From the Managing Director’s Desk …
It’s difficult to believe that The Johannesburg Children’s Home has been around since 1892. With 130 year’s service to the community under our belt, we are one of the oldest child and youth care centres in the country.
The longevity of our Home is a testament to the goodwill of South Africans and their profound generosity to support children in need of care. We feel honoured to have played a part in caring for orphans and vulnerable children and restoring their trust and hope of a better future.
Over the years, our organisation has changed and adapted to embrace modern trends in child care, including the cottage model of small family style groups. We’ve had to re-invent ourselves time and again in order to make ends meet. Every time there has been a groundswell of support from our community.
Much as we value and appreciate your support, we also understand the need for self-sustainability. We are proud to have taken steps to generate our own income streams to help absorb the ever increasing cost of providing quality care for our children in these challenging times.
Our 130th birthday celebration included the official launch of The Imvelo Experience, which brings our various social enterprise initiatives together under one umbrella. We have now moved into other markets – such as gardening, catering, food processing and hospitality. A spin-off benefit of this initiative has been the opportunity for our children to learn the value of entrepreneurship.
In 2021, we also opened an Early Childhood Development Centre called Funda Ngo Thando (Learning with Love) which now serves 50 children from the local community.
As always, I want to end by thanking you for your loyal support and ongoing generosity. We are truly thankful to know that we are together, through the hard times and the good times.