Building Capacity Projects

Over the past three years Cotlands has implemented best practice models in the fields of day care, residential care, palliative care and community development. These models are the outcome of years of experience - expertise that Cotlands is imparting to other organisations with the ultimate goal of improving levels of service to South Africa’s children across the board.

 

Day Care

As the AIDS epidemic increases, so does the incidence of child headed households. This phenomenon has resulted in numerous social and economic problems, and one very worrying factor is that the older siblings are forced to leave school to care for their younger brothers and sisters. This is likely to lead not only to an orphan generation, but also to an uneducated generation, who will never acquire the skills needed to enter the market place.

 

Cotlands is assisting two communities, one an informal settlement, and one a rural area, to establish day care facilities for preschool children. As these children mostly come from situations of extreme poverty, even in the cases where they are not orphans, the day care centre needs to assist with material needs as well as offering an educational component.

Neither of these projects are directly “Cotlands” projects. In both instances we are the facilitators and trainers. Cotlands secures start up funding, recruits and trains staff, provides them with the systems and resources needed to run the school effectively, and equips them to secure donations to ensure sustainability.

 

Our aim is to use local community members to staff the project, thereby creating jobs, and also use the facility to train other community members, so that they will have the skills and experience to enter the workforce.

 

Pallaitive Care

A need was identified for a paediatric hospice facility in East London, and as Cotlands already operates two such hospices, we were approached to set up this facility. Rather than start an independent project, Cotlands identified an existing children’s home in the area that was willing to have one of its units converted into a palliative care unit.

 

Cotlands’ primary role was to equip and train staff to run this unit effectively, but we have extended our involvement to include training on stimulation, fundraising, HR practices, and management skills.

 

Community Development

Cotlands latest venture is a nutrition project. We have partnered with CATCH, and organisation that renders services to children in an informal settlement in the Eastern Cape. The primary aim of this project is to monitor nutrition of children between birth and five, as it is vital that children are adequately nourished at this stage to ensure proper development through to adulthood. As it will not benefit families just to provide food for their children, Cotlands has employed a trainer who will teach families how to generate income.

 

Piggery, poultry, craft making, baking and food gardens have been identified as the initial skills, but as new markets open up, these will be extended. With the job creation component, families have the opportunity to become self-sustainable, ensuring improved care of the children.

 

Training

The training programme seeks to strengthen and equip communities through training and the development of community based projects, to care for children living with HIV/AIDS and their families through the following courses and workshops:

 

  • HIV AIDS Awareness Workshop:
    The workshop is aimed at ECD (Early Childhood Development) practitioners, primary school teachers or other educators.
  • HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care in Childcare Institutions
    The course is aimed at people working in children’s organizations and was developed in response to the growing number of children living with HIV/AIDS.
  • Community Child and Family Care Training
    Aimed at people who are working within the community such as home-based care workers who offer support and care to people within their own homes.
  • Counselling Course: Bereavement and Loss
    This course was developed as a result of a need identified by participants of the other courses. This course is aimed specifically at counselling young children who have experienced loss and/or are themselves preparing for death.