Vision:
Healing communities -Opportunity creation-Practical assistance- Educational empowerment
Enhancing stability in home environments and communities
A stable family produces healthy children. They need to be developed. That includes a healthy body, mind and soul – something that healthy parents and communities can provide. A healthy child is best developed when exposed to stable relationships and needs to in a nurturing home and a wider caring community. Financial literacy, educational, entrepreneurial and developmental programs, can transform family units and communities.
Children growing up in a stable family are more likely to commit to relationships, be much less violent and just be a more stable person in general. Often disruptive or poverty affected communities, with social ills and criminal activity, add significant stress and peer pressure to children, and enhance their chances of turning to crime, gangsterism or substance abuse. In communities with absent, migratory worker parents, or parents working long hours for financial survival, there is a negative spillover to the next generation.
We believe in the "starfish" principle, one where a large amount of starfish are washed up on the beach, and all seems hopeless. It takes a simple action of picking up one starfish at a time, and returning it to the ocean, to revive one starfish at a time. Never to be overwhelmed by the huge need or potential loss of the large amount on the beach, but by starting with one intervention at a time.
Volunteer experiences
Volunteers sometimes come to our beautiful continent on short term interventions, either on the back of a holiday, or because they have contact within a tourism company that offers us the opportunity to enhance their holiday experience with some"paying it forward" experiences. Medical, construction or school visit projects and short term group journeys have been arranged on many occassions, by our board members, who also have contacts in the tourism industry.
Education and support for Special Needs Children
Parents of special needs children need to find tools and support groups to enhance their chances of family harmony and healthy coping mechanisms for both the "carer" and the "cared for" Special needs children have a place in society, and often some cultures in Africa, are very superstitious about special needs children. Every person has a purpose for being on planet earth. Regular and daily to-do things are very difficult to do and are challenging. Throughout a special needs child's journey, there are known milestones to enhance their chances of belonging to a society or community, that is positive and affirming. Intense isolation is not the default setting for these children, and yet parents often feel left behind in their journey of knitting into a community. Life was never meant to be a journey that one undertakes on one’s own. Being the parent of a special needs child does not change that. Accepting the offers of family, friends and church/ community members to babysit and to help out is not a sign of weakness. Family and friends may even be able to understand the challenges parents of special needs children face. Parenting ‘normal’ children will test the patience of any parent.
Parenting a special needs child will do so to an even much greater extent. Parents of special needs children tend to worry quite a bit. They often are concerned about the child’s future. They even wonder who will take care of their child when they are no longer around. Holding Onto Hope can offer options for the parents of special needs children the services of specialists, occupational therapists, and other skilled persons to assist them.
Measurable outcomes
There are various tools and analytical methodologies, that we apply to recording the outcomes of our interventions. Whilst maintaining a strict level of confidentiality, we are able to advise our donors and our board members, of the progress in various projects. This in turn enables us to track the overall changes in a household, a community or a wider region for feedback to our social investment minded funders and donors.
