ABOUT US

The Home of Hope is a voluntary association and a registered non-profit organisation as well as a public benefit organisation established in August 2005. The reason for our establishment and existence was to create a much needed support system for the local social worker and a place of safety for children:-

• Abandoned in dustbins to die
• Violently abused
• Raped
• Hungry and neglected due to poverty
• Victims of domestic violence
• Infected with HIV and AIDS
• Born bearing the effects of excessive drug and alcohol abuse during pregnancy

However, as the project developed more needs in the community were identified and the organisation has realigned itself to provide a broader service with the focus remaining on children.

Our team comprises a voluntary management committee, twenty six full-time employees, as well as volunteers.

Tony de Klerk Chairperson	Linda Mqikela Vice Chairperson	Willem du Toit Secretary
Enid Sinequan Vice Secretary		Richard Brook Treasurer

Eleanor and Richard Brook Co Founders

Please feel free to contact any of us at any time if you would like to know more about Home of Hope or how you can support us.

A man never stands as tall as when he kneels to help a child.
- Knights of Pythagoras

We currently have six main projects. To find out more about each of these projects, click on the link:

1. Safe houses
2. Foster care
3. Distribution
4. Emergency care
5. Social Services
6. Atlantis awareness and early intervention

The Home of Hope offices, distribution and safe house operate from rented property in Table View.

To find out how you can help us to create a promising future for our children, click here.

1. Safe houses

Our aim is to provide an interim place of safety for abandoned, abused and neglected children allowing for the proper legal, medical and emotional assessments to be done prior to their placement in families in the hope of securing a promising future for them.

The organization provides two interim places of safety for babies, young children and teenage girls - until they can be placed in a suitable home. As the children come from diverse circumstances, these interim homes gives the social workers sufficient time to fully assess and evaluate each child in order for them to create a plan of action to meet the children’s specific needs.

These places of safety, the Christopher House and Tullow House, are situated in Table View and Phoenix respectively. The Christopher House has been home to more than 200 children since inception, while the Tullow House has accommodated more than 55 teenagers since February 2008.

Babies and young children placed in foster homes without an in-depth assessment of their physical, cultural, spiritual, emotional and medical needs lead to unsuccessful placements. The result is traumatised children who are feeling rejected. At the Home of Hope we want to ensure that this does not happen.

The Home of Hope wants to create a loving and caring environment for abused, abandoned, neglected and HIV babies, as well as youth. It must be a place where hope begins…

Our goals:

• To sustain the monthly running costs.
• To purchase properties and build houses in Table View and other areas of need that are practical and comfortable with all the necessary space and equipment to keep the children stimulated, nourished, clean and happy.
• To investigate the feasibility of establishing satellite homes in the different communities based on the same principles and with the same controls as the current homes in Table View and Milnerton.

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2. Foster care

Our aim is to place children in families where a solid foundation can be laid, giving them the best chance in life to develop to their full God-given potential. Where hope begins…

"It's NOT about the need to have a child, but the need to help a child for an interim period"

Foster care is not about adopting a child but rather about helping children for an interim period until such time as he or she can be returned to his/her own families.

The focus of foster care is always to reunite children with their own family units and therefore it is of utmost importance that the correct families are found, preferably in a child’s own community. This can only be achieved if a properly structured system with training and support is in place.

Home Of Hope prides ourselves with the first of many successful Foster Homes. Six children are situated at this home, called Ikhaya Luthando (Home of Love). This home is situated in Table View, Cape Town.

Our goals:

• Create an awareness of the need for foster care.
• Find and screen prospective foster families in the areas where the children come from, keeping them in their communities.
• Create a database of foster families.
• Train and with guidance support foster families after children have been placed.
• Establish a multidisciplinary panel comprising role players in the child's life and together with this panel help place the children in appropriate families.
• Establish working relationships with other social workers.
• Establish satellite foster homes by purchasing houses in communities and placing children with special needs in these homes.

Click on any of the names below to read more about our foster families and what their responsibilities entail.

• Elsie
• Richard and Eleanor

"It's about making a difference in the lives of children who have had no choice."

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3. Distribution

The aim is to take the excess of communities and businesses and distribute them effectively to help as a support system for disasters and projects already running, and not as hand-outs.

Many individuals and families in communities have excess items like clothing, household items, toys and food and do not have a use for it. They do not always have a place to donate this with the knowledge that it is being put to use effectively. Home of Hope, through the establishment of partnerships with other organisations and role players in communities, has a platform from which these items are being distributed to those really in need. Should you wish to drop donations off, please contact us.

Through the local advisory committees, social workers and NGOs working in the poverty pockets, we have identified areas in which these much needed items can be used:

• Fire disaster
• Nursery schools
• HIV / AID infected or affected families
• Foster families
• Child-headed households

Our goals:

• Establish a central facility to store clothing, household equipment and food donations.
• Effectively distribute all donated items.

see our gallery

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4. Emergency care

CAPE TOWN AFTER-HOURS CHILD PROTECTION CENTRE - Emergency care.

"Keeping our children Safe"
The protection and welfare of children is always first priority and the shared responsibility of communities. The aim with our after-hours centre is to provide a service that will adequately, effectively and timeously protect children after hours with emergency care and specialised professional social care. The centre will also host a 24-hour emergency telephonic report centre for children that are being abused, neglected or abandoned.

To see statistics for the period April 2007 until March 2008 click here. See an analysis for the two years April 2007 until March 2009 here

Reasons for removal:

• Child abuse and neglect
• Victims of sexual crimes
• Behavioural problems (adolescents)
• Parental problems
• Abandonment, lost or deserted children
• Drug-related problems
• Children of refugees
• Custody disputes (minimum)

The centres operate in the following areas:

Atlantic sea board, Bo-Kaap, City Bowl, Woodstock, Salt River, Observatory, Maitland, Garden Village, Kensington/Factreton, Brooklyn, Rugby, Ysterplaat, Summer Greens, Table View, Blaauwberg Strand, Milnerton, Sanddrift, Phoenix, Joe Slovo, Du Noon, KWA 5, Melkbos, Mamre and Atlantis.

Our goals:

• Establish an after-hours emergency service as well as a 24-hour telephonic report centre and action on emergency cases, only where no other social worker is available
• Respond and investigate swiftly, appropriately and professionally
• Raise community awareness for child protection
• Child protection training, information and advice where cases are reported
• Provide and use technology to provide services more effectively.
• Purchase property and establish a facility which would accommodate the offices as well as the 24- to 48-hour emergency care of children.
• Recruitment and training of safety parents

How you can support the Cape Town After-Hours Child Protection Centre

• Assist us in covering our monthly overheads by committing to a monthly amount or sponsoring the salary of a Social Worker
• Become a safety parent. Find out more here.

Please note: Corporates can use donations as a tax deduction as we are a registered Public Benefits Organisation - ref no 930 022 887.

Awareness and Prevention Programs

• Home Of Hope embarks on awareness and prevention programs regularly. See Past Events, as well as our gallery where, together with other networking partners, we reach the children at our holiday programs in the communities.

To view more on our gallery see us on

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5. Social Services

Home Of Hope has taken over Social Services as from 1 April 2008, in the Table View area, situated in Milnerton, Cape Town

Included in our services:

• Prevention and Awareness - various community based programs are managed.
• Early Intervention - group work, family discussions, home visits, office and telephonic interviews are facilitated regularly.
• Statutory - all court work, investigations and referrals are done.
• Re Intergration - family reunification and support services.

Please contact our offices at +27 (0) 21 556 3573 during offices hours for assistance.

6. Atlantis awareness and early intervention

Home Of Hope has been contracted by the Department Of Social Development to develop and manage awareness and early intervention programs in Atlantis, situated north of Cape Town on the west coast.

Included in our services:

• Prevention and Awareness - various community based programs are managed.
• Early Intervention - group work, family discussions, home visits, office and telephonic interviews are facilitated regularly.

Please contact our offices at +27 (0) 21 556 3573 during offices hours for assistance.

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