After losing one of their strongest investors recently due to financial constraints, the Healthy Mom and Baby Clinic (HMBC) in Jeffreys Bay are hoping to receive support from the community to continue serving the many growing families in the area.
As previously reported by Kouga Express, the clinic was founded in 2002, due to an overwhelming need in the community for a specialised clinic focused on improving the health of mothers and children.
According to Sister Lynette van Onselen, clinic director and midwife, since the HMBC is an NPO which mostly serves financially vulnerable clients, they cannot function as a business as it was never at the “heart” of the clinic to run a business.
As a result she said that they have challenges with their running costs, especially covering the salaries of their nine permanent staff, which is their biggest expense.
“The clinic currently has a shortfall of R600 000 to R800 000 per year. Thankfully, expenses such as rent, consumables and cleaning have been reduced to a minimum, without compromising our services offered,” said Van Onselen.
Despite their financial challenges, she said that they have been fortunate to receive funding from investors who have contributed to the success of the clinic.
Through sponsorships, Van Onselen said that they were able to employ both permanent and part-time nurses and appoint further additional staff. She said that they were also able to build a wooden structure to be used as a counselling room, shop, and mobile garage.
They were also able to purchase and convert a Quantum taxi into a mobile clinic, which enabled them to offer outreach services at local crèches, weekly outreaches in Ocean View and Female Friday where they visit schools in the area to offer motivational talks to Grade 7 learners and hand out sanitary towels and correctly-fitted brassieres.
To add to this, Van Onselen said that in 2021 they were able to rent additional rooms in the same building that they are currently occupying, and they now have six consultation rooms for professional nurses, a locum medical doctor or allied medical staff.
Furthermore, to combat challenges faced by loadshedding and the drought in the Kouga region, she said that they have been able to procure funding to purchase an inverter, batteries, and water tanks to utilise rainwater. Van Onselen said that they have also purchased new computers and two ultrasound machines.
“In the last eight years we have seen 41 000 people under the age of five, 5 000 youth and 33 000 adults which include 2 200 pregnant women who have visited the clinic a total of 14 300 times. The total number of clients we have seen amounts to 79 000,” said Van Onselen.
After offering financial assistance to the clinic for eight years, she said that due to financial constraints their strongest investor is no longer able to support the clinic.
“Losing a donor who helps to cover our running cost is a challenge, especially when we do not receive a warning,” said Van Onselen.
With one less investor, she said that the clinic team has gone back to the drawing board, and are now seeking new investors which include businesses, organisations and even individuals willing to donate as little as R500 a month.
Van Onselen said many people in Jeffreys Bay believe that their salaries are paid by Victory Christian Church in Jeffreys Bay, since they initially established the clinic at the church.
She said that this was untrue and that even though they are under the church’s spiritual guidance, their salaries have been covered by donations for the past 20 years.
Van Onselen said that they have also discovered that businesses prefer donating tangible goods and shy away from contributing to salaries or running costs, due to sustainability reasons.
“We suspect that businesses might fear that the funds donated will be misused; however, we volunteer to have our books audited by an independent accounting firm for transparency and accurate representation of our funding,” said Van Onselen.
Going forward, she said that she hopes the clinic will have better sustainability in finances with numerous big companies investing in HMBC and HMBC’s expansion to nearby towns.
Van Onselen also encourages clients to register HMBC as a beneficiary on the MySchool initiative, to allow funding to be directed to the HMBC.
She said that additional investment would allow them to employ more nurses as the need is great in the community, and they hope to increase their outreach to Ocean View to two to three days per week.
With an increase in outreach days in Ocean View, she said that they would love to establish a shelter which would be used to see their clients in the area, as they currently make use of a nearby church which was arranged by the Ocean View Neighbourhood Watch.
