In 2014 The Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University held an internal competition where the various departments had to explain what diversity meant to them. The NMMU Business School won the R2000.00 prize for the most visuals entered in the project.  The staff were requested to suggest ways to spend the prize.  Various suggestions were made and by way of a draw they chose to donate the prize to Hannah’s Arms. Below is an interview with Juan Taljaard of Hannah’s Arms.

1.    Please tell us a bit about Hannah’s Arms. What do you guys do?

Hannah’s Arms is a network of private families who provide a temporary home and care for babies in crisis, either abandoned, neglected or abused or if parents are unable to care for their own children due to different circumstances until they can be adopted, fostered or reunited with their own families.
Hannah’s Arms was established in 2011 when Esme Chesworth received a call from Greenacres Hospital regarding a baby girl who had been abandoned. At the time, Esme did temporary safe care for a private adoption social worker. The baby girl was brought in by a lady called Sonja. After meeting and putting their heads together, they came up with the idea to start a non-profit organisation to help babies in crisis situations – and so Hannah’s Arms was born.
Financially, as with all non-profit organisations, they rely on fundraisers, talks and private sponsors and donations. Recently, Hannah’s Arms purchased a cluster foster home which will accommodate six permanent foster children and three temporary children. Seeing that their babies are usually in private homes with foster families, they’re hopeful that this helps when it comes to raising money and donations for the babies.
 
2.       NMMU Business School recently made a donation to Hannah’s Arms, please tell us how the money will be used?

We at Hannah’s Arms are currently collecting material or funds to build Port Elizabeth’s first BABY SAFE in Kwazakhele, opposite Dora Nginza Hospital. Your donation has been earmarked towards this project.

A Baby Safe counters infanticide by providing alternatives to desperate mothers who would otherwise dump or abandon their babies on rubbish heaps, in toilets, dustbins or open fields. We will intervene in South Africa’s baby dumping crisis by providing a drop off point (the baby safe), where a mother can leave her baby anonymously, legally, and safely, 24 hours a day.
Our hope is to have the baby safe up and running by 18 May 2015.

3.       Are there any upcoming projects that you are working on?

Yes we have many up and coming projects:

• More Baby Safes: we really believe that having only one baby safe will not adequately meet the needs of our Mothers in crisis. Many of them are desperate, scared and have no transport. We envisage having a Baby safe in the Northern Areas and in Walmer Township. Each Baby safe costs us around R35000 to install.

• Safety Parents: It would be futile to have baby safes if we do not have a loving home with caring parents to love and nurture our babies for the 90 day period it will take to get them adopted out. There is no payment to us or government subsidy and so it is absolutely a work of love. Studies have shown that it is best for the development of a newborn up to 18 months of age to be placed within a family and nurtured by a primary caregiver rather than to be in a “Baby haven” and seen to by different staff and volunteers.

• Branding, marketing and awareness: We are faced with the challenge of being the only organization of our kind in our province. People always expect us to have our babies in havens or institutions. Even social workers who are aware of the benefits of placing babies into personal care still place them into homes. So there is a huge need to create awareness amongst the social workers, clinics, hospitals and police stations of what we do with posters. We need to create awareness amongst the public to by holding talks, placing newspaper articles and doing fundraises with pull up banners and just general branding of vehicles etc. Currently we have 2 volunteers and 3 safety moms trying to achieve these goals, none of whom have any advertising background. We need a lot of help in this area.

• The Foster Cluster Home:  Esme and Graham live in our foster cluster home together with their 6 foster children, 1 safety baby and 6 biological children. Running a house with 13 children and only 1 domestic worker brings its own set of challenges. Their eldest is at university studying medicine, 5 are in high school and 4 are in preschool. The 3 youngest are under the age of 2 and still at home. School fees, clothes, extra murals, food, stationery, all this and much more is paid for by Dad’s salary and they rely on fundraisers, private sponsors and donations.

4.       How can people who would love to help get involved with Hannah’s Arms?

Three ways to help:

Contact Kim for more information on 082 904 1013
TIME:  Volunteer by donating 2 hours once a week or 2 hours once a month.
MONEY:  A monthly donation of R100 or more makes a difference.

                HANNAH’S ARMS
                SAVINGS ACCOUNT
                NEDBANK – 12290500
                ACCOUNT NO – 2004973471

We salute Jaun and his team for their work. A helping hand goes a very long way. Anyone who is interested in making a donation to Hannah’s Arms can email Jaun - [email protected]