Our important work is in jeopardy and we need your help!
Our important work is in jeopardy and we need your help! We have recently lost a big sponsor which has placed us in a very tight position and in order to carry on we need your help.
As you know, I started up The Safe House in 2015, which is a home for abused women and children. In a nutshell (if you don’t already know), we take in abused women and children who are at high risk, and keep them safe, help them to heal, and look after all their needs (medical, dental, legal – [protection orders, divorces and opening cases against perpetrators], school, psychosocial etc). We empower, we upskill and then we reintegrate our survivors into the community armed with the tools to survive. We also counsel and care for rape victims and help them to walk their long roads.
In December we have been running for 4 years and have helped over 130 people, the majority being children. We are fully accredited members of the Western Cape Women’s Shelter Movement and the National Shelter Movement, and nearly half of our funding comes from the Department of Social Development. It has been up to me to find the other half of the funding.
Very recently we lost one of our biggest sponsors – this has hit very hard as they did not only finance the 15 seaters van, but they also contributed monthly. Losing them has resulted in a loss of around R20000/month at very short notice. Should we not manage to find someone to take over the financing of the vehicle (of which 2 of the 5-year repayment has been paid), we will lose it this week. Also, losing this finance has pushed our monthly shortfall to nearly R60000/month.
As you know, due to the risk factor involved, our whereabouts are not advertised, and neither do we market what we do. Applying to funders like Lotto and other trust funds are long term funding strategies that take a long time to realise and have very specific criteria.
I have discovered that it is not what you know, but who you know, to get anywhere in life. I have never wanted to be this direct with my friends and contacts but have also realised that I am not asking for me, but for the women and kids that stream in and are on our waiting list. For their sakes, I am appealing to you. If you are in a position to assist financially or know of anyone else or an organisation who will fund this kind of work, please let me know urgently, or go to our website and donate on there. Speak to all your friends – all of our funds to date have come from word of mouth.
We are all most grateful for the assistance we have received to date from our local donors, but unfortunately unless we receive monetary assistance, our operational expenses cannot be met. Not only will we lose the van, but at this stage, financially, we will only be able to continue running until August 2019.
The various ways to assist The Safe House with funding to avoid closure:
- Direct deposits into our NGO bank account (details supplied below)
- A donate button (for local and international funders) and Zapper facility on our website thesafehouse.org.za
- Pledge monthly by debit order – any amount will do – download from website
- Consider The Safe House for corporate social responsibility (CSR)
- Hold fundraisers as our partners
The Safe House is a registered Trust (ITO21614), non-profit organisation (156-813 NPO) and public benefit organisation (PBO 930058261), meaning that we can issue tax certificates for tax rebates. The annual financial statements are available on request. Please contact me for any further information.
Thank you for all your support, and thanking you in advance for all your money.
Warm regards,
Kathy.
Banking Details:
FNB Fish Hoek
Branch code 20 23 09
Account number 62537542153
For more information, visit www.thesafehouse.org.za