With the economic distress and the drought facing the country, efforts should be doubled to assist the vulnerable South Africans. This was said by the Minister of Trade and Industry Dr Rob Davies during his visit to Child Welfare South Africa in KwaDukuza, Kwa-Zulu Natal yesterday.

Davies paid a courtesy visit to this community development and work project which was funded by the National Lotteries Commission for R962 000 and about R 8-million over the years in various projects. During the visit, Davies highlighted that it was important for the Non-Governmental Organisations to improve their governance structures and compliance; this he said should put them in a better position to receive funding from the National Lotteries Commission and other funding organs, which will give them a boost.

According to him, these funds are prominent to addressing the socio-economic challenges that South Africans are facing.

Davies adds that, regardless of the challenges that the Lotteries Commission faced in the past, it has had a positive impact on thousands of South Africans over the past 16 years and as results lives of vulnerable South Africans have changed and will continue to change for the better.

As a way to address these challenges faced by the Lotteries Commission and to deliver on the core mandate, Davies said the Commission has appointed a full-time Distributing Agencies which‚ is going to help to speed up the adjudication and progress report processing.

Davies told the management of the welfare that while the Lotteries Board was committed to assist them, they needed to seek alternative forms of funding which will translate into sustainability of the welfare projects.

According to the senior manager at the welfare Mr Bongani Ndlovu, they have managed to graduate over 3800 over the years with their Domestic Workers Empowerment Programme. This project according to him, was established to skill the unemployed women and men in home and office management, cooking, domestic workers, waitressing, child welfare, office assistance and petrol attendance.

“I must say that this project is a success and continues to be, we have seen our graduates getting employment and turning their lives around. Over 8000 beneficiaries for social work and community projects depend on our welfare which has 120 various projects for survival. The National Lotteries Commission funding has indeed changed the lives of our beneficiaries.” adds Ndlovu.

Child Welfare South Africa is a non-profit organisation that provides a wide range of services to children, families and communities in KwaDukuza and outlying areas. The society’s core service is to protect children who are at risk, this includes abused, neglected, abandoned and orphaned children and many of these children are either infected or affected by HIV/AIDS.

Child Welfare South Africa is one of the thousands of projects that have benefited from the Lotteries Commission over 16 years.

Caption: Minister Davies in a class with students attending the Domestic Workers Empowerment Programme at the Child Welfare South Africa in KwaDukuza, Kwa-Zulu Natal.

Issued by The Department of Trade and Industry