ANNUAL REPORT 2022
CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT
1stApril 2021- 31stMarch 2022
Good day all. lt is a privilege to introduce myself. My name is Dr. Maura Lappeman. I am a clinical psychologist overseeing psychological and counselling services in the Khayelitsha and Helderberg area for the Department of Health ln January this year I was approached by Professor Brian Robertson to join the board of Empilweni which I was thrilled about as I have been working closely with Empilweni for the last 9 years. Empilweni has always represented a beacon of hope for me in Khayelitsha. I have appreciated their staff’s work ethic and how dedicated they are to the children of Khayelitsha, My portfolio on the board is to continue to upskill the staff in mental health which I am passionate about and eager to do.
ln April I was approached again to assume the role of acting Chairperson. Elvin Williams, who had recently taken over from Professor Robertson, unexpectedly immigrated. Also, sadly David Draude resigned as treasurer. Although I did not know David well, he has contributed significantly to the sustainability of Empilweni for years. He will be sorely missed by the staff and is a difficult person to replace as he really had a significant portfolio on the board. Fortunately, Jaco Nel agreed to step up and join the Empilweni board as the treasurer. Thank you so much Jaco. Jaco is a chartered accountant and has many years of experience in finance.
Last year, Empilweniwas still navigating COVID. We are extremely grateful to the Department of Social Development for continuing to fund us. lnitially staff worked from home, but all staff have now returned to the office. Special thanks to our staff who continued to provide a service during a scary time for all. The staff, despite going through their own trauma, continued to serve the families in Khayelitsha under the direction of our director William and service manager Lulama.
Empilweni continues to be financially stable despite funding from several of our core funders being reduced. We can cover all our current operational expenses however we are still not receiving enough funds to cover all our operational costs for next year. ln such an event we may have to close at short notice. William has been championing the way forward in trying to get new funders. Besides needing new funding, we appeal to our existing donors and supporters to continue to assist us in any way that they can. Leaving a legacy to Empilweni in your will is an option we are offering. A document that can be used for this is now on our website.
Thanks to our Board members for their diligent attendance to all govemance matters including their regular participation in Board meetings, I personally want to say a big thank you to Professor Robertson who despite wanting to retire, continues giving of his time to help set Empilweni up for success. Hopefully soon his wish will come true and he can enjoy time out without worrying about the wellbeing of Empilweni.
Finally, I would like to thank all our donors, and our members, partners and clients for their ongoing support. All donors are listed in our Annual Report. Without your crucial support Empilweniwould not be able to continue operating.
Dr. Maura Lappeman, Chairperson
EMPILWENI TREASURER’S REPORT
Empllweni is a registered non-profit organisation and has been in operation for 28 years. Its objective is to provide community based, child 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 essential services that Empilweni provide. We continue to have regular zoom meetings and during COVID have corresponded regularly with ongoing cash-flows to closely monitor and control our financial situation.
ANNUAL FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
The Annual Financial Statements for the year ended 31’t March 2022 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 flnancial year. Our Donors will be sent a copy and copies can be made available to interested parties.
ln summary, the audited Statement of Comprehensive income indicates:-
Total income for the period was R 8,304,779 (2021- 6,374,805 )
Total expenditure for the period was R 8,095,404 (2021- 6,691,081 )
Result being a surplus / (deficit) of R 225,586 (2021 – (306,430) )
Of the total expenditure R 5,985,791 (2021 – R 4,823,345) related to the NACOSA (USAID) contract relating to an average 70 staff. All of this expenditure is reimbursed by NACOSA and we also achieved a benefit of R491 , 813 (2021- R508, 042) for the flnancial year.
The past financial year and its cash-flow demands were eased by funding received from the National Lotteries Commission of R558, 000, the MacFarlane Foundation of R250,000 and R20, 299 from various other supporters. Primary monthly funding from the Department of Social Development, (DSD) remained unchanged at R856, 350, covering 40o/o of our normal expenditure (excluding the NACOSA project) in the Financial Year ended 3’1’t March 2022.
CURRENT FINANCIAL YEAR 202212023
DSD continue their monthly funding of R 71,365. NACOSA is also continuing with their monthly funding contribution of R45, 000. This should cover Empilweni’ normal expenditure up to the end of December 2022. Empilweni will be applying for funding to the MacFarlane Foundation and the National Lotteries Commission in 2023. The additional funding is required to help fund Empilweni’s salary and project costs for the new calendar year.
Empilweni was successfully registered for VAT in October 2022, which will help the organisation save 15o/o of a number of its monthly purchases and expenses.
We will continuing other funding applications both within South Africa and beyond to cover any future funding shortfalls.
Finally, in lieu of a good working relationship with our Auditors BDV Platinum, I recommend a reappointment for the 2022123 year ahead.
Jaco Nel, Treasurer
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Networking
We mostly engaged the Fundraising Mentoring Network which is a support structure for Non- governmental organisation and I did online fundraising training. I have visited our previous board member Bulelwa Mpindi of the Child and Adolescent unit at the Lentegeur hospital to gain some input for our planning sessions.
Dr. Claire Van Der Westhuizen of the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at UCT approached us to be assist in school surveys in Khayelitsha. She is a colleague of Professor Katherine Sorsdahl and had 2 PHD students who did school surveys for adolescent mental health in 2 schools in Khayelitsha,
Waves for Change is a child centered mental health service focusing on surf therapy across South Africa and approached us to partner with them in the Khayelitsha area in terms of referrals. They hosted mental health training to organisations in Khayelitsha the 4th to the 8th April which we attended.
COVID Response
Empilweni maintained a roster where staff would come to the office when it was their tum to work from the office. Staff would contact clients from home on the days that they were not at the office. We did group work online and via telephonic communication, We maintained a strict COVID 19 screening of clients and visitors at our offices. The Third Wave brought a lot of anxiety amongst statf and clients. All staff at the Headoffice has been vaccinated once the vaccines became available. Staff was less anxious as we moved from the Alert level 2 to Alert level 1.
Fundraising
Empilweni was the implementing partner for NACOSA in Khayelitsha and the Easternregion with include Mfuleni, Eerste River and Strand. NACOSA has asked us to accept some more responsibility in the form of renting of the second floor of the lsivivana Centre in Khayelitsha for the prolect.
We have started to solicit funds from companies and trust again to start a momentum in our fundraising activities. We maintain the momentum even though the economy has not recovered yet. I have also started to promote our post on Facebook at a cost to increase our Facebook membership.
Lotteries approved our April application and we received R558 000 on the 1 July 2021. The McFarlane Family Foundation approved our request and on the 14 July 2021 we received R250 000 from them. The Department of Social Development has forwarded our new Transfer Payment Agreement in July 2021 and we received the same amount of funding as what we did the previous financial year. We will receive the funding from Social Development for the next 3 years if we reach our targets every year.
Back a Buddy has contacted us we forwarded proposal for one of its corporate partners interested to donate to Back a Buddy causes. NPO Fundraising Forum hosted an online fundraising training which was facilitated by Annelise De Jager which we participated in
and we are now part of the network. We are continuing to solicit funds from companies and trust as part of our fundraising activities and achieved some positive results even though South African economy is not in a very good state and intemational funders are funding national organisations.
NACOSA
NACCW has exited the lsibindi lmpilo programme and NACOSA has appointed Empilweni as the only implementing partner for the Khayelitsha area. We were employing 53 Child and Youth Care Workers, 2 Administrative assistants, 4 Team leaders and a Project leader. The funding for the project has also changed indicating resources would come trom 2 streams USAID and PEPFAR. The lsibindi lmpilo project have managed to reach 7991 children and 879 caregivers in the period 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022.
Social Development
Social Development contacted us to request our participation in a Parenting research project which was commissioned by Social Development Provincial. We subsequently had a meeting which included another partner organization. They want to interview 20 to 30 parents who were participants of our parenting programme between 2018 and 2020. The participants were parents of teenage children and was interviewed as part of 2 groups. Empilweni Staff who facilitated the groups was also interviewed.
SERVICE’S MANAGER’S REPORT
This year our theme is ‘Make Mental health and Wellbeing for all a global priority ‘when it is 27 years of our existence ln western cape assisting families to under stands issues that atfects children’s wellbeing. Covid-19 convinced the world and opens our minds that mental health is the health problem to all. Empilweni services managed to convince families and children that mental health is the key in the health sector and the community is able to differentiate between cultural, religious practices and do consultations with specialized doctors in clinics and in schools.
Although it is very small and half circle the work we did manage to chop the big tree with small axe by networking, community outreach, articles in local papers, talks to schools and being part of community structures like Khayelitsha Social development Forum, Clinic Steering Committees and religious forums and also social networks. As much as there is local clinics, school clinics and other social welfare organizations we did find that our services was still in demand and it is assisting very well in many different ways like language barrier, enough time to assist the client, age and to reduce overwhelming consultations.
Today our community is overwhelmed with poverty lots of household has nothing to eat and to give to their children to grow healthy and stronger, Alcohol and substance abuse is the worry, child and teen pregnancy is increasing in a way that 1 1-12 children were found to be pregnant, violence in schools is uncontrollable and school vandalism also in the form of burglary. Teachers are in fear of their school leamers who present with aggressive behavior towards one another and to their teachers.
This year Empilweni experience an overwhelming referrals to the organisation that resulted in long list on awaiting and only screening. We have limited man power and our funds are restricted. The Director is working around the clock and you can see he puts in a lot of effort in fundraising because he tried all his level best to have unrestncted funds and sustainability to address service delivery demand by our community. The Empilweni Board has form the Fundraising Committee board to try to support the fundraising efforts.
Staff is coping with high number of case load, parents are struggling to arcompany and sent their children as they have nothing like taxi fare.
ln all with my heartfelt I thank you all for the support and enthusiasm, special thanks to our Board and Elder Brian Robertson who is the founder and for many years been a community resource, hands of applaud to David and Ted for their healthy contribution in this service by giving all they have, thanks to our stake holder for trusting us, lastly thanks to families who cooperated and contributed not only to their children but extendtheir hands from nothing and give Empilweni a future
Thanks to Social Development, Lotto, NACOSA and Foundations in trusting us in partnering since 2018 even to donations of kind that kept us going in this stage of our economy. ‘All the best for the future, God bless ‘-
Lulama Mfuniselwa -Service Manager
THANKS
We would like to thank our donors: Department of Social Development, National Lotteries Commission, NACOSA, MacFarlane Family Foundation, The Ryan Foundation, Jet Lee Will Trust, Dr. lvor and Cora Jardine
We would like to extend our appreciation to our individual givers and in-kind donors: St Barnabas Anglican Church, Ms. Azile Mfuniselwa, Mr. L.S. Bizwaphi, Mr. Elethu Zumbe, Dr. Maura Lappeman, Ms. Emilita Pecego