Food Security South Africa Project #17691

Lifeskills 2,743 vulnerable children South Africa

by Keep The Dream196

Project Report | Mar 30, 2022
School Holiday activities are going strong!

By Louise and the KTD196 Dream Team | Jack of all trades, master of none!

Makungu at aged 14yrs!

Welcome to our weekly update! I hope you are finding these interesting and informative.

Thank you so much for partnering with KTD196, you are having an amazing impact by saving lives, literally.

Today I want to talk about teenage pregnancy! Teenage pregnancy is the new PANDEMIC in South Africa.

Yes I know I have done that before however there are a lot of new supporters that may not know what we do and how that need to understand why this program is so important! Before KTD196 was born, I performed a focus group with 13girls and asked them "Why there are so many teenagers getting pregnant?" Their response floored me, apart from rape, transactional sex (sex for money or gifts or grades at school) the biggest response was "We are bored, there is nothing to do, sex is free!" So as part of the program, we keep the children busy daily but also instill morals and values through a code of conduct.

Here are some facts that you might like to consider!

FACT #1 The proportion of women, by the time they are 19yrs of age, who have ever been pregnant is 25%. The teenage (10-19yrs) pregnancy rate is 13.9% of all registered births in 2016, this does not include home births, stillbirths, abortions, unregistered births, or miscarriages. The number of deliveries by under 18yr olds in 2016 at medical facilities is only 7.4% and so a large proportion has home births which increases maternal mortality and neonatal mortality.

KTD196 pregnancy rate is 0.07% over 15yrs (12 girls over 19 years) have become pregnant while in our program. We have saved the government over R87million in Child Support Grants they do not have to payout. This does not include costs associated with 2,018 teenagers attending:

* Antenatal Clinic visits

* Antenatal blood screening

* Antenatal medications

* Nevirapine

* Postnatal Clinic visits

* Tertiary hospital referrals for delivery

* Caesarian Sections - delivery and inpatient costs associated with a child giving birth

* Neonatal ICU for the baby

* Follow up Well Baby clinics, Immunizations, sickly children, and ongoing hospital admissions for mother and child.

* Management and cost involved for spontaneous abortions

* Management and cost involved for medical abortions

FACT #2 There are 400,000 new HIV infections (23%) per annum amongst adolescent girls and young women aged between 16-24yrs. Because our children are abstaining from sexual activity the possibility of becoming HIV infected is negligible. However, 23% of 716 girls in our program = 165 (potentially infected by HIV) x R1,700 (Cost of Antiretroviral alone per year) which is a saving of R280,500 per year. The savings to the government in 10years are over R2million.

This does not include:

* Clinic visits

* Treatment of opportunistic infections

* CD4 and Viral load pathology tests

* Tuberculosis co-infection treatment and management

* Other Sexually Transmitted Infections treatment and management

* Maternal Mortality for pregnant teenagers is 97.7 of 100,000

* Neonatal Mortality for teenage mothers is 34.4 of 100,000

* Multi-Drug Resistant Tuberculosis treatment and management (R200,000 per year)

Keep The Dream196 has trained over 2,500 children in HIV prevention and gender-based violence prevention. We also have trained over 250 HIV Peer Educators to share the truth about HIV and to dispel myths that still pervade this society.

I am sure you agree that this is a tragic needless loss of life to families, communities, and the nation, however, this is exactly what you are preventing through your support! This and so much more I will share in later reports.

I hope you are encouraged by the work we do and understand the impact we are having. 716 babies have not been born! They have not been aborted because they have not been conceived. The children are being children and enjoying being children and not mothers.

Thank you once again for your support, it really is awesome however we URGENTLY NEED YOUR HELP. It is life and death to these girls. Help us to prevent unwanted pregnancies and to assist the girl children to realize their potential through KTD196.

Blessings

Louise

ps Please check our YouTube channel for some fun videos of some of the school holiday activities!

Makungu 17yrs of age girl “I used to be a bully at school but now I stop others from bullying, I am a kind person now. I show respect to other children and especially my parents. If KTD196 had not come into my life I think I would have been in jail for stealing or having a child. I have changed so much to a respectful polite child. I was not a good kid before I joined the program. I want to be a geoscientist when I leave school”

The alternative for 23% of all girl children!

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Mar 23, 2022
Schoooooooooooollllllll Holidays, here we come!!!

By Louise and the KTD196 Dream Team | Jack of all trades, master of none!

Thank you!

Avuxeni, Minjani!

Greetings, thank you for taking the time to read this report. I hope you find it interesting!

Each week I think, "if I was donating to KTD196 what would I like to hear about?"

Today I thought you might like to hear about what the kids are doing during the school holidays. Each holiday period we put in extra activities so that the children are kept busy.

When we first started in 2003, I remember asking a group of young girls, all around the age 10-13yrs, I asked them why they thought Teenage Pregnancy was so high? Their comments were insightful and just so powerful. They all agreed that boredom was the cause. There was nothing else to do........!

I was gobsmacked. Something so serious could so easily be prevented. Yes, I know, there are a lot of other dynamics in play like peer pressure, trading marks for sex with school teachers, "blessers" which is a polite term for adults who pay for sex with young people through buying them gifts, basically transactional sex, however, the bottom line according to the children we work with is that boredom is at the root.

Even through Covid, our teenage pregnancy rate was 0, the rest of the country saw an explosion to 20% of all school-going girls becoming pregnant during this time.

So our strategy is to build in a morals and values foundation for these kids' lives and combine keeping them busy.

The school holidays are the most challenging however we plug in extra programs and activities to compensate.

In the second photo, you will see some recycled arts and crafts. Often times this is the first time the children have used paint or created anything craft-wise other than coloring in, usually with led pencils. In the series that follows are the kids preventing land erosion and keeping the road safe for taxis for when the rainy season starts. By keeping the children busy with worthwhile projects, the community is appreciative of the work done, they are happy, they treat the children with greater esteem, and are willing to contribute small amounts of money for the children to buy resources such as paint and glitter for other activities.

I have included a short video as a link and also other photo's for you to see the work they have completed just on one small section of the road. There are many other sections to have potholes filled in, edges cleared, litter to be removed.

I hope you will celebrate with us the effort these children go to in order to be useful and help others.

Blessings to you

Louise

Arts and Crafts

Shoring up the roadway

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Mar 16, 2022
Savhanna receiving her Leaping Wolf Award

By Engel, Louise and the Dream Team | Jack of all trades, master of none!

Savhanna

Avuxeni, minjane! Hello, how are you?

Did you enjoy the podcast from last week? I am not sure if you have had a chance to watch the video but if you did, I would love to have feedback!

Thank you so much for your continued support! You are making such a difference in the lives of the children we serve. I wish you could see the hope in their eyes, the spring in their step, and the determination in their faces. It is wonderful and I am so privileged to witness this.

Your donation is changing lives. Thank you so much.

A few months ago I introduced you to Engel, one of our Rovers who has taken on the role of "Social Influencer", the testimony below is written by her. She interviewed Savhanna on receipt of her Leaping Wolf, the highest badge in Cubs and which is internationally recognized. I am sure you will applaud her first effort at being a reporter!

Our program is becoming more and more sustainable as the young adults rise up in the program and assist the organization in activities and programs. I hope you enjoy Engels writing and Savhanna's story. Keep The Dream196 is the sponsoring organization for this group.

Blessings and thank you once again

Louise

Savhanna is an 11-year-old girl from Polokwane in the Limpopo Region.

In 2021 she was one of the Cubs from the 1st Polokwane Scout Group to receive her Leaping Wolf from Chief Commissioner and from Louise the Director of KTD196 as well as Nkulu the National Cub Program co-ordinator who is KTD196 social worker.

When talking to her I discovered a young girl whose confidence and drive is inspiring! “I felt so happy and appreciated when I got my Leaping Wolf Award,” says Savhanna smiling. “I joined Scouting a few years back when I was 8 years old. Since then I have learned a lot of things. I know how to tie knots and use ropes and I also learned to survive in the wild. I feel that my communication skills have improved by talking and being around other people during Cub activities. I can work better in a team than I could before. I think it’s important in Scouting to always take advantage of opportunities and have fun.”

As an adventurous person, Savhanna was deeply affected by the COVID-19 pandemic when events and activities had to be either postponed or canceled. “It wasn’t easy to do my Leaping Wolf with Covid regulations but I did it step by step. One of the activities I did to get this award is the water challenge where I learned more about the challenges that certain people encounter. I also learned how to do knots and made my own knotting board. One of my personal challenges was doing the Magoebaskloof canopy tour where I had to face my fears … height!”

My communication skills improved by being around others during Cub activities.

Savhanna has big future plans in Scouting. “My goal is to grow the Scouting community by recruiting other people. I aim to do this by showing them the fun I have in Scouting. I also want to get my Springbok Award!”

She is clearly a young girl that is willing and ready to tackle all the challenges that come her way both in and outside of Scouting. Her advice to other Cubs is: “Take opportunities and do all the activities whilst having fun.” To her peers outside of the program, her message is clear “Please join Scouts! It’s the most amazing thing you will ever do!”

Nkulu, Angy and Savhanna 2021

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