kokstad child welfare

The Mission of Child Welfare South Africa is to promote, protect and enhance the safety, well-being and healthy development of children. It does this in partnership with its member organisations, associates, government and other organisations at local, provincial, national and international levels. Representative of all the people of South Africa, it capacitates its affiliate membership to serve the children, families and communities.

Child Welfare Kokstad Society

The Child Welfare Kokstad Society was established in January 1930 by Miss Marguerite Mackenzie, the organizing secretary of the S.A National Council for Child Welfare.

The Society is registered as a Non-Profit Organisation (NPO 002/116) and is affiliated to Child Welfare South Africa. The Society is also registered to the Department of Social Development as a legal service provider according to the Child Care Act No 74 of 1983. The organization is driven by volunteers and is governed by a management committee elected from members of the society at the Annual General Meeting each year.

We believe:
In the dignity, quality & worth of all people;
In the inherent value & rights of every child;
That the family is the cornerstone of society & is the natural environment for the caring & upbringing of children.

We therefore strive:
To improve the quality of life for our people;
To protect the interests and promote the well-being of all children & families.

About us:
The Society employs 7 social workers and 14 other administrative staff and child minders. The social workers carry a caseload of 630 which involves about 900 children.

The following breakdown per behaviour pathology represents our caseload:
Sexually abused children 2,94%; child neglect 3,83%; child abuse 0,67%; orphaned children 61,1%; street children 6,9%; abandoned children 11,6%; family conflict 2,3%; domestic violence 5,2%; substance abuse 2,5%; uncontrollable children 2,6%; custody over children 0,36%.

What we do:
The Society runs a shelter for street and abused children, called the Peter Pearce Centre, which is registered to accommodate 50 children.

We are also involved, together with CRISP, to eliminate child labour in the community.

In the Sisonke District the Society runs a Capacity Building Project together with the Aids Foundation for South Africa. The programme aims to capacitate NGO's and CBO's in sound management practices.

We run the national Asibavikele project "Lets protect them". This voluntary driven project aims to protect and care for families and children who are infected or affected with HIV/AIDS.


Funding
The Society is mainly funded by the Department of Social Development for its operational costs up to 75% of its expenditure. The other 25% must be made up by contributions through fundraising efforts from the community and or outside sources.