The employees of Tsibogang were under a huge pressure this week. As this was the last week of the financial year we had to prepare everything for the auditor. We are moving into the new financial year, which starts here in April, with grave concerns because it promised to become were tight financially.
This is due to the fact that last year we have lost two major long-term donors- Dorcas AID International and Agnes Phillipine Walter Stiftung, because they want to use their resources more and more for the refugees in Europe. Despite numerous efforts, we were unable to get contracts with new donor organizations. We were particularly disappointed with the regret letters from the South African National Council of AIDS (SANAC) and the Department of Social Development. We had high hopes for these applications as our projects are totally in line with their goals and objectives. But we lack the “connections”, which are unfortunately often the deciding factor in South Africa.
So we remain with three major donor organizations: the Foerderkreis, the German Institute for Medical Mission, and the South African Bishops’ Conference. In the latter there is at present also only an oral pledge for a new contract, which was to begin from 01.04. In the local lottery we may only submit a new application in May, which then has a processing period of at least five months. In particular, the first six months of the new financial year are going to be a real challenge .
For the Tlamelang Home Based Care project, R 102,000 (€ 7555) is missing for these six months, for the OVC project probably about R 162,000 (12,000 Euros) and for the Amogelang Project R 40,000 (2960 Euros). On the one hand, we will try to fill these gaps by reducing the incentives of our Caregiver and, on the other hand, by reducing our reserves, which is a big concern for us. It is of course very painful for our members if their very low income is reduced even further.
Whether or not the peer educators of our Tshepanang project have to accept a reduction in their incentives depends on the granting of an application to the Evangelical Landeskirche in Wuerttemberg and the Bingo Umweltstiftung, which are still under consideration. If the applications are rejected, we have a gap of R 396,000 (29,300 Euros) in this project during the next six months.
In Tshepanang a very successful three-day workshop took place last weekend, with 48 peer educators and five mentors attending. In addition to working on new lessons, the peer educators met in two groups. The first group consisted of those who have passed Matric and the second was made up of those who left school without passing Matric. In both groups we discussed how we can help each other to further our education. An important idea was to establish learning groups, where the peer educators, with the help of their mentors, can help each other to prepare themselves for the subjects they have failed.
At the moment schools have closed ; next week will be the last module of their Montessori course for the women in the two preschools . Thereafter preparing for the examinations will begin that will take place at the beginning of August. The children in the preschools have developed well and made amazing progress.