Current Funding Needs
Masonwabe Preschool
Masonwabe Pre-School
Funds Needed: $26,500 a year, includes salaries for 3 teachers, daily food for 60 children for 10 months and curriculum.
Status: 28% funded for 2012.
Overview: Masonwabe Pre-school operates on the Canzibe Mission, serving 60 children aged 3-6, about 25 percent of whom are orphans or come from vulnerable living situations. The pre-school has three classrooms, one teacher in each room.
See video of Masonwabe Preschool in action
At recess, playing South African version of "Duck, Duck, Goose"
Masonwabe After-Care
Funds Needed: $18,600 from May 2011—2012, includes, salaries for two teachers, a cook, and a daily meal for 20-40 children, including school holidays.
Status: 50% funded.
Overview: The after school care program launched in May 2011 at the Canzibe Mission to provide a safe, structured place for children pre-school through Grade 4 after school until 5 p.m. The number of children who attend varies from 20-40. The program is designed to provide help with homework and nurture psychological, social, spiritual, emotional, and physical needs of the children, most of whom are identified as orphans or living in vulnerable conditions.
Child Sponsorships
Funds Needed: $875
Status: 100% funded
Overview: Aviwe is the oldest of five children. She lost her single mother in 2006 when Aviwe was 15 years old. Since then, Aviwe has had a constant battle to keep all five siblings together warding off the advances of certain family members to split them up and access foster care grants for her and her brothers and sisters.
Aviwe is currently staying with another aunt, away from home, due to emotional burn out. She was assessed by a doctor at Canzibe hospital and diagnosed with depression. The appropriate medication is unavailable at the moment. She is also suffering from muscular weakness linked to the depression. At the moment she is incapable of consistent work or concentration due to her emotional state.
Aviwe needs immediate psychological counseling (at least twelve sessions) and an anti depressant.
Vision: We want to help Aviwe to regain her emotional health completely before she lapses into a more severe form of depression. She can make such a valuable contribution to the community as she has shown in her own family.
UPDATE: Janurary 2012: A generous family in Virginia has supplied the funds needed for Aviwe to get the 12-session therapy she needs. We met with Aviwe in mid-January. She was very happy to receive the news that she could go to counseling. The day before we met with her, she received the very good news that a loan came through for her to start her studies at UNISA in Mthatha. She is studying to become a social worker.
Hamburg Social Development Project
Funds Needed: $3,700
Status: 100% funded
Overview: The Hamburg Social Development Project is a community-based organization whose mission is to improve the lives, especially of children, in the village of Hamburg, South Africa. The current project is to provide training and tools for 30 homesteads in Hamburg to establish and maintain their own square-meter gardens.
Update: As of December 2011, 10 members of HSDP were trained in establishing their own square meter gardens. They each then trained 5 other households. Now 60 households in Hamburg have their own square-meter gardens and the harvest has been plentiful. Their next goal is to establish a large community garden on 5 acres of land so that they may provide for themselves, a nursery school, and then turn a profit by selling locally.
Mgababa Nursery & After Care
Salaries: $19,000, includes two co-coordinators, four caregivers, a cook, two security guards and a gardener.
Food: $17,000, includes daily meals for all the children, emergency food parcels, food gardens, staff refreshments
Training/Outings: $14,000, includes life skills training; grief workshops and field trips for children; school holiday programs.
Staff Training: $3,500, includes, early childhood training; civil and child rights and developmental play training
School Uniforms: $750, provides school uniforms as needed.
Total Funds Needed: $54,250
Status: 25:40 has provided $10,000 in 2011. Remaining funded by other donors.
Goal: Fully fund the Mgababa Nursery and Aftercare in 2012.
Overview: In May 2010, 25:40 funded the startup and first-year operating costs for a nursery center in the village of Mgababa for 20 infants and toddlers who are orphans. Mgababa is a very remote, poor area in the Peddie District on the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The care-givers provided the children with a nutritious breakfast and snack, and a structured, safe place to play. The children are also monitored for their health, most of whom are HIV+. In a very short time, 35 children were attending the nursery center and an after-care center began operating in the afternoons to care for 40-45 school-aged children, who also need a meal and a safe and structured place to go after school.
Now in it’s second full year, the center is a magnet for orphans and vulnerable children who crave the attention and safety and nurturing the caregivers provide. The center is outgrowing its space and the teachers are being provided training in child development and grief counseling, as most of these children have experienced the loss of at least one parent.
