Dear Friends, Partners & Supporters,
A few days ago, we asked for your help regarding an important initiative: together, we wanted to raise urgently required resources to support the South African Safe-Hub families’ resilience during the pandemic. Now, we are even more thankful for your encouragement. Since you rose to the challenge, we were able to raise ZAR1.6 Million and provide 3,300 families with vouchers for food and hygiene products for four weeks. Special thanks to Jan Niewodniczanski for his contribution to the relief fund, as well as to the CTC Ten Foundation who have provided the majority of funds to support CTC Ten Safe-Hub families in Khayelitsha. We have raised 85% of funds to support the Safe-Hub relief campaign– for the final stretch to 100%, Dr. Christian Schulze has pledged to double all donations to a value of ZAR100,000! We are grateful you are all supporting our families— can you help just a bit more to reach everyone we can?
With the extension of the nationwide lockdown in South Africa until the end of April, it is even more important that we support our communities where they most need it. To achieve this, we are not only collecting donations, we also take action: Scroll down to read more about how our COVID-19 response initiative has evolved and how we have further developed the Safe-Hub model despite and as a result of these turbulent times!
#inthistogether #oneteam
Yours truly,
#teamAMANDLA
OUR COVID-19 INITIATIVE: UPDATE & FIRST DIGITAL STEPS
Immediately after the South African Government’s lockdown announcement in March, we presented our COVID-19 response initiative. For three weeks now, this plan has been an integral part of our daily work. What has happened since then?
An essential element of the initiative is the sharing of REPUTABLE information to lead to responsible action. To date, we have published 110 posts about COVID-19 on Facebook and Instagram, sent 16 detailed newsletters, and sent 9,900 WhatsApp messages and 10,716 bulk SMS messages to our community. In addition, our Safe-Hub employees appeared on two radio stations to speak more about how individuals in our communities can act responsibly during the crisis. We didn’t neglect our content either: so far, our team has implemented regular online courses with 100 participants on topics such as essential life-skills for young people and IT basics! In the coming weeks, we will continue to expand our course offering, especially in the field of (digital) training and education.
Due to the extension of the lockdown by two more weeks, our participant-facing activities will remain paused in alignment with the South African government. We want to use the time to initiate further steps that enable the transfer of our content into virtual spaces that will also remain relevant for the post-corona era. The COVID-19 response initiative is only the beginning. We are planning the first steps towards a Safe-Hub that acts not only as a host for education and relationship-building, but also serves as a digital safe space. If you have any ideas, suggestions or feedback, we would love to hear from you!