CARE-NET Development and Support Organisation, a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO), will be hosting a concert, in Akasia Hall, on the 18th of April as part of fund-raising towards building a children’s home. The NPO is targeting 500 supporters to attend the event.
CARE-NET Development and Support operate in Mabopane, Shoshanguve Block A and Bushveldt Road in Winterveldt, dealing with needs of orphaned and vulnerable children and their families by placing them in foster care.
The NPO also renders Social Work Services to families in crisis through counselling, referral services and liaise with other service providers to assist In Early Childhood Development.
Their services include programs for school-going children, holiday programmes and computer training programs to empower children, youth and adults.
Founder and Director of CARE-NET, Ms Mmatṧatṧi Mokgohloa, said she started the organisation in 2007 with the support of her family and also bought the property in Mabopane where Care-Net is operating from her family.
Ms Mokgohloa said primarily the NPO works with children who are vulnerable, lost or orphaned.
The NPO employs Social Workers and Social Auxiliary Workers who do home visits, attend courts, retrieve lost children from hospital and document the lost children.
“We also act as a Child Protection Organisation (CPO), which means we can protect children who are abandoned or lost by putting them in children’s’ homes.
“The fundraising is to assist us to buy the property next door to us so that we can build a children’s home. This is because If a child is undocumented we cannot place them with anybody except a government registered institution.
“Currently it is a problem because we do not have our own children’s home so we have to place children as far as Johannesburg instead of placing them in our own community where we can help them.
Ms Mokgohloa said they need support at different levels, with salaries for social workers and funding for a children’s home. The government is supporting Early Childhood Development (ECD) catering for 32 children at R15,00 a day per child while the NPO has an average of 85 children. The NPO currently relies on donors to make for the difference.
Office administration is done by Ms Kedibone Makgora, who is responsible for accepting the children.
She said one of the challenges the NPO faces is area demarcations determined by the Department of Social Development which requires that caregivers refer undocumented lost or abandoned children to the Department of Home Affairs where it can take 30 to 60 days for the NPO to be cleared to work with the affected children.
Early Childhood Development (ECD) facilitator, Ms Thandi Mkhize, of CARE-NET said she is passionate about working with children because it makes her realise who she is.
“I love it here and my colleagues and my boss are all nice people,” said Ms Mkhize.
Care-Net can be contacted at 012 549 0949/083 453 8771
