Board
The Board is responsible for the organisation’s overall performance and compliance, providing strategic direction, effective governance and leadership on behalf of Members and supporters. The Board delegates responsibility to the Chief Executive Officer.
The Board has established committees / clusters to support LifeLine in policy development, governance and accountability. These committees/clusters include:
IN MEMORIUM
In January 2010 the organisation suffered a great loss when Dale True passed away. Dale had given 12 years of service to LifeLine. Dale was not only a committed counsellor but an active board member who was focusing his energy on improving the quality of counselling services through his involvement on the Services cluster.
BOARD MEMBER RESIGNATIONS
Ronald Langa and Sylvia Mpheng resigned from the Board due to employment commitments.
COOPTED BOARD MEMBERS
The Board welcomed Dumisani Hlatshwayo to the Board in December 2009. Dumisani brings a wealth of business and experience to the Board.
MEETINGS ATTENDANCE
Eleven board meetings were held throughout the year.
| Board Members |
Number of meetings attended |
| Ed Hatton (Chairperson) |
10 |
| Bridgette Lodewyks (Vice Chairperson) |
11 |
| Janet Vos (Secretary) |
11 |
| Alfred Nkwane |
10 |
| Stephany Thiel |
11 |
| Dumisani Hlatshwayo- coopted in December 2009 |
3 |
| Thoko Nkomo |
2 |
| Dale True |
5 |
| Sylvia Mpheng – resigned in February 2010 |
2 |
| Ronald Langa resigned in September 2009 |
1 |
Chairman’s report June 2010
Previous year in review
The past 12 months have been badly affected by the worldwide recession that was so severe during 2009. And although the recovery is starting the effects are still being felt. This had a major impact on NGOs in our communities. Funding dried up and volunteers left to pursue money generating tasks instead. Many NGOs did not survive; others had to reduce services dramatically. At the same time our communities needed even more care as unemployment, poverty and the effects of violence, drugs and anger increased.
LifeLine Ekurhuleni was not immune to these forces, but we not only survived, we were able to expand our services considerably during this difficult period. You will hear more from our Director but it is pleasing to note that our new outreach centres in Tsakane and Daveyton added to the victim rights campaign and the management of intake and adult counselling services at the Duduza Regional Victims Office were all projects developed during this difficult period. At the same time we continued and expanded all but one of our community service projects. We are possibly the only Centre in LLSA to show an increase in volunteer counsellor numbers. It is a great credit to the management team and staff of this Centre that we were able to expand services to these communities, and I want to thank each and every manager and staff member for their wonderful contribution.
I must also thank our business partners and sponsors, who have been magnificent. Our philosophy has been one of demonstrating direct community benefits from funds received, rather than just asking for handouts. The phrase social entrepreneurs describes what we do – training, counselling and enabling community members to heal from actual and manage potential distress situations and so become more effective members of the community. From this comes a multiple return on investment – not just an annual drain of sponsorship.
Transformation issues
If transformation means embracing and becoming representative of all communities then I believe we have come some way down a still longer path.
- We were the first LifeLine centre in the country to change our name to that of the new metro name of our area
- Significant extensions into major black townships featuring the talk-learn-grow-lead-model
- Of all of our engagements with the community, most contacts are conducted in a black African language, reflecting the home language of the majority of residents.
- The Board and the management team are multiracial and multicultural
- We have been deeply involved in the development of new services by the Transformation Project of LifeLine Southern Africa, including having a good representation at the Consensus meeting, our management and volunteers being prominent at various transformation planning and strategic sessions. We have recently sent management, staff and volunteers to be trained in the new Appreciate Inquiry based community dialogue methodology. We look forward to using our new skills in this concept of being pro active in our communities.
No transformation is easily done, or without pain and there is always the risk of loss of key people to our organisation but we cannot and will not remain static in an ever changing world. We need to adapt, improve, change and develop. The Board took a decision at our planning meeting in 2009 that the strategy for this centre would include developing into communities with greater reach and new initiatives, but also that we would strengthen, update and develop existing services to continue to serve communities and expand their reach. This is a key issue for this centre, and we have been pleased to see the growth of traditional services like telephone counselling and personal growth training – and there is much more to come!
The Board
I want to pay tribute to the members of the Board – they have shown real leadership in formulating strategies and policies. In particular I would like to thank Alfred Nkwane who assists us on legal matters, Dumisane Hlatswayo who has helped with finances and now heads up the HR cluster of the Board, Sr Stephany Thiel who contributes so significantly to the Products and Services cluster and especially the Vice Chairperson Bridgette Lodewyks who was also acting Treasurer in the year. I also want to thank Janet Vos our Secretary for her wonderful work in the Products and Services Board cluster. Janet has not made herself available for re-election and we will miss her. Thoko Nkomo was co-opted to the Board as a special liaison Board member and its wonderful to have her back. Sadly we lost Dale True, who passed away recently, but he had left a huge legacy – the recent climate survey of counsellors was Dale’s initiative for instance. Sylvia Mpheng resigned during the year when she left our major sponsor G&D and I thank her for the work she did in the HR cluster. It has been a privilege to chair this industrious Board.
The Future
LifeLine Ekurhuleni plans to continue to celebrate our 40th anniversary this year by continuing to develop our reach and offerings. There are many who need what we can offer, and we will continue to provide innovative and traditional care to improve the emotional wellness of the people of Ekurhuleni. And have fun and take pride in doing so.
Ed Hatton
26th June 2010.
Executive Director’s Report
2009 was a challenging year for civil society organizations due to the poor economic climate. LifeLine Ekurhuleni was blessed with committed donor support and is fortunate to report growth in the organization.
This year has seen LifeLine Ekurhuleni build our counsellor base from 40 to 59 counsellors and our Staff base from 18 to 26 people. We have also worked hard on consolidating our projects / services and the project funding base.
As part of the consolidation strategy LifeLine reconceptualised our outreach service model by moving away from providing pre and post test HIV and AIDS counselling services in clinics to establishing LifeLine service points in Tsakane and Daveyton communities.
Tsakane Office
Daveyton Office
Mr Hans Viljoen (MD G&D) at the Launch of the Daveyton Site
Our achievements include:
Expansion of service sites:
LifeLine Ekurhuleni’s first service point in the Far East Rand was launched on 12 of June 2009. LifeLine now provides face to face counselling and support group services at 480 Ndaba Street in Tsakane.
LifeLine Ekurhuleni’s second outreach site / service point in Daveyton was launched on the 17 March 2010 at Charles Wesley Methodist Church.
LifeLine was also allocated an office within South African Airways Medical Services Unit and has a volunteer placed on-site to assist with lay counselling and trauma support.
Projects/Services:
24 hour line: LifeLine Ekurhuleni is one of six centres providing 24 hour lay counselling services. 3237 crisis calls were attended to. The number of calls has increased by 19 % as compared to the previous year. In terms of the types of calls being received there has been a marked increase in HIV and AIDS, Depression, Rape and Suicide calls. Calls made by men have increased by 15 % as compared to the 9 % increase in female callers.
Counsellors Christmas Party
Face to face counselling has increased by 9% with 226 persons accessing counselling at the Benoni office, whilst 811 persons were assisted at the LifeLine Tsakane service point. 42 individuals accessed trauma support services as part of our corporate trauma support service.
209 South African Airways personnel accessed trauma support and lay counselling services from the LifeLine lay counsellor based at SAA.
Educational and Support group programmes:
An educational and support group for HIV + woman and men was run on a monthly basis at the Tsakane office. Ten women and two men attended the monthly sessions that focused on self awareness (personal growth), how to disclose ones status to family and friends and how to live positively making use of existing social support systems. The group terminated in November when participants managed to secure formal employment.
An educational and support group was also facilitated with ten women who were victims of domestic violence and who had accessed counselling at the Duduza Regional Victims Office as of the 2 August. The group ran weekly at the Duduza library until the 5 November 2009. Sessions focused on self awareness and self esteem, victim’s rights, services available to victims from counselling, court preparation and support, what to expect from the criminal justice system, managing relationships through the healing process which included stress, conflict and anger management.
Duduza Office
A third education and awareness group was run with youth of both genders between the ages of 18 – 25 years. The group started in September with 20 participants and ended in mid November with only 10 members. Programme covered education on the different forms of abuse, victims’ rights, services available to victims of crime and violence and skills training on creating community awareness.
Training Unit:
Two Personal Growth Courses were facilitated throughout the year with 61 participants followed by a Counselling Course with 21 participants.
The following Corporate Training and Awareness Programmes were facilitated:
- Workplace Peer Educator Training for Aveng Manufacturing: 29 participants
- HIV & AIDS Awareness for Lennings Rails: 200 participants
- HIV and AIDS Awareness for Liviero & Son PTY (Ltd): 20 groups of 25
- Personal Growth and Counselling for Ma-Afrika Tikkum: 31 participants
The following Training and Awareness Workshops were facilitated:
- Victim Support Volunteers were trained in Personal Growth and Communication skills: 19 participants
- STI Awareness workshops were facilitated with: 120 Daveyton High School learners, 15 community members at the Daveyton Library, 300 Duduza High School learners and 15 community members at Tsakane Clinic.
Correctional Services Outreach:
1195 inmates received pre and post HIV and AIDS counselling at Modderbee, Boksburg and Nigel Prisons.
Victim Support Services:
The LifeLine Victim Support Team are responsible for supervising 11 police station based victim support centre volunteers at these sites throughout the year.
Monitoring Project:
4987 children in conflict with the law were detained in police holding cells throughout the year. The Monitoring team monitor 51 police holding cells on a monthly basis and an additional 41 on a quarterly basis. The project received an Impumelelo Award.
Intermediary Project:
800 children between the ages of 3 – 18 years were assisted by the Intermediary Team to testify via closed circuit system. Our assistance has increased since the previous year by 75 % this is largely due to an increase in the number of courts we service from 3 courts to 6 courts. The project has grown to include post trial follow up to ensure that children have accessed counselling services and that parents are equipped to assist their child deal with the aftermath of victimization.
Duduza Regional Victims Office:
511 face to face counselling sessions were conducted throughout the year. 44 male and 287 female community members were assisted at intake level at the Duduza Regional Victims Office. Of the 331 persons accessing services 49 were victims of rape, 77 were in abusive relationships and 23 were child victims.
Community Based Mentorship of Child Headed Households:
The pilot project funded by the Umsobomvu Youth Fund officially ended in December 2009. The Project ended with 131 trained Peer Educators who had been providing emotional and practical support to 164 child headed households. 50 of the Peer Mentors were then identified as potential Community Peer Educators to be trained to conduct community awareness programmes.
Participation in National Awareness Campaigns:
LifeLine Staff and Volunteers participated in the following awareness campaigns:
Child Protection Week: Safety Awareness talks using play therapy tools were facilitated with 216 children from crèches and preschools within the Ekurhuleni Region from the 25 – 27 May 2009.
16 Days of Activism of no violence to Women and Children where staff and outreach volunteers conducted a door to door campaign in KwaThema, Tsakane and Duduza communities educating 600 households on their rights and victim empowerment services available to them. An awareness talk on child abuse and family violence was presented to 306 learners at Matshediso Special School.
World AIDS Day: Staff and volunteers conducted awareness talks on HIV and AIDS at Pholosong Hospital, Philani Clinic, Matshidizo and Khombindlela Schools, and Nigel Prison. 140 inmates and 14 Correctional Services officers participated in the awareness talk.
Participation in these awareness months led to an increase in enquiries on and requests for LifeLine services at all service points.
Marketing:
An Open Day marketing LifeLine’s services in the Duduza Community was held in April 2009 and over 500 community members were reached through various awareness sessions facilitated at local clinics throughout the year.
“Community Matters” Silicon Wristbands:
Many NPO’s have utilised the concept of the Silicon wristband to aid in creating awareness for the organisation and promoting a good cause. As we celebrate 40 years of volunteerism this year, we have had the opportunity to look back at what we as an organisation has achieved over the last 40 years, with exceptional pride and a great feeling of accomplishment. We wanted to bring something to the community that would remind them of who we are and what we stand for – a symbol of our strength, compassion and commitment to servicing the Ekurhuleni area.
It was with great excitement that we launched our Silicon wristband campaign. The wristbands are blue and have the LifeLine Logo and “Ekurhuleni” debossed into the outside of the wristband. We needed to come up with a slogan for the wristbands and finally decided on “Community Matters” – which is also debossed on the outside. The crisis number is printed on the inside of the band in white, for easy and quick reference. In addition, the bands are packaged in a rather unique way, with an insert providing all the details of where LifeLine Ekurhuleni is, how we can be contacted and that we are celebrating our 40th anniversary this year! The wristbands are selling for R20 each.
Print Media:
Articles were featured in the Edenvale/Bedfordview News Benoni City Times, Kempton Express, African Reporter and Star Newspaper.
Radio:
Director, Counselling Manager and social workers were interviwed on East rand Radio and Counselling Manager was interviwed twice on DSTV 155(radio Islam).
Billboard:
LifeLine billboard was placed on grounds of Wordsworth high, Great North Road. Thank you to the Glynwood Hospital for Sponsoring the manufacturing of the billboard.
Pamphlets:
The following pamphlets were developed and printed:Domestic Violence, Safety Planning, Rape, Suicide Prevention and Donor Support.
Fundraising:
LifeLine Ekurhuleni hosted its annual Golf Day on the 10th February 2010. The turn out was fantastic with great support from sponsors that participated last year, as well as some new sponsors who showed interest in the event. The weather was perfect and the day was thoroughly enjoyed by all the players, sporting bright orange golf shirts and caps with the LifeLine Ekurhuleni logo printed on them. Paul Rotherham was once again the MC for the prize giving and expressed his support for what LifeLine Ekurhuleni does for the community. Having R127 000 at the Golf Day alone, the event proved to be an even greater success when Ashley Mabogoane and Nelson Mwale handed over a cheque for R200 000 from the New Seasons Owlbridge Trust. A total of R327 000 was made!
Training of staff and volunteers:
As part of the organisation’s commitment to growth and development staff and volunteers attended a number of trainings and workshops, namely
- New staff members attended the LifeLine Ekurhuleni Personal Growth Course
- 113 Peer Mentors underwent Personal Growth Training
- 55 Peer Mentors underwent HIV and AIDS Training
- Operational Managers / Supervisors attended Project Management and Leadership Training through the Foundation for Professional Development
- Lead Trainer attended Post Exposure Prophylaxis Update training and HIV and AIDS in the Workplace Training Workshop facilitated by the Foundation for Professional Development as well as a Train the Trainer course facilitated by Dynamic Intervention
- The Fundraiser attended courses on how to recruit and retain donors and how to market your NPO facilitated by the Fundraising Forurum
- 3 Staff members attended Counselling Course
- 10 24 hour line volunteer counsellors and 1 Staff member attended Facilitator Training
- Domestic Violence Act Information Session
- Volunteers attended HIV and AIDS information sessions and refresher Counselling skills training.
- Two project staff members enrolled in Social Auxilliary Work Courses.
Gratitude:
I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the volunteers (telephone, outreach and victim support). Without each of you and your contribution to LifeLine Ekurhuleni we would not be able to operate our services and provide such a valuable contribution to Ekurhuleni community. You each bring your passion, time and support to the tasks you fulfil and for that I know that both we and Ekurhuleni community members are grateful.
To the Staff I thank you for your work, time, effort, passion and support. Your dedication and professionalism is appreciated. It has been my pleasure to work with each of you.
To the Board I would personally like to thank you for your leadership, time, effort and passion for the staff, volunteers and services that LifeLine Ekurhuleni provides and especially your support of myself.
Thank you to our service partners- our sister LifeLine Centres and LifeLine Southern Africa, to our NGO Partners ( especially Ithemba Rape Crisis and Kidz Clinic) and our government stakeholders.
A very special thank you to our donors for their continued commiment to ensuring financial sustainability of the organisation. we could have not waethered the economic storm without you. Special thanks to: Giesecke and Devrient, the UNODC, Lotto, Mediclinic, Springbok health fund(SAA staff), New Seasons Investments and New Seasons Owlbridge Trust and all the companies and individuals who participated in our Golf Day and who continue to support us on a regular basis.
It has been my greatest pleasure and honour to lead LifeLine Ekurhuleni, I would like to thank the staff, volunteers, sponsors and the Board for their support.
Lorraine Macdougall
Executive Director
Victim’s Rights Posters:
