Report from BHW South Africa Partnership Facilitator Following Visit 16-18 July

Key person: Ma Flo (Florence Mbokazi)

Recent Events

Activities

Ma Flo continues to run Masoyi Bright Hope, but due to the government not wanting it to refer to ‘Home Based Care’ the name was changed to Masoyi Bright Hope. The papers are being processed at present. 

There have been some major changes since our last visit. Namely that Pat and Emma no longer work with them. They are now employed at The Aids Foundation based in Durban. Pat left a year ago and it was a real loss to the ministry.  

They have strong support with the finances with Yvonne. Mona oversees the accounts, as well as providing general support to Ma Flo. We visited Mona at her property at White River. Mona is 76 and is a white, retired Bookkeeper. She and her family have taken an interest in the ministry since 2005. Mona negotiated with the independent auditor who does the annual audit, and their costs have reduced from 32,000 (US$1,820) to 10,000ZAR (US$570).

They have lost donors as groups they previously worked with have set up their own ministries. One group is Hands at Work who emerged out of Masoyi. They are based at White River and now work separately and into other countries. Also, Cove Church from the USA who now are doing their own thing having used Masoyi to get into the community. They were doing house building and have their own church. Masoyi still have a good relationship with both these ministries who still assist by checking with Ma Flo if she has any people who need housing.

Due to the reduced funds, they are now focusing on their work with orphans and vulnerable children (OVC's), and the youth programmes in schools.

They still have a strong spiritual focus within the organisation. Two pastors come to the Centre from 8-9 am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to meet with the staff team and have a prayer time. They also run a Bible club once a year around the seven areas in which they operate.

Masoyi only employs Christians, and their staff confirmed that they have many opportunities to talk to their people about their faith while they are working with them. 

Programmes Currently Operating

Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)
Masoyi continues to support AIDS patients to keep up their medication and to educate them about AIDS in the schools. The government helps give their volunteers a stipend for 7 months in the year if their application is approved. They run three centres for OVCs.

HIV/AIDS is still a major issue in the community. Many parents die from AIDS due to ignoring their medication. Masoyi ensures that orphaned children have clothing, food, and legal documents/birth certificates. Those coming from outside the region often don’t have any ID and therefore cannot get government grants or schooling. They mediate and fight for these children to ensure they can go to school even before their ID is approved.

Many people from the area died from Covid. Seven of Ma Flo’s immediate neighbours died, and she is very thankful to have survived. During Covid they cared for many more people as people came to the Centres needing hand sanitizer and food. She was grateful for the additional funds provided from BHW during this time.

Masoyi are working in seven areas around the region. They support OVCs by home visits and assessments. They ensure the children who are not going to school/preschool are able to attend.  They work with children from preschool age to 17 years. Masoyi supports them with school uniforms, assists them to go to Home Affairs for birth certificates and apply for child support grants, and registers them at school. They have a good relationship with the Home Affairs Department.

They cook food in the afternoons in the three centres for the children after school, and then help them with their homework, teach them life skills, vegetable gardening and activities. Any leftover food is given to them in containers to take home.

They support child-headed homes and needy families with food parcels once a month for a six-month period (Jan - June then Jul - Dec). They cannot continue feeding everyone. The public schools also have a feeding programme. Their monthly food parcels contain basics such as 2kg sugar, 2kg washing powder, tinned fish, cooking oil, maize flour, baked beans, 1kg of sugar beans, 500g of macaroni, soup and toiletries for girls.

They are assisting 599 children through this programme. Included in this are 31 child-headed homes. There are 72 children in these households, most are less than 18 years old. 204 of the children are 18 and over.

Their priority is to keep the children in their own homes and not allow them to get put into government care if possible. This ensures the children can continue to live in the family home and have a house once they grow up. If the children leave, others, usually extended family, will grab that house and the children will lose it. 

There is one childcare worker in each of the seven areas, and five ladies who cook for the children at the three centres. These ladies often volunteer their time and their own food.

Three men take care of the large productive vegetable garden. The veges are used in the provision of meals for the children.  

Masoyi has leaders who teach HIV patients to access and manage their ARV medication. The medicine is free and can be collected at the clinics by the children. Sometimes they collect the medication on behalf of the patients if they are unable to do that. 

Masoyi connects people to churches in their area and encourages them to go each Sunday. The local churches don’t give to Masoyi, but Cove Church helps the children sometimes. They recently provided clothes for the children. Ma Flo got the pastors together to encourage them to look after their own people and others in their community.

The staff normally work five days a week from 8 am - 4 pm, but often work longer to meet needs and deadlines.

Youth Programme in Secondary Schools
Masoyi runs youth programmes in the four secondary schools in the area. The leaders meet the youth in the afternoons and educate them and build leadership skills. They also help them choose education streams in areas that will eventuate in jobs instead of leaving them to just follow what others do. They run talent shows to expose other skills that the students might have. The students can opt into the programme, then those in the programme can teach their peers.

Each school has a facilitator who run the groups. There are three tracks, one for each grade. In track 1 there are around 300 young people: 150 in track 2 and 50-70 in track 3. The students progress through the tracks each year.  The drop off is due to children changing schools and shifting to remoter areas, or if they get pregnant, they are required to leave the programme.  Masoyi still supports them outside the programme.

Masoyi also used to run out of school events, but these have stopped due to a lack of funding. They sometimes run courses for business administration and skills which help these young people.

Sewing Project 
In an effort to raise funds within the organisation, they have a team of seven ladies who sew bags, aprons, and clothes. The business is increasing, and they receive orders from Kruger National Park and sell their goods there. They have a small shop at Phabeni gate to the park and sell at a shop in the park. These funds help pay for insurance and petrol. We visited the sewing room and observed that they could do with more sewing machines to make this business more profitable. 

Profiles of New Team Members

There are several capable people who Ma Flo believes have the ability to continue the work should she be unable to. She mentioned that one of her team, Jabo, would be perfect to replace her. We met the following two staff members who assist Ma Flo in the work.

Zelena - Facilitator for Orphans and Vulnerable Children
Zelena is 46 years old. Her father left the family and her mother died when she was 19 years old.  She was left to care for her four younger siblings who were 16, 12, 8, and 1, as well as her own 3-month-old baby. Her mother had HIV and her younger sister was affected too – she later passed away in 2021. 

During this time, Zelena was assisted by a care worker from Masoyi three days a week which she found very helpful. They helped take the children to preschool and school each day so Zelena could concentrate on her baby. The Masoyi care worker also assisted her to get birth certificates for her siblings so she could get some funding from the government to extend their two-room house.

Zelena now oversees the OVC programme. The fact that Zelena has grown up as an orphan raising her siblings, and was assisted by the programme, gives her great insight and passion for the work. Zelena is married and has four children - 14, 13, 9, 3.  Her husband is a forestry worker.

Yvonne – Finances
Yvonne commenced working here in 2010 as a care worker.  She studied junior bookkeeping while working, then became the accountant. There are about 15 paid employees - if they have funds to pay them. The payroll is around 19,000ZAR (US$1,080) per month.

Their only donors are Bright Hope World and a UK Trust who donate 385,000ZAR/year (US$22,000). Representatives of the UK Trust are coming to visit shortly.  

Masoyi is still waiting on the IDT Government programme funding for youth out of school. They used to support 100 young people but now only support 50. The Aids Foundation don’t have any funding available. Masoyi make other applications for funding when they can. Their funding has reduced each year since Covid. 

Yvonne believes that this is where God wants her to be and is passionate about her work. She is married with three children and her husband is an administrator for the Education Department.

Tricia – Co-ordinator for the School youth programme 
Tricia went through the secondary school programme, then studied business administration and computer skills. She started with Masoyi as a Youth Facilitator and is now the coordinator for the school programmes. She works with four facilitators in each of the secondary schools in the area, to provide the youth programme as outlined above.  Tricia is passionate about being involved in this work.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

The main tribal group in this area is Swati. The three Chiefs and Council do not support them financially, but they like the work here. Masoyi is well regarded in the community as it has been running for a long time.

During our visit, representatives from a local lottery group came to donate school uniforms to 80 children and a laptop. 

Local churches like what is happening, and the leaders make good comments, however, they are not willing to contribute. They will turn up for the cokes and cookies but have no idea what is happening in their communities. This is a source of real frustration to Ma Flo. 

Plans for the Future

Young Mother’s Programme

There is a lot of teenage pregnancy in the community, mainly as a result of peer pressure and poverty. Masoyi previously ran a young mother’s programme which encouraged the young mums to continue their education. Sadly, they do not have the funds to keep this running although it is a high priority for them. When they had funding, their old programme allowed them to run workshops, parenting camps, and sessions that educated them on how to start businesses. This stopped in 2017. There are a couple of girls who have excelled and have continued on, and now have good businesses designing and sewing. There are currently about 25 young mums they would like to be working with.

This is a high priority for them, and we are in discussion with them about what this might look like and if it is something we should become involved in. 

Training Centre

They have plans to start a Training Centre where students can pay for courses to learn trades, e.g., carpentry, computer studies, homebased care etc. They anticipate that running this Training Centre would provide a cash flow to support the rest of the ministry although they don’t appear to have completed a feasibility study at this point.

There is a half-finished building on land next door to the main training centre. Ma Flo said that they had used some BHW funds to secure it, however there is a dispute with the government authorising its use and the local tribe so they cannot use it.  As an alternative, they are wondering about building a training room where the extensive vegetable garden is and transfer the garden to another centre.

Current Issues and Challenges

1) Donors have dropped off, so more funding is critical to ease the pressure and enable them to restart their Young Mum’s programme. 

2) This community is not changing. The levels of poverty and youth sexual activity continues to be an issue and is constantly producing more victims. There will be a place for Masoyi for the foreseeable future.

3) There are two vans they are planning to sell as they do not have enough money for fuel, and they need funds for the organisation. Another 4WD vehicle needs repair, leaving them two vehicles to transport children.

Prayer and Praise Points

Praise

1) Many orphans and vulnerable children are being supported through this ministry and it is making a difference for them
2) Masoyi are managing to do an amazing work with inadequate resources
3) Several very capable leaders have come up through the programme and are working at Masoyi

Prayer

1) Suitable people who have the vision and ability to keep the ministry going
2) The sale of the two vans
3) Protection for the children as they are so vulnerable
4) Ma Flo’s health and total healing from the neck operation she had in October 2022

Comments

The programme is big but the support is small, so they have refocused on OVCs and youth. This has been a good thing as previously they were out of their depth and stretched too thin. Much of this came from their relationship with donors who insisted that they implement the donor’s programme. The loss of a couple of previous donors is not a bad thing. 

When asked what they would do if they had more resources, Ma Flo and Yvonne agreed they would prioritise the recommencement of the Young Mother's Programme and put more funding into the current OVC and youth programmes.

Ma Flo is 67 years old and says she is tired. She loves her work and can continue for a while, but she believes her team could continue the work without her. The team members agreed that they could continue this programme.