What We Do

Before I write further on this balancing act, I feel it is important to summarise what we mean by service delivery.

What is it that we do? Thandanani's model prioritises the training and development of community based volunteers to identify children in need and to support and connect their caregivers to resources so that they can effectively look after the children in their care. Our approach is developmental, building up communities from within. We endeavour to ensure that vulnerable children receive enough community based support in a number of spheres of their lives to perhaps change the course of their lives from an apparent dead-end to one with possibilities for growth and a positive future. 

The global recession has had a huge impact. With funds cut by our donors as they have had to deal with their own financial difficulties, the board and director of Thandanani adopted a process of systematically re-evaluating our financial situation and making modifications to our budget every two months based on the prevailing funding forecast. By starting this process early in the year, with regular reviews, we were able to respond timeously and appropriately to ensure Thandanani's solvency and were able to adequately prepare for and gradually phase in cost saving measures. Simultaneously, we followed a variety of avenues to try to improve our immediate funding and to increase our funding security for 2010. We increased our number of funding applications, appealed to existing donors for additional finance, attended conferences to attract interest in our work and planned a trip overseas to visit donors with an interest in sponsoring work with vulnerable children. We are grateful to report that one of our existing donors responded to our appeal with a lifeline and a new corporate funder has come on board. There also appears to be some potential from our  recent overseas visit. These gains have offset some of the losses incurred through losing all or part of the funding from some of our donors.

In summary, I believe Thandanani has adopted a largely proactive approach to the funding losses that were a result of the recession. This has allowed us to respond in a phased, planned manner rather than following a less organised reactive approach.

To reduce costs it has been necessary to decrease both our staff and programming expenditure. To accomplish this we reduced spending on less essential activities in our programs while still ensuring that we honoured our contractual obligations to donors. In addition, we introduced a 4 day working week for half of the year to cut staffing costs. Despite these measures and as a testimony to the commitment of our staff we have been able to reach more beneficiaries this year than in previous years, largely due to our ongoing efforts to work smarter rather than simply harder.

Anticipating funding challenges in 2010, and conscious that a 4 day working week is not sustainable, we realised that further cost cutting measures were necessary. After much debate we decided to make a phased withdrawal out of 3 of our communities in which we have had the least involvement and to cease our assistance to Early Learning Centres (ELCs). Fortunately most of the ELCs were soon to receive State subsidies allowing them to function independently of Thandanani. In a similar vein, most households in the communities that we were leaving had State assistance although they would lose the important services and support the Thandanani offers. We effected
the withdrawal in the last quarter of the 2009/2010 year. This has been a painful process, both for the communities and for Thandanani.

The ways of NGOs are sometimes rather unusual, dependent as they are on donor funding. At the same time as we are cutting back on one front, we have been given funding to expand our services on another. Thandanani has received funds to introduce health services in 2010/2011 in the areas of HIV Education, Voluntary Counselling and Testing and Treatment Compliance Monitoring. We are excited about this new project as it complements our existing services and allows us to be more proactive in educating our caregivers and their children in HIV prevention and enables us to assist those who are infected by the virus to learn their status and to live with positive self-care.

This last year has been one of the most challenging years that Thandanani has had to face in a long time. It has been possible to meet the challenges because of the hard work and dedication of all involved – on the one hand the board, director, staff and volunteers on the other our donors who have supported us as best they can during their own financial difficulties.

Many sacrifices have been made, not least our staff working a 4-day week while still ensuring that our volunteers, caregivers and children receive the necessary training and support. Our volunteers have continued to identify and respond to the needs of the vulnerable children in their communities despite their own challenges in a climate of recession. The board and director have been diligent to respond proactively to care for the organisation in the present and the future.

My warm thanks to all who have played their part in making a difference and offering hope and a future to the young lives in our communities.