NEW PREMISES FOR THUSANANI?

GREAT NEWS.

Because we have grown so much and had to add on as we grew, we are now scattered over three therapy rooms, three store rooms and three offices.

This makes it difficult to deliver seamless services. The present scenario has it that a Children's Home will announce their arrival with Jacky, sitting in admin office who then has to phone the the therapist to come round to fetch the kiddies and take them to one of the three therapy rooms. Often the treatment will entail traipsing round to another treatment area midway through the session before returning the kiddies back to reception to book the next appointment. When we have adoption clinic this can become quite a circus with five Care Givers from different Homes slugging the baby seats and nappy bags around and the therapist carrying the bunch of keys to lock unlock (this is middle of Jozi remember)! a sigh to behold indeed, but not conducive to seamless service delivery.

The solution lies in the "Proposed New Premises" we have found in the building. Still close to the Big Shoes Foundation and Active Learning Libraries on the third floor, WAY BIGGER and WAY better for service delivery.

In the new Proposed Premises there are interconnected office space for therapsits, a waiting room for Care Givers, a decent size training room, ample toileting facilities with space for the baby changing station, a meeting room and JUST ONE SET OF KEYS.

There are only two snags:
The increase in rent and the cost of renovating the new rooms!

Our rent will be jumping to a whopping Seven Thousand Rand a month. Still not a large amount in terms of what corporates pay for rental space, but way out of our league. We seriously need funding that are ongoing and sustained before we can commit to make the move.

Hurdle number two is more of a short term need. We need experts in the Building Industry to come on board and give advice. We've had all our paint donated by Medal Paints through Cashbuild and we are most grateful for that. But we are a long way away from knowing what to do to get the three (connected) therapy rooms ready for therapy.

Any one out there with knowledge willing to come on board? any company willing to chip in with the much needed carpentry, plumbing, electrical upgrading and flooring?
Come on, make us your Project for your Social Responsibility Program. It would make such a difference in the lives of the kiddies that come for therapy.

Communication breakdown causes havoc

Thusanani has been "out of touch" for more than three weeks now! No land line, no Internet and then the Cell phone also conked in and had to be repaired. Have you ever heard of such bad luck?

We apologize if you are one of the many people who tried in vain to get through to us. We reported our faulty lines on a daily basis, had promises on an almost daily basis of how it would be fixed by "end of day", only to arrive the next day and find we still are 'out of touch".

In desperation we are now planning to change our provider and go with a company that have a proven history of being there for their client. As soon as we are connected you'll hear about that.

In the meantime PLEASE bear with us. The only contact number is the personal cell phone of Heleen Johnson, our manager: 072 9388838

Do It Day

Blue Moon changed our lives once more today!

We are planning to move into new premises that still have to be renovated. These premises have not been used for years and were absolutely filthy. Thusanani knew they wanted to / had to clean it before we could even estimate where we had to renovate.

And that’s where the e-mail from Blue Moon got us excited.

Blue Moon’s Debbie wanted to know if we know of a place where they could help out by cleaning or weeding for Do It Day, 18 September 2009.

Boy, did we know of a NPO that needed them!

And that is how it came about that we now have clean premises where we can invite potential funders to. We can show the potential renovators the premises and without climbing over rubble and dead birds get them to give advice on changes we need to make.

And the staff from Blue Moon knows where every muscle is that is used in cleaning. They will ache tomorrow while we dream of our new premises tonight.

To all you guys who scrubbed and mobbed, vacuumed and washed: THANKS FOR DOING IT!

Collaborataion and Partnerships

Thusanani is in the process of developing new partnerships and finding other NPO's (Non Profit Organisations) to work alongside. We have always had a good and mutually rewarding relationship with the Big Shoes Foundation as well as with the various Children's Homes we work at and deliver services to.

Through the training we provide to care givers we have become an important resource to the Sunlight Safe House Project run by Childline Gauteng. With other NPO's getting to know us, like "The Lonely Road Foundation", we might find ourselves more and more expanding through the different partnerships.

Big news, hot off the manager's desk is the plan to develop a specific training program for persons wanting to become volunteers in a stimulation program at Childrens' Homes. We have identified that Volunteers doing regular volunteering has a need and desire to use play effectively and to make a positive impact on the development of the children they serve. It is forseen that this would be a two week full time training course with practical sessions to develop knowledge and skill. There would be a cost to the course to enable Thusanani to recover the cost of admin, basic charts, manuals and other running costs. Details still have to be finalized and Bridget, one of our senior Occupational Therapists, is working hard to get the documentation ready for presentation to the team.