toddler) at any time at the home.

They need to secure the home that they are currently renting and constantly need baby supplies etc.  Candice and a few individuals would like to be able to do more and would like more people to become aware of their needs as an organisation.  They would like to buy products and clothing for the children and put money towards their building fund.

Contact Candice ctcandi@gmail.com if you would like to assist her with this project.

Old Mutual: PROJECT

Project update: 


Old Mutual personell will upgrade the rape room at Vredenburg Hospital to be victim friendly.  They will also assist in upgrading the forensic social worker room at Vredenburg Child Protection Unit (at Saldanha SAPS) to be child-friendly.  The opening of these two rooms will take place on 11 June 2012.

We are proud to announce the upgrading of two important rooms on the Cape West Coast. The victim room at Vredenburg Hospital and the room of the forensic social worker at Vredenburg FCS (based at Saldanha SAPS) was upgraded to be victim/child friendly by the Old Mutual Staff fund and the St Helena Church. Murals were done in both rooms and they were furnished with carpets, toys, linen, furniture and more.  The St Helena Church as well as Akkerdyk Church in Vredenburg will adopt the hospital and FCS unit and give support to officials and children and also to supply comfort packs to the victims. These facilities will assist 150+ children every year.

Active primarily in the Western Cape and Gauteng, Matla a Bana funds and maintains child-friendly abuse reporting facilities, offer specialised training for law enforcement officers, courses in forensic medical examinations for medical practitioners and train and support social workers so that they are better equipped to deal with child abuse cases. Matla a Bana also spearheads advocacy and child abuse awareness campaigns and the provision of comfort packs to child victims of rape and abuse. Matla a Bana assists more than 13 000 child victims of sexual abuse and rape each year. Matla A Bana is the only legally affiliated NGO to the South African Police Service who has a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU).

Old Mutual Employees across in Cape Town and JHB gave 67 minutes of their time in honour of Nelson Mandela who celebrated his 94th birthday on 18th July 2012. Employees spent time making, decorating, painting and packing special comfort packs for girls between the ages of 4-8 and 9-12 who have been abused. Matla a Bana distributes the comfort packs to Family Violence, Child Protection & Sexual Offences (FCS) Units nationally. Children reporting incidents of rape and sexual abuse, are given comfort packs at the police stations or FCS units to help address their emotional, physical and emergency needs. Old Mutual Employees also spent time making emergency, waterproof sleeping bags for homeless and destitute people. The bags are made from newspaper and plastic. This project was run regionally and more than 200 sleeping bags were made by Old Mutual Employees across the country.

This project was a success in many ways. 1. Old Mutual and Matla a Bana joined forces to pack 3000 comfort packs which will be a source of comfort to 3000 children who have suffered abuse, and are brave enough to report it. 2. Old Mutual employees walked away from this experience a little wiser, extremely moved, and hoping that their small contribution will make a difference in the life of a broken child. 3. Because of the number of comfort packs Old Mutual employees were able to pack, Matla a Bana will be able to distribute comfort packs to the SAPS FCS units around the country; for at least 3 months.

Project - Little 2 much

Through the Little to Much project, True North desire to create a new generation of school ready children by supporting early learning initiatives within vulnerable and disadvantaged communities. During 2009 and 2010 a pilot project has been undertaken in the Vrygrond and Overcome Heights communities, situated near Muizenberg in Cape Town. Through a process of data gathering and interviews four home-based crèches were identified as requiring immediate assistance. These crèches currently have approximately 250 children in their care, many of whom could be classed as “high risk” due to extreme poverty, disease and deprivation which threaten their academic, social, emotional and spiritual development. True North currently provides educational resources, structural improvements to buildings and facilities, guidance regarding training opportunities for teachers as well as ongoing support and monitoring. In tandem with these efforts valuable information has been gathered regarding the social dynamics within these communities, specifically as it relates to the education of young children. Our Goals The goal is to transform these schools into professional and well managed facilities with adequate premises and high standards of education, including nutritious meals and other essential basic needs. True North aims to create a safe learning environment for all pre-school children under the care of fully trained staff. A high value is also placed upon the education of parents regarding their unique role within a well-rounded approach to early childhood development. The ultimate goal of the Little to Much project is to ensure sustainable change and growth. The initiative will be extended during the three year period from 2010 to 2012, ultimately serving as a model for the transformation of other home-based pre-schools within the community and adjacent geographic areas.

Elmethra de Bruyn have offered to help design material for any campaigns they might have or giving art classes to small kids.

4KIDZ: PROJECT

4 kids called 4KIDZ, from Welgemoed Primary School saw the charity Fisant Superkidz Educare Centre on the blog, was motivated by the Double Up SA challenge and wanted to help them.  They know what a highlight their birthday parties are in their lives, so they have decided to host a birthday part for the kids at the centre - and give a special gift to those kids who have a birthday in July. Nellie turned 4 and she got a beautiful doll - which she did not believe was hers! They also took pizza (Roman's Pizza from Durbanville brought this), muffins, sweeties, juices and blankets for all. First the kids were very scared off them. One little boy could not stop crying, even when they gave him a Chomp. But the good news is that he was playing soccer with them 5 minutes after all the crying! When they were there, Miss Joan showed them her computer room - which only have two very old computers. They asked Radio Tygerberg to ask their listeners to help - and guess what - someone donated a computer!
They planned on helping 20 children and did just that!  The products and services they got sponsored for the first party is estimated at R800 plus the computer. They will definately continue with this project and is going to do this every month for the next year. When they saw all the happy faces, they knew that they did good. And that is all that is important. And also that they could play together and be happy together.

Ramsay media comfort packs: PROJECT

Ramsay Media's Cape Town staff collected just short of R2 000 - an amount matched by the company - and then put aside time to assemble bright, cheery packs comprising facecloths, toothpaste and brushes, pencils and notebooks, colouring-in books and crayons, juice, biscuits, underwear, balls and teddy bears, which we tehn handed over to representatives of Matla a Bana and SAPS.

The need of the charity was comfort packs for boys rape survivors under 12 as they go through the ordeal of reporting the crime.

They planned on helping 200 kids and with the help of some of their JHB colleagues assisting with 75 packs, they reached their goal of helping 200 children between the ages of 4 and 12 years of age.  80 Volunteers assisted with this project of the 13th of July and the project will continue as they have decided that this will be their company's annual Mandela Day initiative.

The consider their project a success as child rape (and that of boys in particular,the focus of our efforts this year) is heartbreaking. By focusing our attention and our efforts, we will make the ordeal of reliving the trauma when recounting it to police a little less daunting for these youngsters - our comfort packs will make a difference.

Project - Madeleine McCann

Graham Perry will be helping to finde Madeleine McCann who is now 9 years old.

Help us - Matla A Bana, a voice against child abuse

We supply comfort packs to child rape victims via SAPS. We need packs for small and medium boys and small and medium girls. Most of these kids have been raped by someone they know.
Visit www.matlaabana.co.za for more info. Contact matlapr@mweb.co.za or Mariken on 021 913 9107

PATCH/Helderberg Child Abuse Centre: PROJECT

Daily, there are on average, two children sexually abused in the Helderberg area. The majority of the children reported to PATCH are young girls, the youngest being only 6 months old. A total of 370 cases were reported to PATCH last year. Receiving therapy after an incidence of child sexual abuse is of the utmost importance and PATCH staff members have seen the positive impact it has had on the children they come into contact with and therefore wish to continue for years and years to come.

In response to the tragic yet preventable problem of Child Sexual Abuse, PATCH implemented an accessible and FREE Therapy Project available in the Helderberg to all children under the age of 18 years. Therapy is free of charge to all racial, religious and status groups, each child will attend an hour of therapy once a week for a minimum period of a year. The key factor in the success of the project is that the therapeutic service will be given by our suitably qualified Social Workers who are supplied with the necessary equipment and facilities needed to enable them to carry out their work.
PATCH planned on receiving an average of 580 reports of child sexual abuse with only 300 children who would continue to receive therapy once their case of abuse had been assessed and PATCH assisted 370 children (between the ages of 0 - 18 years of age) through therapy during 2011.

PATCH is an existing project and has been in operation since 1992, therefore this project has been a continuous one for the past 20 years. In the past ten years, PATCH has seen a dramatic increase in the number of child clients receiving therapy in the Helderberg. This is seen in a positive light as the more children who disclose their case of sexual abuse can receive the therapy needed to deal with their trauma as well as assist in the conviction of their perpetrator(s). More than 400 children receive free therapy from our registered social workers, almost 200 children are supported during medical examinations to collect evidence and over 6 000 children are reached by our prevention efforts every year. We are proud of our services and we do believe that we are making a difference in the lives of sexually abused children.

Fisant Superkidz Educare Centre - Help us

This charity looks after babies from 0-1year and children from 2-6 years. They feed them 2 cooked meals per day and 2 snack times.They need  any kind of donations no matter how big or small will be highly appreciated. Our biggest challenge at this stage is OUTDOOR play equipment.
Contact :  Joan Reid: +27848351504