Project HOPE UK has submitted a proposal to the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) to support important advances in the care of orphans and other vulnerable children in four informal settlements in West Rand, South Africa, as part of its “Munsieville Model” initiative.
The DFID bid, for funding under its Civil Society Challenge Fund, requests a grant of £495,000 to create satellite projects in the slum settlements, each of which aims to get the communities and the providers of essential services working together to benefit vulnerable children and their caregivers initially, and through them, the whole community.
Executive Director, Paul Brooks, described the core problem. “The four informal settlements are typical of many around the major cities of southern Africa; they house growing populations in extreme poverty, often outside the reach of government services and the activities of voluntary organisations. The problems of Africa are magnified in these slums and the thousands of children who have lost parents to AIDS face a massive struggle simply to survive.
“The residents of these settlements are reluctant to claim services from their government for fear that they could provoke action to clear their illegal sites, and government and charity workers are equally reluctant to provide services, fearing the high crime rates and massive demand for services in these communities. It is essential”, says Paul, “that we build a bridge so that these wonderfully resourceful communities can come into mainstream society, from the shadows of their squatter camps”.
Orphans and other vulnerable children are at the heart of the Project HOPE strategy for the West Rand settlements. Of all residents, they are the most needy, but also, the growing challenge they pose is perhaps the one major point of common interest between the residents, whose resources are being overwhelmed by them, and the government, which is under scrutiny from the international community to comply with the child rights treaties it has endorsed. Project HOPE UK believes that as the communities come together to improve the prospects of their children, it will have a dramatic impact on the way the entire population engages with government and civil society.
The focal point of the new project will be the establishment of five, fully sustainable early childhood development centres – pre-school facilities where caregivers can leave their children for five days each week, freeing them to participate in a wide-ranging training programme to equip them to give excellent care, and also gain employment, start small-scale businesses or tend high-yield vegetable gardens. Whilst at the pre-school centres, which will be operated by Project HOPE UK partners, Safe and Sound, the children will receive health screening and immunisation, development checks, nutritious meals and early childhood education.
Other services will cascade out to the wider community, including numerous Village Savings and Loans groups and regular awareness events, run jointly in the settlements, by Project HOPE South Africa, local authority service providers, charities and other agencies, to help residents benefit from full access to their rights, including healthcare, education, social services, legal registration and participation in democratic processes.
Along with the proposal submitted to DFID, Project HOPE UK is also applying for funds from a variety of other sources for similar projects in the West Rand area of South Africa, as part of its long term vision of establishing The Munsieville Model as one of Africa’s leading, fully-integrated and locally sustainable models of excellence in the care of orphans and other vulnerable children, focused on their health and total well-being, and through it, to influence and enhance work with such children everywhere.
The DFID bid, for funding under its Civil Society Challenge Fund, requests a grant of £495,000 to create satellite projects in the slum settlements, each of which aims to get the communities and the providers of essential services working together to benefit vulnerable children and their caregivers initially, and through them, the whole community.
Executive Director, Paul Brooks, described the core problem. “The four informal settlements are typical of many around the major cities of southern Africa; they house growing populations in extreme poverty, often outside the reach of government services and the activities of voluntary organisations. The problems of Africa are magnified in these slums and the thousands of children who have lost parents to AIDS face a massive struggle simply to survive.
“The residents of these settlements are reluctant to claim services from their government for fear that they could provoke action to clear their illegal sites, and government and charity workers are equally reluctant to provide services, fearing the high crime rates and massive demand for services in these communities. It is essential”, says Paul, “that we build a bridge so that these wonderfully resourceful communities can come into mainstream society, from the shadows of their squatter camps”.
Orphans and other vulnerable children are at the heart of the Project HOPE strategy for the West Rand settlements. Of all residents, they are the most needy, but also, the growing challenge they pose is perhaps the one major point of common interest between the residents, whose resources are being overwhelmed by them, and the government, which is under scrutiny from the international community to comply with the child rights treaties it has endorsed. Project HOPE UK believes that as the communities come together to improve the prospects of their children, it will have a dramatic impact on the way the entire population engages with government and civil society.
The focal point of the new project will be the establishment of five, fully sustainable early childhood development centres – pre-school facilities where caregivers can leave their children for five days each week, freeing them to participate in a wide-ranging training programme to equip them to give excellent care, and also gain employment, start small-scale businesses or tend high-yield vegetable gardens. Whilst at the pre-school centres, which will be operated by Project HOPE UK partners, Safe and Sound, the children will receive health screening and immunisation, development checks, nutritious meals and early childhood education.
Other services will cascade out to the wider community, including numerous Village Savings and Loans groups and regular awareness events, run jointly in the settlements, by Project HOPE South Africa, local authority service providers, charities and other agencies, to help residents benefit from full access to their rights, including healthcare, education, social services, legal registration and participation in democratic processes.
Along with the proposal submitted to DFID, Project HOPE UK is also applying for funds from a variety of other sources for similar projects in the West Rand area of South Africa, as part of its long term vision of establishing The Munsieville Model as one of Africa’s leading, fully-integrated and locally sustainable models of excellence in the care of orphans and other vulnerable children, focused on their health and total well-being, and through it, to influence and enhance work with such children everywhere.
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