Guardians of Hope, a home that cares for abandoned and critically ill infants and young children in the Buffalo City Metro, has sent out a distress call.
The NPO, one of only two facilities in the metro that accepts children under the age of four, needs urgent financial assistance.
If it does not get help by the end of March, it must hand over more than 20 babies and toddlers to state care.
The home’s founder, Elaine Brenkman (a Daily Dispatch Local Hero) explained how devastating it would be if that day came to pass.
Guardians of Hope is not just a care centre. It is a dedicated place of safety for little ones from newborns to six-year-olds who have been abandoned, surrendered at birth for adoption, found destitute, or require palliative care.
Since its inception in 2017, it has taken in babies abandoned in hospitals, fields, rubbish bins and at police stations.
It is a home that gives infants and toddlers a second chance at life and those who are about to depart from this world a dignified ending.
It was inspirational Indian leader and social activist Mahatma Gandhi who once said: “The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members.”
SA is known globally for its ubuntu philosophy. Where then is our humanity if organisations such as Guardians of Hope are on the brink?
How was it even allowed to get to this point?
There is a glimmer of hope — the department of social development is engaging with the NPO with a view to exploring alternative forms of assistance to help it to maintain its operations.
While that inspires some confidence, the Eastern Cape has previously failed its most vulnerable citizens.
This is the province where 116 children died as a result of severe acute malnutrition in 2023.
This publication has also reported on tragic incidents in which mothers have killed their children before committing suicide to escape poverty.
The leadership of the provincial government was even subpoenaed to appear before the SA Human Rights Commission to explain what it had done to implement the commission’s recommendations to fight the burgeoning malnutrition crisis flagged a few years ago.
We must ask ourselves: what kind of society are we building if we continue to overlook organisations that provide vital assistance to the most vulnerable members of our communities?
It is our hope that we will all open our hearts and wallets to help the NPO. Collectively, we can save Guardians of Hope.
As a long-term solution, we appeal to the government to come up with a sustainable funding model for Guardians of Hope and similar organisations.
Daily Dispatch
