A critical gap in Child Welfare Durban and District’s operational capacity, hindering its staff’s ability to serve vulnerable children effectively, has recently been filled by a massive R1 380 000 donation by the South African Muslim Charitable Trust (SAMCT).
The substantial donation to this 107-year-old child protection organisation has provided for six new vehicles, essential for home visits, emergency child removals, court attendances and the daily transportation of children, as well as 10 new laptop computers, better enabling social workers to
manage cases, adhere to legal mandates and deliver services across the organisation’s extensive area of operation.
Commenting on its financial assistance package, SAMCT representative, Mr Gaff Osman, said: “Of its 15 vehicles, five are non-functional, resulting in the organisation’s 48 social workers being forced to share the remaining 10 old and unreliable vehicles, severely delaying services and compromising child safety. Equally, it has long made do with 55, largely old second-hand and donated computers among its 71 essential staff members.”
Child Welfare Durban and District has long championed the protection of rights, enhanced the quality of life, and secured the safety and development of abandoned, abused, neglected and orphaned children. It is managed entirely by a Board of unpaid volunteers, ensuring that
administrative costs remain minimal and that maximum resources are channelled directly into front-line care, medical services, education and therapeutic support.
Upon learning of Child Welfare Durban and District’s critical transportation and administration issues, the SAMCT was quick to step in, providing the strategic financial assistance necessary to immediately and directly restore efficient, real-time service delivery to vulnerable children in the organisation’s care.
Mr Osman added: “The safe and reliable transportation of children in the charge of Child Welfare Durban and District is a critical priority, given the community-based services it offers. The compromised transportation situation has, up until now, severely impacted service delivery, reducing efficiency in conducting home and school visits, causing difficulties in responding to emergency child removals and giving rise to inconsistent access to courts and medical facilities for children in care. Such problems were further exacerbated by the extreme shortage of modern computer equipment, resulting in compromised management of case and difficulties in ensuring strict adherence to legal mandates.”
The SAMCT was created in 2008, the result of a partnership between Old Mutual Unit Trusts and Al Baraka Bank, for the creation, marketing and distribution of a suite of Shariah Funds. The organisation provides funding, services and other resources to improve the lives of the vulnerable, deprived and disadvantaged. It has successfully delivered sizeable assistance solutions throughout South Africa – irrespective of race or religion – and continues to work to support needy organisations in the fields of healthcare, social development, poverty alleviation and education.
The organisation has long served as a pivotal conduit for the channelling of funding, vital services, and resources to approved public benefit organisations, and remains committed to catalysing positive change and creating a lasting impact on the development and upliftment of, especially, disadvantaged individuals and communities. Its funds are distributed to help improve the health and development of deserving people and organisations, irrespective of race or religion.
“The Child and Welfare Durban and District’s transport and administrative limitations had significantly hindered its ability to properly fulfil its child protection mandate. We, of the SAMCT, are therefore, extremely pleased to have been able to partner with the organisation, optimising its overall operational efficiency, improving its response times, ensuring the children in its charge continue receiving the care and protection they deserve and, above all, contributing towards restoring childhood to the thousands of children the organisation exists to serve,” said Mr Osman.
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For more information about the SAMCT or its Gift of the Givers Water Tankers donation, please contact:
Rasheeda Motala
Social Responsibility Officer Tel: 084 506 2280
Email: samct@samct.co.za
www.samct.co.za