As a non-profit organisation, Mosaic Deben works with ophaned and vulnerable children (OVC) in the Deben community.
With 15 children under its care, Mosaic Deben’s dream is to be able to assist up to 200 children in the next few years.
Currently situated at the Deben Primary School, Mosaic is in the process of fundraising to obtain its own land or property.
According to the organisation, there are 5,2 million OVC in the country, with 10% being accommodated in orphanages and other OVC care institutions. Close to 90% of the OVC live with relatives who, in most instances, live in abject poverty and are not able to provide the most basic of needs for themselves due to unemployment.
With the added burden of OVC, the pressure upon the family structure, and the broader community, increases exponentially.
OVC will, in most cases, not have access to proper schools and developmental opportunities and rarely complete basic education.
Research has shown that OVC will remain in a poverty cycle due to a lack of proper education and development, unless there is an intervention on educational, emotional, spiritual and physical level for both the OVC and their foster parents.
Model shows results
In 2008, Mosaic Community Developments implemented a sustainable, replicable OVC care model with a holistic focus on the OVC and their caregivers.
This model creates mechanisms to intervene on different levels without resulting in a dependency on an organisation or external resources.
This model, called the Mosaic Model, is composed of the following:
- identifying a family who is already taking care of two or more OVC;
- growing foster parents who are adequately equipped to do so;
- creating jobs for parents taking care of OVC, ensuring that the household has money for food and other necessities;
- developing children by providing access to quality schools, after-school programmes and more; and
- providing continued support to the family.
This model is now in use in four provinces, with the fourth site established in Deben.
For more information, visit mosaicsa.org or send an email to danelle@mosaicsa.org.
