Children of the Dawn

Qui sommes-nous

About us
An association of persons was set up in May 2002 with as a main objective "to provide basic means of survival", and as a secondary objective “"o engage with community-based organizations that will act as facilitators between Children of the Dawn and Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVCs)". Children of the Dawn was officially registered as a Non-Profit Organisation in September 2002. A sister organisation was opened in France in December 2003 under the name "Les Enfants de l´Aurore (France)" with the same mission as Children of the Dawn. Both organisations work hand in hand to support rural South African children in dire need.

Activities:
• Children of the Dawn cares for 852 children aged 5 to 22 in eight rural communities: Mathabatha and Lenyenye located in the Limpopo Province, Bushbuckridge, Mangweni and Ermelo situated in Mpumalanga, Qwaqwa in the Free State Province, Mpumaze in Kwazulu-Natal, and Matatiele in the Eastern Cape. The sponsorship programme is run on the ground by eight dedicated teams. 80% of the sponsored children are orphans or living with a HIV- positive parent.
• Children of the Dawn strives to take a holistic approach in supporting orphans and vulnerable children within their own communities. In effect, Children of the Dawn looks at fulfilling the whole spectrum of children´s needs: education, nutrition, health, safety, moral and psychological issues, life skills, maintaining of family units, community integration, integration in the wider community… and having fun. Children of the Dawn encourages communities to take initiative and responsibility for answering children´s needs.
• At the heart of Children of the Dawn´s model lie the aftercare centres or drop-in centres. Through its partners in the eight communities, Children of the Dawn presently operates twenty-five of these semi-formal day centres, which welcome the sponsored children several times a week. When at the centre, children are fed, helped with their homework, educated in life skills, hygiene and health issues, as well as given moral and emotional support.
• Aside from the aftercare centres, network support teams have been created around each child. These informal support entities comprised of extended families, neighbors, teachers, social workers, and small businesses are meant to integrate and keep the orphans or vulnerable children within their community.

Programmes:
• Our CARE programme: Each of our beneficiaries receives on-going nutrition support, schooling support, household goods support, administrative support, emotional and trauma counselling, access to safe places, and leisure and sports activities.
• Our Children in Action Programme designed for children aged 5 to 13 gives our young beneficiaries the chance to access stimulating, fun and educational activities.
• My Future, My Responsibility is our guidance and mentoring programme targeting teenagers aged 14 and older. Through a variety of modules, we create experiential learning experiences on which our teens can build themselves, and get the tools to make position-life decisions.
• For our beneficiaries who are in tertiary or technical institutions, we offer on-going Student Mentorship and Financial Assistance.
• Sport for Good: As an organisation working with children in need, we believe in sport as a vector of social integration and upliftment. Seeing that we have had sports modules that encompass children of all ages, we decided to make our sport activities, a standalone pillar of our work.

Magali Malherbe is the National Project Manager of Children of the Dawn.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.