There are many children who do not receive appropriate care or opportunities just because their families are not aware of services available or lack the resources to access those services. By working with community leaders and members, doctors at Canzibe Hospital, teachers and home based carers, these children and their families could be identified, screened and assisted. This entails physically visiting the families and evaluating their situation, providing support and then following up to ascertain if the need was addressed. TransCape only offers the means to the solution, the family needs to implement it them selves. Needs that are addressed range from not having shoes to the parents not having transport money to take the child to a specialist in Mthatha Hospital. Through TransCape’s collaboration with HBC groups, many other child specific needs became apparent such as not going to school for lack of the small annual school fee that is needed or not having a school uniform. These are small needs with a low potential for creating dependency.
Some people living in deep rural Eastern Cape lack the capacity and resources to provide their children with the opportunities they wish too. For instance they cannot afford the transport fees needed to travel several times to the closest Home Affairs office to complete the procedures for obtaining their child's ID or to see a specialist or not going to school for lack of the small annual school fee that is needed or not having a school uniform.
The aim of this project is to provide families who have children in need with the know how and resources to address those needs without creating dependency.
The project outcomes include that children with special needs should receive appropriate care, that all children should be able to attend school, have IDs and that families should receive relevant child grants.
The beneficiaries of the Children In Need Project are families with children who have special needs and children who merely need a helping hand with basic things like school uniforms, to get their ID, to receive a child grant, etc. Things that could not be fulfilled because the family lacks the know how, capacity or resources to address the need. These families live in the Mankosi and surrounding communities in Ward 26 and 25 of Nyandeni Municipality in Rural Eastern Cape.