2011-02-09: Welfare auctions 100 doors

Doors symbolise new beginnings; a new beginning is offered by Joburg Child Welfare to vulnerable children. Now it is auctioning 100 doors decorated by artists and celebrities in celebration of its centenary.
JOBURG Child Welfare (JCW) is to host a 100 Doors Project Exhibition and Auction to mark its centenary and to help its beneficiaries get a new start.

Abigail Betz stands next to her door to be auctioned off to raise funds for charityAbigail Betz stands next to her door to be auctioned off to raise funds for charitySarah Mendell, JCW’s fund developer, explains: “100 Doors was an idea thought up nearly two years ago. As an organisation we wanted to commemorate our 100 years of service in a really special way.

So we asked our children, caregivers, volunteers, adoptive, foster and biological parents to tell us their stories. And then we shared these stories with 100 artists and celebrities. We sent them each a door and asked them to turn their doors into works of art to be auctioned off to raise funds for JCW.”

A door symbolises a new beginning; the number of doors symbolises the 100 years of JCW’s existence. It is one of the oldest and largest child welfare organisations in the country, and assists over 40 000 people annually.

The doors will be auctioned off at a star-studded event on 10 February at The Ballroom in Montecasino at 6pm, with live performances by Watershed, Lucky du Plessis, Cofield, Des and Dawn Lindberg and more.

Tickets cost R250 per person and are available from Joburg Child Welfare. Cash collected from the auction will be invested in JCW projects to continue its services to disadvantaged children, their families and communities.

“Raising funds for JCW means keeping the organisation active so that we may provide for our thousands upon thousands of beneficiaries. We have been around for 100 years and we hope to be around for another 100. Raising funds on this evening will help ensure that,” says Mendell.

“Funds raised go directly to our services, centres, departments, projects and programmes. JCW provides critical services to our most needy children through the child and family unit, local and inter-country adoptions, foster care and re-integration services, child abuse treatment and training services, Aganang Learning Centre, the Orphaned and Vulnerable Children Forum, advocacy, Santac, Othandweni Family Care Centre, Princess Alice Adoption Home, Thembalethu Life Skills and Economic Empowerment Centre and the Elton John Masibambisane Centre for Orphaned and Vulnerable Children.”

Child and family unit
The child and family unit is a vital centre for neglected, abused and abandoned children, whose desperate mothers think they have no alternative. Specialist social workers investigate each case thoroughly and then help to place the child with extended families, or recommend them for temporary or permanent removal from parents and place them in places of safety, foster care and adoption.

Gerry Elsdon busy painting a door for a good causeGerry Elsdon busy painting a door for a good causePregnant women who are unsure about what to do with their unborn children are counselled before giving up their babies for adoption, and temporary or permanent placement of the baby is arranged where necessary.

The JCW also has a child abuse treatment and training services unit, based at its Fox Street head office. A cutting edge service, it was established in 1990 as a counselling model that is unique to the needs of sexually abused children and their families.

Suited to the specific needs of children in Africa, it takes into account local beliefs and value systems of those being treated and uses training to equip traditional healers, often the first to identify abused children in a community, with the tools they need to offer assistance within their areas. The healers are also invaluable as a resource for raising awareness about HIV and Aids.

The JCW website reads: “This unique approach has seen counselling and treatment being offered through community clinics accessible to many, the development of short-term therapeutic interventions and the ‘Witness to Violence’ interview which deals with all stages of trauma in a single 90-minute session.

“The overall objective of an entire range of interventions, which begins with families and the abused children and continues through counselling, treatment and even to the courts where necessary, is to provide a service that will ultimately help restore dignity and trust to those who have often suffered indignities at the hands of friends and family members as well as strangers.”

Mendell concludes: “Thanks to our hundreds of artists and celebrities, our sponsors and to the media for its support of our project. To anyone and everyone who contributed to or was touched by the 100 Doors Project, we are truly grateful.”

Joburg Child Welfare can be contacted on 011 298 8500 or by visiting the head office, at 41 Fox Street, first floor, Edura House.