From the Desk of the Regional Director

Ube iNtlakohlaza Emnandi (Happy Spring!)
A lot has happened since the last newsletter! The projects that you have heard so much about over the years are doing well, and many are growing. Baphumelele Children’s Home recently opened its sixth and seventh cluster homes, which provide a family structure for the children, despite the huge size of the home itself (now serving over 150 children); Emasithandane Children’s Project has purchased a piece of land in an area nearby and plans to open a new home for the kids living there long-term; Ubuhle Babantwana, a preschool we support, is developing a new building to accommodate the rapidly growing demand for the education it provides; and the Philani Family Fund has broadened its focus to not only work with single mothers, but also to take on cases from the Philani Nutrition Centre’s orphan and vulnerable children (OVC) department, which works primarily with child-headed households. Over the past eight months, the Philani Family Fund has written three scholarships for higher education, built and refurbished seven homes, and we recently took on our first micro-loan to enable a family of Zimbabwean refugees to start their own business.