We buy and renovate houses within a needful community and provide for the operational cost. Our partner organisation sees to the identification and placement of children and identification and training of the community house mother. A dedicated social worker monitors the family, provides psycho-social support and applies for government grants for the children (out of an estimated 2 million orphans only approx. 350 000 children receive the foster care grant – UCT Children’s Institute). The same service is provided to families and children in the broader community.
THOKOMALA currently operates 14 homes, directly caring for 84 children; a further 800 children benefit indirectly through our outreach programmes. The homes are located in KwaZulu Natal (x6), Gauteng Provinces (x5), the Eastern Cape (x2) and one home in the Free State. Two more homes are being set up in the Western Cape and KZN.
THOKOMALA partner organisation, Child Welfare South Africa (CWSA) is the largest South African non-government children’s NGO with some 260 affiliated societies. The partnership is a win-win situation as THOKOMALA supports the local child welfare society, most often small organisations with very limited resources, by paying the salary of a dedicated Social Worker to oversee the home and other foster children on their case load. CWSA supplies THOKOMALA with bi-annual reports on the children’s progress.