PIETERMARITZBURG CHILDREN’S HOME

 (Operating as Pietermaritzburg Child and Youth Care Centre)

 002 213 NPO

2002/014771/08 NPC

ANNUAL REPORT

2016 / 2017

“Investing in the Best Interest of each Child in our Care”

PCH OBJECTIVES

1. To provide residential care, observation, assessment, and treatment programmes for children and youth admitted to PCH.

2. To facilitate the provision of normal and special education for all children and youth admitted to PCH.

3. To ensure the medical well-being of all children by facilitating the provision of information / relevant material to staff, children and youth and by hosting life skills sessions on all health related issues including sexual behavior, sexually transmitted diseases (STD) and all other matters relating to HIV/AIDS.

4. To provide our children with the opportunity to enjoy social, spiritual and recreational activities within and outside of PCH.

5. To create opportunities for the Child Care Workers and volunteers to receive training and develop further in the field of Child Care.

6. To create opportunities for PCH to assist in educating unemployed persons via knowledge dissemination, on-the-job training on Child Care and providing them with relevant experience in order to help them seek employment, and increase community involvement

CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT

It is my pleasure to present my report to you. PCH is a place of hope for the many children that walk these corridors. It is a sanctuary where the combined team of Staff, PCH Trust and Executive members try their level best to nurture and guide their young charges.

 There are other individuals and organisations that do not necessarily hold positions at PCH, but they are invaluable to us. By this, I mean the many business people, charities, and religious organisations that time and again step in to give the children treats, clothes and meals on special occasions. We owe these organisations and individuals our sincere gratitude. It is our hope that these partnerships grow and flourish.

 Our children give glowing accounts of their involvement in activities such as canoeing, playing soccer and watching professional soccer matches, as well as introductions to yoga and interactions with a study tutor. Indeed the children are being taught responsibility as they also manage the tidying of their living space and even assist with fundraisers such as jumble sales.

 Our Staff and Board Executive members are to be congratulated for the sterling work done in the period concerned. The recent Mandela Day activities displayed our children’s talent, mannerisms and appreciation to others for all they receive. Their sense of confidence and well developed abilities to take ownership of their lives, walking this hard, sometimes lonely journey at such delicate ages in their lives must be acknowledged and respected. However they are never alone, because they are blessed to have the PCH team to walk this journey with them.

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We owe our heartfelt thanks to the Community Chest and all donors throughout the year, for their commitment and financial assistance to us. We are busy finalizing the last bit of building upgrades with funds from the National Lotteries Commission. Today we can boast improved accommodation for our children and office staff. The improved space is dignified and gives children a sense of belonging and worth!

We have achieved much despite serious challenges that seem to befall with every financial year. Our children are doing us proud at school. Some have travelled to conferences and held their own there. It is no secret that the economy is less than ideal at present. It is most disappointing to note that the Department of Social Development has found it fit to currently withhold their social work subsidy from PCH. The mind boggles that a Department, that purports to develop those that are in need, chooses to be a stumbling block in our development! We would find a slight reduction in the funding more palatable, if the weak economy was the deciding factor. A total withdrawal of the funding, in our view, tantamounts to an abdication of duty and abandonment of social responsibility. We will trust that this matter will be reviewed accordingly.

In the meantime PCH remains open, actively focused on quality child care, and will continue to do our best to serve our children.

I wish to thank every organisation and individual for unwavering support for us. In addition, I thank the Broader Community for investing in our children and giving them that push.

I thank the staff of PCH and the PCH Trust as well as our caring Executive Members.

Mr. A.E.O. Jasson,Chairperson

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GENERAL MANAGERS REPORT

I have great pleasure in submitting my annual report for the 2016 / 2017 financial year. Whilst we planned for the wonderful celebrations linked to our 130 year anniversary, we were also very mindful of the forthcoming economic setbacks and the impact of this climate on our institution.

As we celebrated 13 decades of continued services to vulnerable children, we proudly acknowledged the great strides that were made in promoting Child and Youth Care work as a profession in our country. Even more significant was the fact that PCH was part of this beautiful journey, imputing into regulations, debating child care issues at provincial and national levels, and ensuring that our voice was heard as a key role player in this sector.

Thus with regard to professionalism, PCH could proudly be one of the first facilities in PMB, to initially get our child care staff registered in 2015, and continue the renewals with the Council for Social Services in 2016.

Our priority at all times is to ensure that we meet the legal and moral obligations that we have to our children. In stating this, we acknowledge the role of the Department of Social Development who play this significant role of monitoring and evaluation our organization to ensure compliance in terms of the regulations and the Children’s Act.

The Management team continued focusing on 3 main aspects that were streamlined the previous year. These were: the up-skilling of all staff, increased focus on specific developmental programmes, and priority placed on educational achievements.

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Whilst, at all times our overall priority is to ensure that we are creating a safe, secure and enabling environment for children.

• Up skilling of staff:

Our child care staff continued with weekly operational meetings and regular in-service trainings on child care and safety issues eg Fire Safety 101. We were also able to expand on our opportunities and send staff out to several external trainings that have increased their knowledge base. Some of these trainings included: adolescent trauma counseling, toy recycling, perma-culture, behaviour management, professional assault response training, childrens’ stories using genograms, cybercrimes, deaf awareness and emotional intelligence.

Core Sector training in Child and Youth Care remained a key focus. Another proud development initiated by PCH, was the advocating for FETC training to take place in PMB, for which PCH remained the venue site for all modules. In February 2016 the first module began with 7 staff initially from our facility, and as we progressed PCH had 12 staff in training. Our general worker used the opportunity and joined in the training. In the financial year under review, clusters 1 and 2 were completed as scheduled. What is worthy of noting is that despite PCH being unable to secure funding for this training, our dedicated staff members diligently made their monthly payments from their small salaries!

• Focus on developmental programmes:

In terms of our programmes I must commend all our staff for the great strides we have made. We are proud to note that we have some innovative, consistent and effective programmes in place such as recycling, paddling, first aid (PMB division is now coordinated by our very own staff member), organic farming,

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and computer literacy. Likewise there is constant nurturing of children’s hidden talents, which are very evident during internal activities and special events through-out the year such as Heritage and Youth day.

I acknowledge the support of external ambassadors who have offered us invaluable knowledge and life skills such as Avenal (St Johns) for First Aid and and Kelvin (Duzi Canoeing) for paddling. I must also thank Crickmay and Alert Engine for the allocated programme funding that allows our initiatives to be sustained.

• Educational achievements:

A sincere effort was made this past year to strategize on opportunities to ensure a better academic performance from our children. I must commend the learners from St Charles, Hilton College, Varsity College and Cordwalles Preparatory School, and volunteers from Love Incarnate for regular interactions in order to tutor, read and offer educational support to them. We also introduced a tutor who has been consistently working with the seniors from 2016, and a steady improvement has been noted.

In relation to the children’s sector, we continued to actively engage with colleagues through the Naccw Sub- regional activities. The Principals and social workers, child care practitioners and youth met more often. PCH allowed our venue to be used for numerous of these activities as well as hosting the monthly trainings for the FETC in Child care.

Our facility remains a training environment to students at tertiary level. We have nurtured students from social work, social auxiliary work, public relations, and administration faculties offering them the opportunity to learn child care.

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Active child participation always remains a priority, and we continued with our 4 youth representatives developing the confidence and leadership skills via the sub regional youth forum meetings and camp, 1 of them attending the KZN regional youth leadership. All 4 were given the opportunity to attend regular Board meetings to voice children’s concerns.

As an institution we remained actively involved with several forums in the sector that advocate for improved service delivery through their lobbying for adequate and appropriate funding to be allocated from Department of Social Development. As much as we appreciate the allocations from DSD, we were still not awarded any increase in the per capita costs for the past year. We however were finally allocated the much advocated for funding for our allocated social work post.

We have continued to receive financial support from the Pietermaritzburg and District Community Chest, Ken Collins Trust and several corporate donors that have allowed us to continue to render services. We are awaiting some funds from the National Lotteries Commission, however there are no allocations to support our operational expenses, which is a current concern. I convey my sincere appreciation to all of them and also take this opportunity to thank members of our Trust, Board of Directors, all staff, and the Management Team for their continued dedication and love for the work we do. We pay tribute to all well-wishers, friends and regular donors throughout the year, for taking time to be with and offer their time for our children.

God Bless,

Fiona Balgobind, GM

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CHILD CARE REPORT

Greetings to everybody, it is my pleasure to report on the Child Care activities for the past financial period. Our aim is to nurture the individuality of each child in our care, through guidance, wisdom and positive influence. This can be achieved by utilizing a structured program that takes into account the children’s needs as a group and as an individual.

In the past financial year, Pietermaritzburg Child and Youth Care Centre accommodated 99 (28 new) children between the ages of 4 and 20 years. Children are placed into cottages according to their age groups, i.e. junior girls Little Angels (primary school), junior boys Cartoon House, senior girls Real Dreamers (high schools) and senior boys (Brothers Inc).

Our child and youth care workers (CYCWs) are responsible for the holistic care and development of every child in our care. The Child Care Manager has been ensuring that the CYCWs developmental and emotional needs are met through regular in-service trainings, weekly supervision sessions.

The Pre-interview meetings have been very beneficial to the CYCWs, because then they get to understand the background information about the child that will be coming into our care. The Pre -interview meetings are attended by the Social worker, CYCWs from the unit that the child will be admitted into, the Child Care Manager, the child concerned and the designated Social worker. The monthly unit meetings are also helpful and still continuing, where the challenges are discussed and staff supported. Our CYCWs also get the chance to attend school meetings and conduct home visits that helps them to have a holistic understanding of the children under their care.

In the past year 25 children were reunified with their biological family and some with their extended families through the reunification services which is an integral part of the program and is the joint responsibility of the placement agency and ourselves.  The reality is that the family home circumstances often take more than two years to improve therefore our children remain in care until permanent reunification is possible. This can be a long process, as relationships are rebuilt by allowing the child and

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family to spend time together, starting with day visits, weekend visits, then holiday visits and eventually the child returns to the family permanently. 3 children successfully completed their Pre-vocational level and they received their skills certificates. We currently have 6 children in pre-school and 2 Matriculants.

Our children have been actively involved in several programmes at the community level. This included local events in Woodlands sports clubs, several church related events, and joint programmes e.g. important days in the calendar together with other CYCCs.

The programmes for the above period included the following:

– Developmental Program:

24hour physical care, access to appropriate schooling and education, family reunification and reintegration within the shortest possible time, assistance with disengaging from the program, promotion of children’s rights, mastering of age appropriate tasks, life space work

– Therapeutic Programs:

Developmental assessment, Individual Developmental Plans (IDPs) for each child in our care, Case Conferences, individual counseling of children, and referrals to specialized services, home visits, family meetings, dealing with the daily needs of each child.

– Recreation:

Events included outings to various recreational sites, participation in numerous sports events within and outside of PCH, including the annual Naccw Youth Sports Day. Children were also treated to many visits and fun activities by community members.

– Educational:

PCYCC is privileged to have an outside tutor who is helping our grade 10-12 with their school work on weekends. The feedback has been positive.

Love Incarnate is helping our children with homework on Wednesdays and Thursdays. I’m pleased to report that our children have taken full advantage of this opportunity.

I am pleased to report that our book club is continuing well and our kids are enjoying the FUNDZA books, which we receive quarterly.

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Life Skills:

May’khethele skills programme: ran a program with the unit 4 girls, they did 11 sessions from September to February 2017.

Happy Earth Project: The garden club members are active weekly with weeding, watering, collecting mulch, mixing saw dust and compost and harvesting. The nursery wall made out of 2litre bottles and wire is complete and working well, we have our seedlings in there. Some have been propagated. Our children have attended Pietermaritzburg Botanical gardens to learn more. Our products are now being sold to the public.

– Paddling: 7 of our children attended Paddling lessons at the Duzi River on Saturdays. The paddling coach reported that he is pleased with our children’s progress and they now know how to paddle individually.

– Spiritual:

Our children attend Overcomers and CRC churches. Juniors attend Sunday school at the AFM church in Woodlands. Some of the church activities enjoyed are an Easter conference, with an International guest and live music band, Bible quizzes, and the motivational talks.

– After care:  K. Nzama passed all his 3^rd year subjects, he is doing his 4^th and final year in Law at UKZN. (PMB Campus)

D Tsomela is trying to keep up with her 3^rd year in BCom Accounting.

1. Dlamini is currently working at Sanlam as a Financial Advisor.

3 learners from Newton Pre-vocational school were awarded their skills certificates, 2 are employed and 1 is still applying and looking for work.

2018. Khumalo, is working at Nkondeni, and plans to study via UNISA in 2018.
2019. Astor is working at Pannarottis at the Mall.

Some Highlights for the year:

– 4 Youth Representatives were elected, Mandisa M, Snegugu G, Nokuthula Z and Muzi M.

– 13 Young people (yp) who are part of the First Aid Program were invited to participate in the Comrades Marathon in Durban (Kingsmead Sahara Stadium) as First Aiders.

– Muzomunye N. was privileged to be part of the soccer team that jetted of Dubai to participate in the international tournament and they emerged victorious. Pillars Football Academy is now the Dubai 2016 Super cup Champions under the coach Kurt Mac Kenzie.

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– 30 Children were invited to Maritzburg College for a Theatre production.

– 3 of our Youth Reps attended a Leadership Youth Camp at Ashburton, with Lucia Mdletshe who is a Youth Coordinator for the PMB Region.

– 7 of our children attended a Dare to Dream camp in Richmond 27-2 July 2016.

– 6 of our young people attended a career guidance day at Varsity College.

– 14 of our young people with 2 Child Care workers went to Durban Children’s Home to celebrate a Youth day with other CYCC’s.

– 10 of our young people attended Kwasizabantu church camp with 1 CCW.

– 20 of our young people were welcomed as Cadets at an enrolment function that was held at PCH.

– Bongani M. attended a soccer tournament in East London.

– Child Care Manager and Social worker were part of the CINDI INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH Project: Loss of Parental Care Index. This research involved a very indepth process of identifying the underlying reasons why our children have been placed with PCH, and produced some interesting background information on our children. More significantly it allowed the team an opportunity to understand how well prepared, if at all, they were in terms of their placements, and their understanding of the reasons for such removals from their own homes.

– 15 of our young people were part of the team that packed food at Campsdrift for a Stop Hunger Campaign.

– 4 CCWs and the Social worker benefited from a Deaf Awareness workshop, and in-service was conducted with the rest of the staff.

CHILDREN ARE VERY IMPORTANT TO US, WE WILL CONTINUE TO TREAT THEM WITH CARE AND RESPECT, BY ENSURING THAT THEY ARE LOOKED AFTER TO THE VERY BEST OF OUR ABILITY.

CARING – IS OUR SECRET WEAPON.

Ntokozo Mhlophe,

Social Worker

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Financial results as follows:

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Mr. M Achari, Treasurer

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