Bust That Bond, Baby!

Dearest Friend,

It has been 6 months since our last report and these months have been full of really amazing things, but has come with its own set of challenges too…

We are making amazing headway in creating clarity for our supporters to better communicate all our projects in a defined and formalized way. If you would like to get a better idea of what these are please check out our April Newsletter. 

Your vital show of support in the funding of our new home has been instrumental in getting us through to this point of safely settling in to our new home. Standing with us in our time of need during the Covid-19 crisis, so that our work continues despite the hurdles we've gone through over the past few years. You have truly blessed us and most importantly you have blessed the vulnerable babies, children and individuals who rely on us. 

While we are no longer directly experiencing the negative financial effects of the pandemic we are still in a constant and desperate struggle to make ends meet each month due to our governmental subsidy not being fulfilled for the past year. This has left a massive deficit in our funding and it is truly miraculous that over a year later we have managed to keep our doors open. But this monthly shortfall it is getting harder and harder to cover.

Every hurdle we overcome in the systemic and bureaucratic challenges of getting our government subsidy reinstated reveals several subsequent hidden hurdles not disclosed in the preceding process. As the time drags on our financial situation and exhausted team gets more and more strained. The hoped-for relief of our safer and more sustainable home is dangled before us twisted in the injustice of heartless processes and paperwork delays.

We have always resisted making requests for added support in our GlobalGiving reports. Today we have decided to break this informal policy and ask for your gracious understanding as we make our humble and urgent appeal for your help. Of course, we know times are challenging and the world feels scary on so many levels right now – but our babies, mommies and children are still part of this world. You have sustained and sheltered them in a joy-filled and loving space, removed from the desperate situations that brought them to us. You still have so many ways you may be able to help.

• If you know of any opportunities we can pursue or individuals we can approach to help us get through the coming few month we would be incredibly grateful. You can email Pippa directly on pippa@tlc.org.za with any leads you may have.
• Alternatively, we ask for your support through sharing our profile or social pages with those in your network who may have capacity to join you and the rest of our amazing community of supporters, who are largely the reason we are still here today, despite our long season of unforeseen struggles.

As we go forward we continue to grow and learn how best to build strong bonds early on to effect lifelong positive benefits on health, wellbeing and community stability. After 30 years of learning about trauma on infants and the consequences of unnecessarily long stays in the care system, TLC has improved our service offering to try work at reducing the exposure to trauma for the infants we serve by embracing the mothers who carry them. We believe our model supports multiple SDG's and will have broad positive consequences if together we can keep it going.

Thank you for standing by us.

At long last, with the amazing support of many individuals, companies, associations and families, we have moved into our new home! For the purpose of clarity for your our special "Bust That Bond, Baby" Supporters we include this little added note: While we still have a bond to pay off to a special investor, who partnered with us in purchasing the property, it is important to note that the property is safely in the name of the Children's Home.   

Here is a brief tour to give you an idea of what you have help us to accomplish through your dedicated support. Considering the state of the world over the past two years, this achievement is undeniably miraculous. We are blessed beyond measure and remain dedicated to our pursuit to provide the best for the little ones who rely on us.

Not only did we overcome almost impossible odds to move the Children's Home to a new, safer, and more cost-effective location over the Heritage Day weekend, but you and the rest of our TLC family helped us to reach our Heritage Day fundraising goal of R300,000!
 
Amidst virtual popping champagne corks and confetti, we were blindsided a few days before The Big Move in the best way. An anonymous guardian angel donated R300,000, matching the full amount we’d already raised from the fundraiser!

With our hearts full, our feet dusty from moving day, and our eyes leaky, we were overflowing with gratitude for the unwavering support from our village.

If you’ve followed our journey until now, you'll know that it has had enough plot twists to put a reality show to shame (though a lot more wholesome!) Through all these dramas and miracles, we still continue in loving commitment to our little ones. In total we've welcomed seven new little loves into our home and tearfully bid farewell to nine of our family as they left us for their forever homes. In light of these little lives that that touch our hearts every day, we are keenly aware that our work and our effort will never be in vain.

As we continue into the transition of the coming year we have still not received a single cent from Department of Social Development this financial year and it seems unlikely that we will before March or April next year. This is deeply challenging to our cash flow and has started to negatively impact funding appeals with other institutions as well. In this time all we can do is continue to call on those who care as much for our little ones as we do. They need us and they need you! And whilst some in high places may be quick to dismiss them, based on the missing paperwork they require to prove their worth, we won’t walk away. We had desperately hoped by now we would be in a position to ease up on these urgent appeals… but here we are.

We need you – we know paperwork doesn’t dim your view of their worth. So we ask you once more to rally your friends, families, churches, colleagues or classmates to help us fill in the gap where the system fails them. You can have your gifts amplified when you make a donation through GlobalGiving for Giving Tuesday on the 30th November 2021. The timeframe for having donations matched is quite specific so if you’d like to receive our 3 reminders through the day you can opt-in here.

Thank you for joining hands with us. Together we make all the difference.

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