Food Security South Africa Project #17691

Lifeskills 2,743 vulnerable children South Africa

by Keep The Dream196

Project Report | Mar 1, 2016
Moving into 2016

By Louise Batty | Managing Director

Keep The Dream196

Dear Friends and supporters of KTD196.

I want to thank you for your support specifically with the purchase of the farm in mind. The farm is still available and we have been able to fund raise in excess of R800,000 towards the R1.77 million required thanks to your help and the work that we have been doing in generating income for Keep The Dream196. The farm will ensure our longevity as an organization during these ongoing financially restraining times by allowing us to generate more income to support our activities.

Usually I send out uplifting photo's and storys by the youth and tell of their situations and how they have overcome. This time around its a bit different. The story is unfortunately a harsh reality that many of our kids face.

I will call her Jennifer. Jennifer is 17yrs and in grade 10 this year, she is happy for me to share her story because she wants people to understand about life here in South Africa for children. Last year in March Jennifer was raped by her next door neighbour. She reported it to her mother who was to scared to report it further because of fear of reprisal. With the exposure to children’s rights Jennifer received through KTD196, Jennifer reported the case to the police. Her mother didn’t want KTD196 told. The police arrested the perpetrator. He has since been released on bail and is living next door.

Jennifer became pregnant through the rape and courageously decided not to have an abortion but to put the baby up for adoption. Jennifer had to contend with teachers and students ridiculing her and being nasty to her for being a pregnant teenager. This was further compounded by clinic nurses who treated her very badly by judging her. Her mother still did not want anyone told about the circumstances. Jennifer agreed to this out of respect for her mother.

Jennifer was asked to leave school because she was obviously pregnant. Jennifer went alone to the magistrates court and requested a letter stating that she was raped and there for was allowed to remain is school even though being pregnant.

Jennifer gave birth to her baby on Christmas day 2015 and fell madly in love with the child and has decided to keep the baby. KTD196, since finding out about the pregnancy once it was obvious Jennifer was pregnant, has provided support and aid to both mother and child. We have also advocated for her with the school, clinic and Scout group who were unaware of the circumstances of the pregnancy. (It was also a good opportunity to speak about the danger of making judgments but also to support teenagers who are pregnant and not just dismiss them).

Jennifer is now in Grade 11. She starts school at 0630 till 1900. She is not allowed to breast feed her child on school grounds. Her mother walks the 4kms to school 3 times a day with the baby so Jennifer can feed the child to give her daughter the right nutritional start to life.

Jennifer says it’s because of Scouts and KTD196 that she is able to stand up for herself and overcome horrific circumstances. Since the community has found out about the circumstances of the pregnancy Jennifer has been recognised as a strong young person who has overcome. Jennifer hopes one day to become a social worker.

Because of your support we have been able to build the resilience needed to overcome such terrible circumstances for Jennifer and her beautiful baby. Not just over come but Jennifer wants to contribute back to support other girls in particular through becoming a social worker. Most of the reports I have written have been the lighter side of life, however this is the impact that our work has with teenagers regarding real life.

This is just one story of many to encourage you about the value we are achieving with your donation.

Thank you to you our donors. I understand this is not a pretty neat, nicely wrapped story, many of our stories aren't but it is the truth. If you have not donated to us for a while please consider a small monthly donation, every little amount helps. If you want to donate a large amount we will accept that as well! We need your help to continue making an impact in the world in which these children survive.

Thank you in anticipation.

Louise

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Dec 17, 2015
Merry Christmas 2015 from Keep The Dream196

By Louise Batty | Managing Director

Dear Friends and partners of Keep The Dream196,

Thank you so much for your continued support in 2015. This year for us has been exciting, frustrating, encouraging and devastating for many reasons.

Exciting - because we are still here when so many wonderful organizations are dying due to the global financial crisis the often hostile fiscal climate that exists out there.

Frustrating - Asset Based Community Development is very frustrating because we work with people whose agendas and values are not the same and are often in direct conflict with what we are trying to acheive.

Encouraging - Our kids are amazing and keep us encouraged and focussed to continue

Devastating - We have buried 2 kids and 2 adult volunteers this year, plus one of our girls was raped and is now pregnant. We have implemented grief and trauma counselling for all those affected but the toll is heavy on us all.

With all the bad news we are experiencing from around the world from both man made and natural disasters including the terrorist attacks in Khenya, Burundi and France to the earthquakes of Nepal and the mudslides in Brazil what is so encouraging is people like you who see a need and give to help and support others. It is easy to become overwhelmed when you are just one person but your gift means so much to others often strangers who will never know your name or your circumstances but they will know you caring through your donation.

Whenever I write to donors who have give to KTD196 I always write a personal note and to those who receive those notes monthly I hope I am not clogging your email provider. I always amazed at the generosity of heart of people. Christmas is a cash sucking, finance reducing, debt inducing time of the year and yet people still give. RELAX I am not asking for money. I am just wanting to appreciate your support and your efforts and thank you once again for making a difference to us. It does wonderful things to me personally knowing that people I dont know are willing to give and support this program and those of you who I have the priviledge to know I am very grateful.

So now, I want to say MERRY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you all. God bless you and keep you safe. May your Christmas season be full to overflowing with joy, love, happiness and blessings.

Love from Louise and the KTD196 Dream Team.

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Oct 27, 2015
Moving forward into uncharted Territory

By Louise Batty | Managing Director

Dear All,

as the title says we are moving forward into uncharted territory. Last years Annual Report I stated that we wanted to franchise what we are doing to spread our foot print further and to impact more children, families and communities. After a lot of research franchising is fraught with a lot of legalities and paperwork. To that end, we have decided to continue partnering with larger organizations in order to move ahead.

KTD196 is now working in Vembe a province in Limpopo through the Japanese Volunteer Centre, we are also working into Utah (through Buffelshoek Trust) and Acornhoek (Seeds of Light) in Mpumalanga the province next to Limpopo. Through our partnership with National Development Agency we are rolling out our Food For Life project (and childrens project) to the other districts in our province. This is exciting, we are moving on with our dreams.

Our dream is still to have our own premises which include a farm so that we can start to generate our own income and not be totally relient on people such as yourselves but to meet more and more of our own costs and also provide a safe venue for the children to come and camp. Currently we do have a venue we can camp at but the cost is very high for small groups of children. We are slowly but enthusiastically moving towards this goal with requests going to major donors both nationally and internationally for support.

We are about to complete our food security and income generation project with our parent committees. We have done such a good job that the National Development Agency has asked as to repeat the process through out the rest of the districts in this province. We will not just be taking the Food For Life program but also our childrens program to those districts. The parents and gaurdians are all very grateful for Keep The Dream196 and the work we do to support them.

I want to thank you all for your prayers, encouragement, partnership and resources to be able to do this. It is humbling to know we have people that believe in the work we do enough to put their time, effort and money where theirs mouths are. THANK YOU. For those who have donated for a while, please consider donating a regular amount even if it is a minimum amount, it all helps. 100people donating $10 = $1,000 that equates to 4 peoples salaries and transport for a month. We dont want to be a burden to any one person but this small amount allows us to plan and utilize effectively the resources we do have to see our vision fulfilled.

Thank you once again.

God bless you

Louise

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