October 2009 - Sees the launch of the Auntie website

We very much hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

We also ask you to bear with us whilst we sort out some of the early launch niggles - some elements of our site are still very much in development!!

Also, if you come across any broken links or wrongly presented formats, please drop us a line and let us know.

Many thanks

The Auntie Team

 

We’re delighted to announce that Auntie has received its first major donation – which has been made by Happy Days nurseries in Cornwall.

Sarah Karkeek, Founding Director of Happy Days Nurseries, together with children and staff from Happy Days Newquay, invited Russell Ford from The Auntie Foundation to the nursery, where she was delighted to present him with a cheque for £2250.

The money had been raised from a series of events across the nursery chain with staff, children and parents working and playing together on events such as face painting, sponsored toddles, guess the weight of the sweetie jar, sports days and much, much more. Everyone entered into the events enthusiastically in order to raise as much as possible for Auntie.

“Having heard about this new charity and its aim to improve the lives of children living in extreme poverty in Africa, Happy Days felt that there was a natural synergy between themselves and Auntie – both organisations wanting the very best for the children in their care”. “An added bonus for Happy Days has been the learning and greater understanding we have all acquired as we have become involved with Auntie. The children’s knowledge of how others live, the staff and parents' understanding of how the money raised will be spent on sustainable projects to help alleviate long term poverty in Africa, have all acted as spurs to do our best in order to help”. “We are already receiving photographs from the centres where Auntie is helping and we aim to maintain a long term relationship with the Foundation so that we, and our children, can continue to learn and to make a difference to the lives of others less fortunate than us”. “We would urge other childcare providers to get involved with Auntie. This is a unique opportunity for our sector to make a real difference!” added Sarah.

We’re extremely grateful to Sarah and Robin Karkeek, the founders and Directors of Happy Days – who operate 18 nurseries in the South West – and to all of the parents, children and staff who’ve made this contribution. It’s a special moment to receive our first donation …. So a big “Thank You”.

Why Partner?

In order to ensure that Auntie is as efficient as possible, and that the funds we raise are invested as effectively as possible, we partner with several ‘non profit’ organisations in South Africa which run the  projects that benefit our children there. This means that we can concentrate on what we do best – raising money here in the UK and Ireland, supporting settings here, and initiating activities that involve children and parents here – leaving experts who ‘live and breathe’ in the heart of communities overseas, and who really understand the needs of communities that must adopt and ‘own’ development projects, to manage those projects.

One such organisation is IKAMVA LABANTU, which means “the future of our nation”.

IKAMVA traces its roots back to the days of apartheid, when Helen Lieberman started working with women in the poverty stricken townships around Cape Town. Today IKAMVA has grown into a large social development movement – an umbrella body with a network of over 1000 projects, working and assisting various sectors of the population….children, young people, families, seniors and the physically challenged.

These projects are all ‘owned’ by community representatives, ensuring the greatest likelihood that they will succeed in their aim of alleviating extreme poverty through building sustainable communities.

Auntie is partnering with IKAMVA in a number of ways – supporting the resourcing and running of its many crèches, and aiming to support the development of many more desperately needed childcare centres. Our first major fundraising initiative – ‘Share + Care this Christmas’ creates an opportunity for children in settings in the UK to give gifts and toys to the children in South Africa. We also aim to assist IKAMVA in training and supporting their ‘mamas’ – their practitioners – to raise the quality of childcare provided to the highest possible level.

Helen continues to support this work. She remains a volunteer (as she was at the outset) – overseeing and supporting IKAMVA. We’d like you to get to know her, and have made a series of short films in which Helen introduces Auntie supporters to IKAMVA, explains how she got started, some of the challenges she overcame, the issues faced by vulnerable children in South Africa’s townships, and the work undertaken by IKAMVA’s communities.

These videos will be available on Auntie very soon...

Why South Africa?

Why did we choose South Africa? In a world where there are so many children with so many sad histories, in a world where children are the victims of famines, war, tsunamis and neglect and in a world where there are hundreds of millions of children with a huge range of basic needs not being met, we had to make a choice which children to try to help first.

One of those almost impossible choices!

When we came to make it, even the process of how to make that decision was hard – after all we do not seem to live in a society where we have to make daily decisions about whom to help. Usually the only people we decide to help are ourselves.

In the end though the choice was simple. We have to start to help where we can help the greatest number of children in the shortest possible time. That means a country where we know that the infrastructures are in place to make projects happen, a country which itself is helping to change the lives of its people in as positive a way as it can with the money it has available, a country which is courageous and is optimistic and that will do everything it can to support and continue the work we do but also a country that has huge numbers of children lacking the most basic of human needs. That country is South Africa.

One side of the coin

Hundreds…. No, thousands…… No, millions of children in South Africa live in households with an income of less than £51 (R800) per month - 11 MILLION children and young people, living on 30 pence per day. Unbelievable, inconceivable, impossible? Actually, harsh and simple reality for these children - they have lived, No, existed, for many years in a state of Absolute Poverty.

Apart from a lack of food, fresh water, and often shelter what are the consequences? A handicap for life.

Survival is tough – daily! Food is scarce and of poor quality, water is dirty, parents are ill and unable to care, outside is unsafe, fatal disease is watching over you, education fails you! A childhood – but not as we know it. No way! How can we not help these children?

The flip side of the coin

We had to know that all of our donations would really make a long lasting and consistent difference and that they would be part of a huge push to positively change the lives of the children in the country we chose, and ultimately the future of its people. That’s why we chose South Africa. Until 15 years ago she was a country divided by colour, by wealth, by gender. Today she is working incredibly hard to recognize that all of her people count and are valuable. She has a stable constitutional democracy; she has had, until last year, 14 years of uninterrupted economic growth; she has built more than 3 million houses for disadvantaged communities; she has extended water and electricity services to more than 70% of all her households; she has introduced state allowances for thirteen million children and old-age pensioners; she is spending one third of her health budget on antiretroviral HIV/AIDS drugs with a plan to eventually have full population coverage; she produces a third of sub-Saharan Africa’s gross economic product which has meant more employment opportunities for her people which in turn has lifted millions of families out of Absolute Poverty. She is helping herself.

The global economic recession has hit South Africa the hardest of all countries. She is not having it easy!

We know our decision to help is the right one.

Why did we choose South Africa? …. How could we not!

We were on one of our trips to Whipsnade Wild Animal Park in Bedfordshire, having the great day out that we usually have there, when five elephants walked past us – tail to trunk. There was a female in the lead with another in the middle and one at the rear. In between these females were two baby calves. We watched as they came to a stopping place where the keepers allowed them to forage amongst the trees and grass for food. The calves were constantly watched over and kept close to the family group by any one of the females. The adult females were vigilant in their watch but demonstrated gentle care and affection. We wondered why there were three females to two calves. One of the keepers explained that two of the females were the mothers of each calf but that the third was an ‘Auntie’.

He then went on to explain that elephant society is matriarchal (meaning a female is head of the family) and they live in herds of related females and immature males. Females give birth within the family group and other females - often called ‘aunties’ - (the correct term is allo-mother), help support the mother in the raising of her calf. These helpers play an important role in the first weeks by playing with and watching out for the new baby, allowing the mother time to rest and eat, which is important for lactation (milk production). Then as the calf grows the ‘aunties’ help him/her to learn how to use his/her trunk, forage for food and communicate.

‘Care in the community or family’ – keeping each child with its parent but supporting and helping, just being there, is what ‘auntie’ elephants do and that was exactly what we wanted to do with this organisation.

So the name ‘Auntie’ was born.

Then, we just couldn’t stop thinking how right it was…...

......as childcare practitioners in this country, we do pretty much the same job as ‘aunties’ in the elephant world.

……how we would love ‘Auntie’ as an organization to become like an elephant family, with everyone involved volunteering, expecting nothing back except the sense of belonging and community.

……the opportunity that we have of working with children using elephants to teach them about caring for each other, the world and their families; about working together; and about providing support…..

……that elephants are a powerful and positive symbol of Africa, to us.

……and that just as elephant ‘aunties’ care for and look after the young calves in their family, so we hope to step in and support parents in the care of their vulnerable children in South Africa.