About us

---

Mission

Hope House Children’s Home was born out of a desperate need to provide a warm and loving home for abandoned, abused and neglected children in the greater Harrismith area. Our mission is to provide the home that we believe every child deserves, and to guide and provide for our children in order for them to reach their full potential as contributing members of society, and in this way also enable them to break the cycle of poverty in our area.

Vision

Hope House envisages itself as the vehicle through which a real and positive change can be made to the future by equipping our wards with the necessary foundations, life skills, sense of value, ethics and education to become the epitome of what a role model should be to the next generation of South Africans.

Background

Hope House has been through many trials and tribulations since first opening its doors on the 13th of March 2008.

Even now, 10 years later, we are still facing crises, but as always, we are persisting by faith, and against all odds have managed to keep our doors open.

A community-based organisation such as Hope House Children’s Home can only be as strong as the support that it gets from the Community at large. It can thus be said that the position that an organisation such as ours finds itself in is a reflection on the community: nationally, provincially, locally, in the government sector, private sector, corporate business, and medium to small business.

 

Not one single person can say that they have no responsibility towards the present and the future and dilemmas and challenges in developing these children to their full potential.

 

Hope House is administered by and is a project of Tshwaranang Community Centre. The Board of Directors of Tshwaranang are all involved with Hope House on a daily basis. We are a registered with the Department of Social Development as a Non-Profit Organisation, as well as the Department of trade and Industry as a Non-Profit Company, and with SARS as a Public Benefit Organisation in Terms of Section 18A of the Income Tax Act 58 of 1962.

 

Although Hope House is a registered Children’s Home and is registered to accommodate 70 children, our budget for the year was to allow for the accommodation of 15 children, but the number of children placed with us has increased to 32. At present 100% of the children in our care are black.

 

At the time of writing Hope House employs 11 Child and Youth Care Workers, a full-time Registered Social Auxiliary Worker, a House Mother, a cook, Counsellor and Capacity builder and also round-the-clock security guards and a bus driver for the school children.

 

From the end of June 2018 Hope House is officially under new management, and we welcome any stakeholders to engage with us.

 

Our financial records are available for inspection upon request.

 

The big question of course is what does it cost me to donate?

 

And the answer is simple: At the end of the day, nothing.

Allow me to quote from an article that was published on NGO Pulse (http://www.ngopulse.org) on 14 December 2004:

 

“South African non-profit organisations (NPOs) struggle to encourage philanthropy amongst private individuals and companies. In addressing this problem, Section 18A of the Income Tax Act provides local NPOs with the opportunity to give private individuals and companies a tangible incentive to make donations by making the donation tax deductible, within certain limits”

 

Donations of cash and goods given in kind qualify. There are only a few exceptions to the Tax deductibility clause, such as payment for the rental of premises, donation of fuel (petrol, diesel), water and electricity given for free in exchange for a Section 18A receipt. There is, however, no such restriction on donating cash to pay for goods that do not directly qualify for exemption.

 

Where are we going?

 

As the times change, our needs and our projects continuously change.

 

Our main concern is always to provide the children in our care with the best possible living conditions and education.

 

As any parent can relate that has a high monetary cost attached to it, and it should not come as a surprise that the monthly running cost of Hope House is in the region approximately R 100 000-00. At present we are only managing to recuperate one-third of this amount.

 

Some of the major projects that we aim to launch in the near future are:

 

•             Building and operating a Home-schooling centre on the Hope House premises for our wards to curb travelling costs, school fees and all ad hoc expenses accompanied therewith.

•             Upgrading our current setup of two old computers into a fully functional, state-of-the-art learning centre.

•             Restocking of all essentials to levels that can provide in our needs for a prolonged period of time.

•             Acquiring the property that we are currently renting outright.

 

Therefore, we find ourselves calling on the support of the community at large.

 

By supporting us, you are investing in the future of, and making a tangible difference in the lives of our youth. By touching the life of even one single child person you are making a positive difference to the lives of many more youths who are in turn affected and influenced by this person being given a chance and taking up a role as a fully functional member of society.

 

Consider this: what would the impact be if there were less hungry, destitute, impoverished and unemployed people in our country, and what a huge impact that would have on you personally in terms of the high crime rate, poor service delivery, corruption and social decay?

 

 

We thank you for electing to become becoming part of the Hope House Family, and we look forward a long and prosperous relationship between yourselves and Hope House..