Year: 2020

Although Chris Dranias didn’t manage to break the powerlifting record last Saturday, he did manage to raise a record breaking R42 290.00 for the Durban Child & Youth Care Centre … which makes him a real hero in our eyes.

Friends, family and community members flocked to support Chris on the day, and stayed to support our children with generous donations. Apart from the cash, Chris also secured donations of:

• Non-perishable food items
• Future Life cereal and energy bars
• Chicken products from Classic Food Brands

Words are not enough to express our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to Chris for the incredible kindness and compassion he has shown to our children. Powerlifting for Charity – what a way to give back!

Covid-19 and the national lockdown presented unprecedented challenges to our country, economy and world of work. Business has not been ‘normal’ for anyone. Which is why we are so thankful for local heroes like Chris who have stepped up to make a difference. We often think that big corporates or institutes have the capacity to bring about significant change. Chris is an example of how an individual who is determined to do good, can do great things!

Despite the closure of our Siyakhula Rehabilitation Centre this year, we still have a huge operational shortfall of R4,9million for which we had to fundraise.

We are forever grateful to our community of friends and family who have helped us at a time when it was most difficult to do so.

We still need to raise the final R1,5million shortfall in order to continue providing care and support to vulnerable children. Chris has literally raised the bar for individuals, proving that everyone can make a difference!

If you would like to make a donation please click here.

Or contact Nicolette Modicka by emailing nicolette@dch.org.za

Unfortunately our quiz night has been cancelled.

For more information, please contact Nicolette on 031 2011 301 or email nicolette@dch.org.za

Grateful thanks also to our generous sponsors:

Writing in Ground Up, James Stent reports that some organisations, such as children’s homes and old age homes, have gone for four months without receiving their subsidies from the Department of Social Development.

“Hundreds of organisations in the Eastern Cape and some in the North West province that perform social work on behalf of the government have not been paid their subsidies since March. Others, in North West, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga, have faced subsidy cuts of up to 25%, without consultation and with no reason given. In Limpopo, they have been told that 10-15% of their operational budget must be spent on procuring personal protective equipment (PPE) to face the Covid-19 epidemic.

“The picture of a social services network on the brink of collapse is painted in a 20 July report by Lisa Vetten of the Care Work Campaign, and Margaret Grobbelaar of the National Coalition of Social Services, a national voluntary coalition of social work organisations. The report, Rapid assessment on the financial status of non-profit organisations providing social care services, describes the experiences of hundreds of organisations across South Africa and has been sent by its authors to the national Department of Social Development.

“On 5 August, Care Work and the National Coalition of Social Services wrote to Linton Mchunu, the Acting Director General of the national DSD. “We are deeply concerned to prevent full-blown crises from developing in parts of the country. We remind you that the Gauteng Department of Health’s failure to pay subsidies on time left organisations unable to purchase food — the lack of which directly contributed to the deaths of some of the former residents of Life Esidimeni. We do not wish to see such a scenario repeated in social welfare services.”

Click here to read full article

We are so grateful that you are considering commemorating Mandela Day by contributing to the children cared for here at the Durban Child and Youth Care Centre.

Sadly, as with many areas of our life, COVID-19’s impact means that we will not be able to celebrate Mandela Day as we have in past years. Regrettably the centre will remain closed to the public – we cannot allow any visits or interactions with our children.

We will however be accepting donations in kind. Please click here to see our current Wish List.

Our offices will be closed on Saturday 18 July – so please drop off your Mandela Day donations at the office from 13-17 July. As required in the regulations, we have a thorough screening process in place at our reception area, so anyone making donations is asked to report to the receptionist on arrival.

At this time when our President has announced a National State of Disaster in respect of COVID-19 the management of the Durban Child & Youth Care Centre has implemented urgent and drastic measures to protect the children in our care and the employees who provide them with 24 hour care. The following measures will apply until the present State of Disaster has been uplifted.

• All activities facilitated by volunteers are suspended.
• Site visits by any member of the public will not be allowed.
• As far as possible we request that contact with the centre be limited to electronic contact. Where this is not possible please report to reception and adhere to the infection control measures communicated to you by the receptionist.
• Contact by parents, extended family members and host parents will be limited to telephonic contact.
• Holiday placements for all children are cancelled.
• Children on 5-day or 10-day programmes are not to be allowed to leave the facility for weekend visits to family/community.

Our employees have been informed of the above precautionary measures and have been authorised to enforce these measures.

We trust that you will support our efforts as we strive to protect our children and employees.

Psalm 37:5 ‘Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust Him, and He will help you.’

Yours sincerely,

Mrs A Goble
Director

During April 2019 the Department of Social Development asked all Child and Youth Care Centre’s in KZN to a meeting.

Meeting the health requirements of catering provision was one of several concerns raised by the department. Whilst we were confident that we have been providing children with nutritious meals it was evident that in order to meet the compliance requirements of both Department of Social Development and Municipal Health we would need to venture into a field of service that is outside of our area of expertise; i.e, hospitality.

After extensive investigation and careful consideration our Board took the decision to contract Ethekwini Caterers to take over the running of our kitchen.

Ethekwini caterers have developed an effective model for meeting the catering needs of a Child and Youth Care Centre having provided this service to Pietermaritzburg Children’s Home for the past 6 years.

We are confident that this decision by the Board will ensure full compliance with both the Department of Social Development and Municipal Health with regards to kitchen requirements, kitchen staff and food preparation, whilst providing our children with meals of a higher nutritional value.

We have been fortunate in this financial year to have received support towards some of our most pressing renovation projects. Special thank you goes out to The Victor Daitz Foundation for their kindness and generosity. Thanks to your support we have been able to undertake and complete the following renovation projects:

There were mixed emotions as children and staff gathered to bid one our children farewell as she returns to her family after many years of being in our care. We are sad to see her go but so happy that she is going home to be with her family.