– Martin Luther King Jnr
• A word from the board •
By
wisdom
a house is built,
and through
understanding
it is established;
and through
knowledge
its rooms are filled with rare
and beautiful treasures.
• homes •
In March 2013 we opened a new home
in Mowbray, where Irene is now the
foster mother looking after five children.
Roughly six months later, a second
home in Goodwood opened, giving us an
opportunity to take in five sisters. We
are always so delighted when we are able
to reunite siblings to live together in one
of our homes. Both these homes were
made possible thanks to our funding
partners, Ukuthemba, who also fund
our Observatory home.
As mentioned in our previous annual
report, this year we started our first
‘transition home’ in association with our
American partners, Tapestry Homes.
In this transition home, four older girls
live under the watchful eye of Anneke,
our social worker and Alex, a Tapestry
volunteer who lives in the community.
We were delighted that two of the girls
matriculated at the end of 2013, and
are now starting to find their way to
becoming independent.
In late 2013, Patricia, our foster mother at
one of our Vrygrond homes announced
her engagement to Frank, and with it
their decision to go and live in Frank’s
house in Montana with all six of Patricia’s
foster children! We are very happy that
the children not only kept the same foster
mother, but also gained a father, and we
wish Frank and Patricia the very best for
their married life together. Apart from
moving house, everything else remains the
same, with Patricia and the children still
being part of the Home from Home family.
After a month or two standing empty,
we then re-opened the Vrygrond home
with Zonesa and Sipho becoming foster
parents there.
At the end of the 2014 financial year, the
search was on for a foster mother or foster
parents for our second Cloetesville home,
run in association with the Vineyard Church.
When this home opens, it will bring Home
from Home’s total number to 33 - a long
way since we started with our first six
children in Khayelitsha in 2005!
– Franklin D. Roosevelt
• children •
During the last year, 34 new children were
admitted into our network of 32 homes.
We now have the capacity to care for just
under 200 children.
Nine children returned to their families’
care. This is always a very special time
and usually a long process whereby the
children are part of a family reunification
programme. Although our foster mothers
really miss the children, they are happy
that these children can return to their
families. Sadly one boy was placed in a
Child and Youth Care facility as he found
it too difficult to cope in his foster family.
A more structured environment seems
to have been good for him, and he has
settled down really well.
We also admitted 12 children as emergency
placements. Some stayed with our foster
mothers for a few days, and others for
a few months, until family members
could be found for them.
Our homes in the Eden Karoo area are
doing well, with our George home now
having seven children, as three siblings
were placed there just before Christmas.
Our children have had a good year enjoying
lots of fun activities and camps. Reach for
a Dream have organised outings to a flying
club where our children flew in a small
aircraft, they have been to Rock World,
and our girls were treated to a pampering
session where they were Princess for a Day.
The younger children all get a chance to go
on the Cape Times Fresh Air camps which
they love.
– Nelson Mandela
• day care and after school program •
We have 60 children registered at the
crèche and run three classes from 3 to 6
year olds. We have had several inspections
by the Department of Social Development
and they are always impressed with the
standard of care the children receive at
the crèche.
We had a big staff change earlier in the
year with three of our crèche staff leaving.
This gave us the opportunity to employ
Edu Carers with the relevant qualifications
and we have seen a big change in the level
of stimulation and care that the children
receive and we feel the crèche has risen
to a new standard. Our Edu Carers have
attended various courses throughout the
year and they really enjoy coming back to
use the skills they have learnt.
There are regular parents meetings and
parents are taking a much more active role
in their children’s lives at the crèche.
We have a wonderful volunteer, Christa,
who has helped to obtain more equipment.
She is giving the children and Edu Carers
computer lessons and has also stocked our
library with wonderful children’s books.
The crèche was also given a new look when
volunteers came to paint the classrooms.
The children loved a very exciting outing
to Monkey World. We also had a very
special graduation ceremony at the end of
the year. Our graduating children looked
so lovely and sang and danced for their
parents and visitors. We were overwhelmed
by the support from the parents and local
community.
Our afterschool program is running really
well now that we have the support of
volunteers from African Impact. Volunteers
come twice a week to help the children
with their homework and to organize fun
educational activities.
Our children are still finding it difficult to
cope at school and we hope to encourage
more tutors to help them as well as
encourage our foster mothers to take a
more active role in helping their children.
– Henry Ford
• our team •
We have grown over the past year, saying
goodbye to some old faces and welcoming
new ones!
Our wonderful social worker, Charlotte, left
early in 2014 to have a baby and we were
thrilled to hear of Josiah’s birth in March.
We wish him and his parents, Charlotte
and Nico, all the very best. Charlotte had
been with us for over four years, being the
first social worker on Home from Home’s
staff. We were so sorry to see her go, but
very happy that it was for such a great
reason. In Charlotte’s place as Metro South
Social Worker, we welcomed Carmen who
conveniently also lives in the Metro area
which she serves! Kelly, our Metro East
Social Worker, also left during the year to
concentrate on looking after her young son,
and we were very happy to take on Laurian,
who graduated from UCT in December
2013. Laurian is no newcomer to Home
from Home, having spent her third and
fourth years as a student with Home from
Home in her practical placement. Laurian
is settling down very well in Khayelitsha
overseeing the seven homes and Day
Care Centre.
As we have grown, we have identified a
new, much needed role at Home from
Home, that of Operations Manager.
With more homes, a new and bigger
office and four cars, there always seems
to be something that needs maintaining,
repairing or updating! Kevin Turner, who
has been a volunteer and part of our
Management Team for many years, joined
us in January for a fixed period to help
us and identify exactly what the new role
requires. We will be creating a permanent
position later in 2014.
We have several new foster parents at
our homes. We welcomed Zonesa and
Sipho to Vrygrond, Philiswa to Kayamandi,
Irene to Mowbray, Beatie to Goodwood,
Mama Thandi and Faith to Khayelitsha
and Reinette and Oswald to Villiersdorp.
Our monthly foster mother support group
meetings have grown tremendously, and
this year, not only did we outgrow our office,
but we also outgrew our venue for the
monthly meetings! We are so grateful that
our associates, St Peters Mowbray, have let
us use their church hall for these monthly
meetings. As well as being more spacious,
it is also a fantastic venue in terms of
location, being close to all public transport.
No doubt the coming year will see more
new foster mothers, so we are very happy
to have the extra space to accommodate
them all!
– Nadine Gordimer
• therapeutic intervention •
We have a team of committed social
workers whose role it is to ensure that
our children receive the therapeutic
intervention they need. Our social
workers see many of the children for
individual counselling and, if they feel
any of the children need more specialised
intervention, they refer them to a
psychologist, occupational therapist
or other professionals.
We’ve also been fortunate to have social
work students from UCT and Stellenbosch
running groups with our children and foster
mothers, as well as social workers who’ve
run groups with our pre-teens, adolescent
boys and girls.
We’ve organised many workshops for our
teenagers, with activities such as helping
at DARG animal rescue centre, visits to the
beach and a hike up Table Mountain! All
these activities are geared towards teaching
our teenagers life skills and it’s a special
time for them to talk to our social workers
and each other, as well as share experiences.
Over the past few years we’ve developed
a Monitoring and Evaluation tool, which we
use with our children and foster mothers.
It provides a great way to help us assess
our work with our children.
We continue to run monthly support and
training groups for our foster mothers. Our
foster mothers all enjoy the opportunity
to share their highs and lows and have
become good friends. We’ve had some
very interesting professionals who’ve run
workshops for our foster mothers on
nutrition, drug abuse, coping with children’s
difficulties, bed wetting and family
reunification. Our foster mothers have also
had a few pampering sessions – and been
treated to massages, manicures and a
therapeutic pottery workshop.
We’ve also been offering parenting groups
for some of our foster mothers who have
teenagers. And, twice a year, we run our
Associates workshop, an opportunity for
all our Associates, guest speakers and
foster mothers to meet and share their
experiences.
Our social workers continue to attend our
monthly support group meetings. This is
run by Gill, an experienced and wonderful
psychologist. It’s a safe space where our
social workers can share their concerns.
Several of our social workers also attend
workshops and training sessions to develop
and learn new skills to help our foster
mothers and children.
– Maya Angelou
• fundraising report •
With our move to a new, bigger office,
opening new homes and taking on new
staff, 2014 was always going to be an
expensive year! Fortunately we have been
incredibly blessed and have had all of
our needs and more covered. For this, we
continue to be incredibly grateful.
sponsors and we hope that will continue
to grow in the years to come as we care
for more children.
Having good overseas support has always
been beneficial to Home from Home, but
this year in particular we benefited from
a weak rand and our overseas donations
became more valuable than ever. We
received our largest ever grant, from
Zeppelin in Germany which came at a
very opportune time, as did an end-ofyear additional grant from our long-term
supporters, Wellspring International.
Both of these grants came as we were
moving office and this enabled us to have
everything we needed done to our new
offices to make them ready to move into, as
well as cover our moving costs and more.
Sporting and other challenges continue to
be a very important way for individuals to
raise funds for Home from Home. Following
tradition, we organised a team for the 2013
Pick n Pay Cape Argus Cycle Tour, as well
as our annual 30 Day Yoga Challenge in
conjunction with local studio, YogaWay.
In fact, so successful and popular are the
sporting challenges, that in early 2014 we
launched Challenges for Children, where
any individual could commit to raising
funds for Home from Home by setting
themselves a challenge which pushed
them out of their comfort zone. Home
from Home Director Pippa Shaper kicked
off the challenge with the Peninsula Half
Marathon. Several other challenges are
already planned for 2014. See our website
for more details!
Our child sponsorship program continues
to grow and gives local and international
supporters a chance to support an
individual child in our care. This program
has been running successfully since
we started in 2005 under the care of
Nicky Thompson. We now have 174 child
We are tremendously grateful to each
individual, company, foundation and Trust
who continues to support the work that
we are doing with their donations, large
and small, financially and in kind. Together,
we are making a huge difference in many
children’s lives.
– Warren Buffet
• financial report •
The 2014 financial year was a very
important one for Home from Home.
Not only did our organisation expand
significantly, but we also decided it was
time to invest in our own, larger space.
Fortunately we were in a financial position
that allowed us to release funds from our
Sustainability Fund, and we were able to
purchase our new offices in Plumstead. We
were also exceptionally fortunate to receive
three unexpected, and very generous,
donations at the time of our move, which
allowed us to take care of necessary
upgrades at our new premises.
With regards to our Sustainability Fund, we
fully intend to continue growing it in order
to always have a good ‘buffer’ of funding.
Not only will this protect Home from Home
in future against any shortfall, but, as we’ve
committed to looking after our children for
the long term, we cannot afford to have any
homes close due to lack of finances.
This year, we were once again blessed
with many donors and supporters from
South Africa and all around the world. It’s
thanks to them that we’ve not only been
able to carry on the work we’ve been doing
for the last nine years, but also been able
to continue growing and expanding. The
weaker Rand has meant that our overseas
donations are particularly valuable and our
diverse funding base ensures that we are
not reliant on any one particular donor,
sector or country for our financial security.
Our operating revenue for 2014 was
R6,716,076 , against R4,836,858 in 2013,
and included the moving and renovation
costs of our new offices. As such, our
operating expenses for the year were
R4,096,914, up from R3,348, 874 in the
previous year.
The pie chart represents our income for
the 2014 financial year, as well as how it has
been spent or retained. If you would like
a full copy of our audited accounts, or for
those of our Educational or Sustainability
Trusts, please contact our office and we will
be delighted to send them to you.
Once again, our huge and heartfelt thanks
go to every person who has supported
Home from Home during the last year, and
enabled us to go from strength to strength.
Home from Home
Income received 2014
G
A
F
E
D
B
C
ASpent on buildings
R2,520,000
B S
pent on other assets
R263,520
CCore Costs
R2,390,970
DCost of running homes
R1,542,973
ECost of running nursery school
R197,089
FRetained in building fund
R205,065
GRetained in sustainability fund
R1,165,149
Figures in South African Rands
• volunteers •
We owe such gratitude and thanks to our
dedicated volunteers:
Mel, our long-standing Mr Fix-it in
Khayelitsha, is now also our computer
fundi and was a huge help when we moved
office.
Cross Cultural Solutions who have given us
wonderful volunteers over the years. African
Impact who are now offering homework
help to our children in Khayelitsha and
Ocean View and Reach for a Dream who’ve
invited our children to such special outings
over the year.
Ronel has tirelessly offered legal advice
while we’ve been buying new homes and
our new office. Nicky has been running
our sponsorship program for over nine
years, and has built up a dedicated group
of sponsors. Marilyn has assisted us in our
office, always giving us sound advice.
We’ve also received pro bono help from
counsellors; Lolly who counsels some of
our foster mothers; Lisa and Wilmarie,
Occupational Therapists, assess many
of our children; and Gill, a psychologist,
supports and encourages our social
workers.
The Warren Baptist Team, who’ve come
from America to paint some of our homes
and spend time with our children. Local
volunteers from Youth Hub and CPUT
have also organised fun activities for
our children.
We have many other very committed
volunteers who visit the children, help
them with their homework and take them
on outings. They’re too many to mention
individually, but we value you all so much.
We work with such committed Associates
who help the foster mothers and children.
Without them we could not provide such a
high level of support to our foster mothers.
We are so grateful to all our Trustees: Pam,
Andy, Jenny, Bob and Padi who support
and guide the Home from Home team.
On behalf of our foster mothers and
children, whose lives have been so
enriched by our volunteers, we thank
you all so very much.
only small things
• special thanks •
Aaron Beare Foundation
Anna Spanjaard
Bowman Gilfillan
Cape Town Rubber Co
Caterpillar Foundation
Christa Rose Huthloff
Church of the Holy Spirit
Clem and Marlies
Spaubeeck
Columbus Cleaning
Solutions
Cross Cultural Solutions
Dangwen Trust
Douglas Jooste Trust
Dr and Mrs Connolly
Dr Jutta Lenz
Friends of Home
from Home Austria
Friends of Home
from Home Germany
Friends of Home
from Home UK
GetOn Foundation
Gill Douglas
Jacaranda
Jason West
John and Sally Munroe
Kevin Turner
Kim Dornquest
Laura Schmiedeknecht
Lorelle Menne
Marketing Merchants
Martin and Jade Ryman
Mel Jones
Nedbank Private Wealth
Nussbaum Foundation
Optimum Learning
Technologies
The Phoenix Partnership
Prima-Arc
Reach for a Dream
Rabobank
Rufford Foundation
SRK Consulting
Stitching Hart Voor Kinders
STM Trust
Tapestry Homes
The Department of Social
Development
Ubuntu Belgium
Ukuthemba Foundation
Uthando SA
Wellspring International
YogaWay Yoga and
Pilates Studio