Newsletters

NEWSLETTER No 2, JULY 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic derailed our original plan to publish two newsletters a year and prevented us from holding our second 25th Anniversary Event at the Baxter Theatre in April 2020. We hope that you will enjoy reading our second newsletter and catching up on our news.

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR (Brian Robertson)  

Unlike many other organisations Empilweni has survived the pandemic. This is thanks to the steadfastness of our donors and the determined efforts of our Board, the Director and the staff. The continued funding from the Department of Social Development is highly appreciated in the light of the pandemic’s drain on government resources.

All Board and committee meetings have taken place via Zoom. Our 2020 Annual General Meeting was held on 22nd October. The Annual Report can be read via the link below and the Audited Financial Statements are available on request. http://empilweni.org/annual-reports/annual-report-2020/

Elvin Williams, a Lecturer in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Cape Town was appointed to the Board on 3rd March 2021

 THE HIGHLIGHT OF 2021: ANOTHER 25TH ANNIVERSARY

On 6th May 2021 Lulama Mfuniselwa, our Service Manager, received a Long Term Service Certificate in recognition of his valuable contributions to Empilweni throughout 25 years of service as Community Mental Health Worker and subsequently Service Manager.

On 6th May 1996, Lulama began working with boys in groups. Gradually he became involved in more intensive individual case work with children, and then ran parent workshops and training courses in the community before finally achieving promotion to service manager. With only a matriculation qualification when he started at Empilweni at the age of 25years, Lulama subsequently graduated with a Diploma in Youth Development from UNISA, and then went on to complete several relevant training courses and to obtain a number of course certificates from various tertiary institutions.

BRIEF REFLECTIONS ON 25 YEARS OF PROVIDING CLIENT SERVICES (Lulama Mfuniselwa)

Empilweni opened its doors at the right time for our community. In 1994 people didn’t know what to expect from the new democracy. Most people were traumatized due to the years of increasing violence and were living in fear because they could not trust anybody, so they were reluctant to discuss their ‘family secrets’ with unknown entities like Empilweni.

Today the community has come to understand the need to speak about problems. Both mothers and fathers will now come to Empilweni spontaneously to seek help, even from outside the Western Cape. Children and youth themselves will walk in to Empilweni without referral to ask for help or to discuss situations of concern in the community.

Many of our clients make contact with us when they are older. Some, after their graduation, volunteer their services, some want to gain counselling experience for their studies in Social Work or Psychology and others want to thank us for how much we helped them

FUNDRAISING NEWS (David Draude, Treasurer)

While fundraising for Empilweni during the Covid 19 pandemic has been difficult, we are very grateful for the funding support that we have received. The Department of Social Development has confirmed their partial subsidy for the next three years but with no annual cost of living increases since 2018 and into the foreseeable future. Our application to the National Lotteries Commission in 2020 was rejected due to their lack of funds, but we did receive a positive response to our 2021 application and very much appreciate their continued support. These two major donors do not cover our monthly expenses, so we must raise additional funds in order to continue providing services.

Heartfelt thanks to the MacFarlane Family Foundation and the Investec Jet Lee Will Trust for coming to the rescue. We are also grateful to several individuals for their donations. Ongoing funding constraints mean that we are still unable to establish a Contingency Fund or to contribute to a Pension Fund for our staff. This leaves our organization in a very vulnerable position. We continue to explore innovative ways of raising more funds for Empilweni.

COMMUNITY MENTAL HEALTH WORKERS TO TARGET  GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND CHILD GENDER ISSUES (Roshan Galvaan)

An increase in domestic Gender-Based Violence in the community during the Covid 19 pandemic has lead Empilweni to strengthen their counselling and psychosocial support programmes for children exposed to it. Community and media reports have also drawn our attention to recent instances of femicide and acts of discrimination targeting the

LGBTQIA+ community in Khayelitsha and Mfuleni. This has highlighted the need for staff to more actively consider how these issues may be further incorporated as focus areas into Empilweni’s services, for instance into in-service training of staff. Discussions also revealed a need to counsel children as they navigate their gender identities.

NEWS FROM THE DIRECTOR (William Williams)           

Staff                      

Social Worker Ande Dywili joined Empilweni in April 2021n the role of community mental health worker and a Social Auxiliary Worker Student completed her practical training at Empilweni.

COVID 19

Five community mental health workers were diagnosed with COVID at different times but all have recovered and all have been vaccinated. Because of our restricted office space these workers had to come to the office on a roster basis to meet social distancing requirements. Those working from home have been provided with work phones to contact and counsel their clients. Group work has had to be carried out online on telephones so that we can continue to reach the counselling numbers set by the Department of Social Development

Isibindi Impilo (“Courage in Health”)

We managed to secure new premises for the Isibindi Impilo programme at the well-resourced Isivivana Centre in Khayelitsha. As described in our first newsletter this programme involves Child and Youth Care Workers (we now employ fifty-eight) providing services to orphans, vulnerable children and youth, and is separate to the counselling services our community mental health workers provide to children and their families.

These Child and Youth Care Workers have started to implement the DREAMS programme which is a Gender-Based Violence (GBV) Prevention programme. DREAMS focuses on targeting the most vulnerable adolescent girls and young women in the community to equip them with knowledge and skills on HIV and GBV prevention. It also offers workshops to male youth aged 15-19 years as a preventive measure.

THE FINAL WORD

 We are still looking for a volunteer to assist us with our social media and marketing operations, and for donations towards our most pressing needs, namely a full time-service in Mfuleni, and a Contingency Fund. Bank details:

Account Name: Empilweni, First National Bank, Account Number: 6203 547 9535, Branch Code: 201509

Newsletter compiled by Brian Robertson, Chairperson, and Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape Town

NEWSLETTER NO 1, NOVEMBER 2019

Empilweni celebrates its 25th Anniversary this year and also the production of its first newsletter! We hope that you will enjoy our first attempt at a regular newsletter. Please give us your feedback!

CELEBRATING OUR 25TH ANNIVERSARY, 1994 – 2019

 The first of our three anniversary celebrations was held in conjunction with our 2019 Annual General Meeting at The Malibongwe Restaurant on Lookout Hill, Khayelitsha. The sun shone brightly for us that day – 5th October – and the Ikamva Marimba Band played brilliantly.

Our Guest Speaker, Prof Katherine Sorsdahl, addressed the audience on “Novel Interventions for Teenage Mental Health in South Africa”. She described how cell phone apps are being developed which teenagers can use to receive confidential information and basic counselling for their mental health issues. This is provided by a ‘robot’. Mental Health Practitioners constantly scan the apps to detect any safety concerns

The second of our anniversary celebrations, combined with commemorating  World Mental Health Day, was a Soccer Tournament organized by Empilweni on Saturday 26th October in collaboration with Grassroot Soccer South Africa at their Khayelitsha Football for Hope Centre. We used the occasion to provide information on mental health at our Gazebo staffed by two of our community mental health workers. The Trophy and medals were provided by Empilweni. Eight teams took part, the winners being the Y2K Football Club, pictured below. Empilweni’s Young Lions (below) reached the semi-finals

Our final anniversary celebration will be a Dance Show at the Baxter Theatre, April 2020.Notices will be sent out before the event 

PEOPLE AT EMPILWENI

 Three new Board members have joined us in 2019.

  • Esme Kleinveldt is a Social Worker and a founding staff member of Empilweni. She subsequently worked with other NGO’s, Government Departments and tertiary institutions, and is currently working for the Western Cape Department of Education
  • Ted Dowling has a Diploma in Marketing from the Institute of Marketing Management. He has spent 45 years in the Retail Motor Industry, specialising particularly in the sales and marketing aspects of the business.
  • Roshan Galvaan is a Professor in the Division of Occupational Therapy at the University of Cape Town, and a leader in the Faculty of Health Sciences’ partnership with the UCT Schools Improvement Initiative for the community of Khayelitsha

Two new staff members joined us in 2019.

  • Xabiso Maqolo is one of our three Community Mental Health Workers. She is a Registered Social Auxiliary Worker who has been working at Afrika Tikkun and the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation
  • Ntombizandile Dyasi is one of our two Community Mental health Social Workers, She is a registered Social Worker who worked at Safeline before joining us

 EMPILWENI PROGRAMMES UPDATE

We have already passed our targets for all services provided in Khayeltisha and Mfuleni on behalf of the Department for Social development. By mid-year (end of September) we have taken 239 children and families into our counseling programme, and 54 parents and teen parents into the parenting skills group and teen parents’ groups respectively

We have done so well with our Isibindi Impilo Programme that the funders (USAID) have increased the Child and Youth Care Workers allocated to us from 22 to 40. We implement this programme in Khayeltisha in partnership with NACOSA and NACCW. Qualified and regulated Child and Youth Care Workers provide services to orphans, vulnerable children and youth.

The overall objective is to ensure that orphans and vulnerable children and youth (ages birth -24 years, with emphasis on girls 10-17 years) are reached with a tailored set of components of a basket of services that suits the particular need in each case.

The activities in the Isibindi Impilo programme are grouped along four strategic aims, related to ensuring that children are:

  1. SAFE, by improving child protection and prevention of gender-based violence;
  2. STABLE, by improving household economic security and linkage to social protection;
  3. HEALTHY, by improving access to health and HIV services and
  4. SCHOOLED, by improving early childhood development access, school retention and progression.

COMMUNICATION AND FUNDRAISING

We are using the occasion of our 25th anniversary to refresh our marketing and fundraising efforts. With regard to marketing

  • We re-designed our website and are trying to use face book more effectively
  • We have updated our brochure and we have 25th Anniversary T Shirts for sale (R120 )
  • We are developing a database of our supporters so that we can communicate with you on a regular basis. We are looking for a volunteer to assist us with our social media operations and with developing an organization of “The Friends of Empilweni”
  • We will update our supporters with a newsletter, twice a year initially. We are looking for a volunteer with editing and graphic design skills for our newsletter

If you enjoy using social media or have editing and graphic design skills, and are passionate about children’s emotional wellbeing, do consider contributing some of your time to Empilweni 

As part of our fundraising efforts we have registered with Woolworths’ MySchoolCard. If you spend on average over R1000 per month at Woolworths please register Empilweni in Khayelitsha as a beneficiary (you need to spend as much as this to cover the charges which are levied on Empilweni for each card). Register online at www.myschool.co.za

We have set up a 25th Anniversary Fundraising Campaign with Backabuddy. The campaign aims to raise R100,000.00 to establish a full-time service in Mfuleni. Currently we only have resources to visit Mfuleni twice a week, yet the needs in Mfuleni are greater than in Khayelitsha which now has better infrastructure and health, education and welfare services for children. For further details go to: https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/cl.

Donations may be made directly here or on Empilweni’s website: www.empilweni.org.

THE LAST WORD

The last word goes to our donors, without whom the children and families of Khayelitsha and Mfuleni would not receive free, community based psychological support and counselling in isi-Xhosa. Thanks to the following old and new major donors who have supported us over the past year: Department of Social Development, National Lotteries Commission, Dr & Mrs W.I Jardine, The Rolf Stephan Nussbaum Foundation, Community Chest (A W Blekton Trust), and Given Gain. We are pleased to announce that we have been accepted as a beneficiary of ICAP’s charity day, 05/12/2019: visit www.icapcharityday.com

We would also like to extend our appreciation to our individual givers and in-kind donors, and our MySchoolCard supporters.

THANK  YOU