ANNUAL REPORT 2019
Chairperson’s Report.
It is only appropriate that, on this 25th Anniversary of Empilweni, I began my report at the Annual General Meeting with a brief slide show to illustrate our story of 25 years of mental health service to the community. The rest of my report follows:
The past year has been a difficult one because of funding constraints. The Department for Social Development has had to reduce their financial support for NGO’s and so it accounts now for about 50% rather than 60% of our funding requirements. While we were very grateful to receive another grant from the National Lotteries Commission it was far less than we applied for and was not sufficient to cover our projected expenditure. Fortunately a few private donors, Trusts and Foundations came to our rescue, so we now have funds for the next twelve months
Our 25th Anniversary Fundraising Committee continues to work hard under David Draude, our Treasurer, as chair. We have compiled a list of new contacts to approach for donations as well as a large database of potential “Friends of Empilweni” to whom, with our donors, we plan to send a regular newsletter. We have also updated our brochure. We have registered as a beneficiary with the Woolworths MySchoolMyVillageMyPlanet Fundraising Campaign and urge all our friends who have not already done so to apply for a My School card. We have developed a specific fundraising campaign for our 25th Anniversary called: “Changing Lives and Restoring Hope to Abused and Neglected Children in Under-Served Communities. Mfuleni is the first new under-served community we are targeting, a growing township near Khayelitsha. There is a need to increase our service there from two days a week to daily. We are in the process of advertising this fundraising campaign through the Backabuddy organisation’s website, and the radio. And of course we are also using our two 25th Anniversary events to promote our fundraising campaign, namely our AGM and an event at the Baxter Theatre in 2020
After many years we are doing research again. We have entered into an agreement with the Alan J Fisher Centre for Public Health at the University of Cape Town to participate in their new research project “Expanding Mental Health Counselling from Primary Care to Reach At-Risk Young Minds”. The project investigates how to increase the engagement by youth in mental health counselling for common mental disorders like depression and hazardous alcohol use.
We continue our close relationship with our major sponsor, the Department of Social Development, and we thank them for continuing to believe in Empilweni and to support the essential work that our organisation does. On behalf of the Board and the community I applaud the praiseworthy commitment of our skilled and dedicated staff who have had, at times, accepted a reduced salary for extended periods until new funding was received. Special thanks are due for the leadership and support from our director, William Williams, our service manager, Lulama Mfuniselwa, and our clinical psychologist supervisor, Emilita Pecego.
I would like to thank all our Board members for their commitment to regular meetings throughout the year, and for their many other activities in support of Empilweni over and above their statutory ones. Ashley Meyer has been appointed as Board Secretary. The Board has adopted a Charter for Board Governance based on the King IV Report for Non-Profit Organisations. We made a decision to add a clause to the Constitution to enable us to set up Advisory Boards for when we need expert advice on important matters. We have also improved our job descriptions for staff, whose titles are now respectively Community Mental Health Social Worker, and Community Mental Health Worker (for Social Auxiliary Workers).
Sadly, Mrs. Gava Kassiem resigned from the Board earlier this year, and Dr Bulelwa Mpinda moved into an advisory role due to all her commitments. But we have welcomed several new Board members: Mrs. Esme Kleinveldt, who was the social worker in charge of the Empilweni office at its foundation; Mr. Ted Dowling, who brings a wealth of marketing experience to our Board; and Professor Roshan Galvaan from the University of Cape Town who has an impressive track record of mental health involvement in the community
Finally, I would like to thank all our donors and our members, partners and clients for supporting us. All donors are listed in our Annual Report. Without your crucial support Empilweni would not be able to continue operating.
Brian Robertson, Chairperson
Treasurer’s Report
Empilweni is a registered non-profit organisation and has been in operation for 25 years. Its objective is to provide community based, child centred mental health support and counselling to children, adolescents, teenage mothers and all their respective families when required in both Khayelitsha and Mfuleni.
FINANCIAL STRATEGY
As an entity with limited funding, the board endeavours to ensure sustainability of the most essential services that Empilweni provide to the local communities. We met regularly over the year, with ongoing cash-flows and correspondence to closely monitor and control our financial situation.
ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The Annual Financial Statements for the year ended 31st March 2019 have been audited by BDV Platinum, Empilweni’s independent auditors, who found that they represent a fair view of the financial position of the organisation for the past financial year. Copies can be made available to interested parties.
In summary, the audited Statement of Comprehensive income indicates:-
Total income for the period was R 1,521,441 (2018- 1,499,351)
Total expenditure for the period was R 1,724,160 (2018- 1,459,813)
Result being a (deficit)/ surplus of R (172,004) (2018- 39,538)
Of the total expenditure R332, 567 related to the new NACOSA contract, so net expenditure compared to last year was a saving of R68, 220. All of this expenditure is reimbursed by NACOSA and we achieved benefit of R26, 100 for the few months it was operational during the 2018/9 financial year.
We also received from National Lotteries Commission R433, 354 towards the end of March 2019, which has been treated as prepaid income and not shown in the total income above, as it is utilised during the next financial year.
The past financial year and its cash-flow demands were greatly eased by the funding we received from Lotto, which was a single annual contribution to top up the primary monthly funding we receive from the Department of Social Development (DSD). DSD’s funding covered 59% of our normal expenditure in the Financial Year ended 31st March 2019.
In the current financial year DSD covers 49% of our normal monthly expenditure, due to a change in their funding criteria, whereby they cover more on salaries and less on other non-employee expenses.
Lotto has been a great supporter of Empilweni since 2004 and has funded us on seven occasions, about every other year, thus we are intending to reapply in March 2020 for further funding.
Our primary expense is staff remuneration, along with therapy support costs, covering travel expenses, communication and office costs. We strive to control these expenses within our funds available.
CURRENT FINANCIAL YEAR 2019/2020
DSD and Lotto continue to be our main funders, but this still leaves us a shortfall. Fortunately we have received timely assistance from Dr & Mrs W.I Jardine, also Community Chest, and another grant from The Nussbaum Foundation in September. We also give thanks to Cathy Ward, Andy Davies and Amelia van der Merwe for donating royalties from their book “ Youth Violence” from UCT Press. Finally some great news, we have just been included as an approved beneficiary for the London ICAP Charity day on the 10th December 2019 event; my thanks go to my friends of ICAP Alan Ashley and Amoyi Rambarose.
We are continuing other funding applications both within South Africa and beyond, to reduce the risk of further cash-flow challenges so the board and staff can focus on the most important thing to our organisation, child mental welfare in our community.
Finally, in lieu of a good working relationship with our Auditors BDV Platinum, I recommend a reappointment for the 2019/20 year ahead.
David H Draude FAIA, FCMI -TREASURER
Director’s Report
I approached Bass Gordon Attorneys regarding a promise of goods for Mandela day and they donated 60 toiletry gift bags for our clients which included sanitary towels, tooth brushes, soap, and toothpaste. We handed these out to our groups and to individual children who came for counselling.
Our Social Auxiliary Worker Andiswa Mananga resigned in this period and I submitted a letter to Social Development requesting the conversion of the vacant Social Auxiliary post to a Social Worker post. Our request was unsuccessful due to lower funding levels in the Department of Social Development.
We had our mid-year review on the 24.10.2018 at the Caring Network Centre. We were ahead on our targets for the year to date and would easily reach our third quarter outputs. The only area requiring attention were the teenage parent groups. We have learned that it is more complicated working with adolescents and so we developed a plan to address this so that we could meet our targets in this area. Therapy groups are not funded by Social Development but is important for our counselling model so we will develop this when funding is in place. We had a partners/funders expectation workshop on the 1 March 2019 and a Programme Planning meeting on the 3 April 2019.
We initiated the first meeting for Directors of organizations in Khayelitsha. It was not too well attended due to 2 directors needing to address organizational issues. The director of Umthawelanga attended and we had very insightful discussions about the community and mutual fundraising experiences. I had a meeting with Sandra Ellis the Donor Funding Manager of Cape Mental Health Society. She indicated that we were on track with our fundraising efforts. Professor Eric Atmore of UCT and Early Learning Programmes gave me very insightful information about their history and funding experiences over the years. He is doing current donor management and has a team of 6 people who are trying to attract new donors. I attended the strategic planning meeting of the Commission for Gender Equality and engaged with many other organizations on that platform.
I attended the Annual General Meetings of The Parent Centre and The Caring Network which were very informative. The Health Department hosted the Khayelitsha Mental Health Forum at the Khayelitsha District Hospital and it was very good to meet all the role players. The Khayelitsha Mental Health day was held at the Nongugile Health Centre on the 2 November and we had a stall which enabled us to engage with the community and other stakeholders.
We are part of the NGO Coalition for the Western Cape Commissioner of Children Bill. We were invited to the Western Cape Provincial Parliament regarding our submission and I attended. The meeting was also attended by about 30 children who made submissions. The main demands are that the Commissioner must be an independent children’s person and not be controlled by the Western Cape Government or political parties. The Commissioner must consult children on all issues. We are partnering in a research project in Khayelitsha which will be implemented by the Alan J Fisher Centre for Public Mental Health with our teenage clients. Clients will get a food voucher incentive.
We were selected to be an implementing partner for Isibindi Impilo, a NACOSA/NACCW programme which will run over 5 years. We were allocated 22 Child Care Workers, 1 mentor and a senior mentor to implement the programme. The programme started the 1 February 2019.
Accessing adequate funding is a great concern for many organizations and some organizations have had to close down. Empilweni has maintained modest success with fundraising efforts and has managed to continue even with low levels of funding at times without the service to the community being adversely affected. Companies and trusts are giving less due to the state of the economy at 2% growth and poor growth in the stock market. I concentrated on building our funding database, responding to calls for funding proposals for NGO’s in Jill Ritchie Word press site, newspapers and NGO pulse. Most funding applications required detailed application forms which was very time intensive. It is difficult to get contact details for Trusts. Most of the corporates, companies and trusts support education, skills training and small business development. England has a higher support for mental health initiatives than other countries.
Lotteries final report was submitted in July 2018 and our Lotteries application was handed in on the 3 September. Our previous reports had been accepted by Lotteries with no further requests and our previous fundings’ file was closed. Compliance to funder requirements is very important for us
William Williams-Director
Service Manager’s Report
This year was a great milestone for our special work with children affected by trauma and emotional distress, being our 25th Anniversary. I would like to thank the Empilweni team for their time of service our community.
Our team is assisted by support from wellness events, national celebrations, the Board and external supervisors. I see our ability to communicate in isiXhosa being a large part of our success as counselling becomes more accessible to our beneficiaries within their own culture. The family therapy approach we use has made things work well to enable the child to be protected and loved in the family. The parent groups we facilitate are benefiting families as they provide opportunities for sharing parenting and family experiences, and also for problem solving.
We have received positive testimonials from our clients, with suggestions as well as appreciation for named counselors that have assisted their emotional development. Our detailed Assessment Form is a great resource because it helps both clients and the Mental Health Counsellor to find solutions. The play therapy with our children is a good tool as it helps them to ventilate their difficult situations and to discharge traumatic experiences emotionally.
We received clients from the Eastern Cape during the holidays, and also from other parts of the Western Cape. Many clients attend schools outside Khayelitsha and Mfuleni. Referrals are by word of mouth as clients refer each other, by walk ins, through social media, and especially from schools and Government departments.
I would like to thank some people who are no longer with us: Andiswa Mananga, Thozama Sotshononda, Alicia Vana and several people who gave their time to our organization as volunteers or interns over the previous year.
Thanks again to our funders who enabled us to provide this important and beneficial counselling programme to our communities, Nangomso!!
Lulama Mfuniselwa-Service Manager
Donors
We would like to thank our major donors: Department of Social Development, National Lotteries Commission, Dr & Mrs W.I Jardine, The Rolf Stephan Nussbaum Foundation, Community Chest, and Given Gain for their support in the year ending 31 March 2019.
We would also like to extend our appreciation to our individual givers and in-kind donors, including but not limited to Mark and Sylvia Midgley, Bass Gordon Attorneys, and Pick and Pay
Empilweni – Summary of Child Counselling Statistics 2018/ 2019
No. of children at Intake: 408
Of these:
- 13% were referred to another organisation (51% to DSD)
- 13% did not engage with project
- 14% were terminated by the client
- 5% moved away from Khayelitsha
High level demographic info:
- Youngest was 4, eldest was 21
- 48% Female
- Majority of females from ages 13-18 (84% of cases)
- Majority of males from ages 10-16 (87% of cases)
Risk factors (most common)
- 14% – Child or family affected by HIV/AIDS
- 13% – Teen parent
- 13% – Physical abuse of child
- 7% – Neglect of child
- 5% – Substance abuse in family
- 8% – Sexual abuse or rape of the child
Counselling provided:
- 785 Individual sessions
- 529 Family sessions
- 429 Group therapy sessions
- 278 Home visits
- 257 School visits
- 1,014 phone calls
Outcome of Counselling
- 21% are still active
- The remaining cases all showed varying levels of improvement as detailed in the table below
Average level of Functioning (1 is very low and 5 is very good)
Academic Regular Improvement in Household Peer
Performance School Attendance presenting problem relationships Relationships
On intake 2.96 3.34 2.55 2.76 2.85
On discharge 3.84 4.15 3.79 3.70 3.62