Ditshego House of Laughter
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : s*******h@d******o.co.za
Mission Statement
Building a resilient community and fostering a culture of learning, sustainability and wellness that uplifts individuals and enriches our community by rendering comprehensive support services that empowers orphaned and vulnerable children and disadvantaged families.
About This Cause
Ditshego House of Laughter was founded in 2007 and it delivers integrated services in the community of Mooiplaas. It started as a small play group of 3 children and a single teacher and has grown and developed into a well-functioning NGO where up to 500 children are educated and fed The NPO was registered for vulnerable children and related projects. Mooiplaas (also known as Spruit) is home to approximately 50,000 people living in shacks. There is an average of 5 family members per shack. Mooiplaas is an informal settlement situated on a dumping site and most of the community earns their money by recycling, working as day labourers and domestic workers. The community of Mooiplaas is made up of many ethnicities, but most of the immigrants are from Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and the DRC. Most people do not have jobs and come from disavantaged families, leaving unemployment at approximately 80%, most of the residents spend their time finding recyclable materials to earn a living. Overview of our integrated Services to the Community of Mooiplaas 1. Preschool - The preschool consists of 10 team members in the preschool and most of the are from the community of Mooiplaas and they work hard to provide high quality education, care, and meals in a safe environment to over 120 children. Our preschool teachers are all qualified and they follow the curriculum of the Department of Education to ensure that our children are ready for mainstream schools. Our preschool admits children aged 3-6 years and they are fed 2 meals daily. At present we have 97 children at the preschool 2.The Orphans and Vulnerable Children project (OVC) - The OVC project is an umbrella that is built up of two programs. The project is aimed at providing psychosocial support services to beneficiaries in the community more especially families and children living with chronic illnesses including but not limited to HIV/AIDS. We have 16 team members in the OVC who have multiple responsibilities. Our caregivers conduct home visits daily in the community to identify gaps where there are vulnerable families and children, child-headed families and families that are affected by HIV/AIDS and other chronic illnesses, this allows the organisation to determine what type of services need to be rendered to the community and refer them to the relevant departments. The services we render to beneficiaries during our home visits include lay counselling to families that require it, educating families and children about social and health issues for their wellbeing. Our caregivers are trained to educate and offer support to the community about HIV/AIDS prevention methods, the importance of adhering to treatment etc. We also offer nutritional support to 100 disadvantaged families to ensure that they lead a healthy lifestyle. There is an aftercare centre in our premises for children aged 7-14 years and children from various primary schools attend. We currently have 154 children in the aftercare, our caregivers assist them with their schoolwork and assignments. They are all given daily meals after classes and there are sports activities in place twice a week to refresh their young minds. We also offer them life skills lessons and HIV/AIDS programs. 3. Place of Safety- Two resident House Mothers provide full-time care to 6 vulnerable children in the home of safety. Ditshego provides for the physical, educational, spiritual, and emotional needs of the children. The ages of the children in the house ranges from 7 to 18, we have 3 boys and 3 girls. All our children in the home of safety go to various schools according to their grades and we strive to get them the best education. The House of Laughter has 10 staff members in total and that includes management and the office administrator. 4. Open school- The open school currently has 31 children that are separated in two classrooms according to their ages. There are four teachers in the Open school and two to each class. Our children are progressing with their learning journey. Volunteers come in on Wednesdays to do activities such as dancing, arts, and crafts etc. with the children. Elvis, a youth pastor from Westview Methodist church comes in twice a week for fun bible studies with the children. Our children receive daily meals (Breakfast and Lunch). 5. Food Garden- Ditshego has come up with food garden project to sustain food security to our community and sorrounding areas, since there is sufficient space in our premises we have used the space for gardening purposes.We have four team members in the garden and work tirelessly to ensure that the garden is well maintained. We plant vegetables and fruit trees in the garden and once we harvest we use the vegetables to cook for our children who attend school daily and some of the vegetables are then shared with the community. 6. Sewing Project- Sewing machines were donated to us and that gave birth to the initiation of a sewing project. We have a volunteer who comes in on Wednesdays for sewing classes. Our volunteer works closely with the community. The outreach is aimed at equipping the community with sewing skills in which they could either start small businesses or work in sewing industries. Part of our plan is to generate income through the project by selling the clothes made during the sewing sessions.