January 2021 Looking forward with optimism

“Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow” Albert Einstein January is almost over and we all realise that 2021 is HERE and we are back in a New Year to continue to protect and care for children. We thought that 2020 was a year like no other, but we feel the pandemic continuing to grip our country and deeply impact her people. We all know someone who has lost their life to Covid-19 and it feels as if the virus is more real than ever. We want to take this opportunity to honour our frontline healthcare workers who are making such a difference. And we look forward to good news about vaccines and the roll out to combat this disease. Kids Haven learned so much in 2020. What may be surprising to read is that we have gained many new opportunities out of the constraint and levels of lockdown we experienced as a result of the pandemic. We are optimistic in 2021 and looking forward to growth and extending services. A word from our new CEO, Sam Mokgopha: “The COVID 19 crisis situation became an opportunity for Kids Haven to make inroads in other new communities around Ekurhuleni. Under normal circumstances the institution would have taken a long time to access some of these communities. We met the residents of Marikana informal settlement (Springs) for the first time mid-2020. Initially providing food relief, Kids Haven could further establish food garden projects while rolling out Save the Children’s Vikela Nwana project to combat violence against children. In small groups, we were able to implement the positive parenting programme and children’s rights programme and have linked almost all these participants into the food security project. Another 20 teenage girls from Marikana are included in Kids Haven’s GBV programme. This meant taking support from three funders and combining programmes, opportunities and resources to meet a broad range of needs in an area that we had not worked in before. While doing this work in these communities, we came across some of the worst poverty situations that prompted Kids Haven to intervene beyond parent training or child-specific programmes. Kids Haven stepped in to help in building and buying building material for one family living in a shack, building a toilet, donating clothes and issuing food parcels. Our list of late birth registrations is growing and we await a full service Department of Home Affairs to begin resolving the crisis of paperwork for many families. Sadly, migrant and undocumented children were the worst affected during full lockdown and we became deliberate in assisting them with food parcels, especially as they were found to have less network and support during that time. Residents directed violence at these families and youth for being the recipients of food parcels and they had to withdraw themselves to their houses. Their fear of being identified by the authorities prevents them from reporting incidences of violence against them. Kids Haven ensured that we worked with the whole community, and especially identified small community based organizations (ECD’s and churches especially) knowing that they were the closest to the ground. Attitude change and behaviour modification is a process and therefore, consistent support is needed in order to make these changes. We aim for communities to maintain these changes whether Kids Haven is in or out. Violence in communities will be reduced if we only have strong and consistent partnerships. It is our expectation that the crises in 2020 have developed and built relationships in many communities with Kids Haven and that all of these relationships will deepen the positive impact that Kids Haven is planning in 2021.”