Touch of Care celebrates 22 years of uplifting vulnerable communities in the south

The Citizen

09-05-2025

Touch of Care continues its dedication of service to the people of the south for over two decades.
This non-governmental organisation, based at 2 Lindhorst Street, Turffontein, has served the community for 22 years, and its project manager, Julson Mkandla, is determined to continue to lead and be a pioneer of changing the lives of their beneficiaries.
Mkandla and Nobuhle Makhunga, the social auxiliary worker, explained the mandate, challenges and successes of this organisation.
Mandate
'We are under the wings of the Gauteng Department of Social Development (GDSD), where we deal with orphans and vulnerable children. We work with the Child Protection Unit and intervene when there are problems in a household, like when children are abused, do not go to school or have any other needs.
'Some children don't have parents, and they live with grandparents or caregivers. We do door-to-door visits to those households to make sure they have food, school uniforms, and take care of other special needs. Every month, we buy food and call all the guardians. We feed 100 households every month around this area and distribute 300 food parcels quarterly,' explained Mkandla.
He also mentioned that depending on the issue at hand they refer their beneficiaries to relevant authorities to get help, like social workers or SAPS.
'You will find that some people will lock their children in at home to go to work because they can't afford crèches or child minders. We will then intervene and remove the child to a place of safety until the child is 18 years old.
'There's also a programme called 'Behaviour Change' where we go to schools and talk to learners. This area is infested with drugs and learners bunking school. The programme helps the learners to get off the streets.
'Here we also cater for learners who can't further their studies after matriculation through our skills development programme. Skills such as social auxiliary worker, first aid, and child and youth care are offered to equip these learners to get employment in different NGOs.
'GEM MEG is one of the skills development centres based in the CBD that we work with through the funding from the Health and Welfare SETA. 'We use that funding to train beneficiaries, and they receive a stipend every month. When they are finished with training, we take another group and we often employ some while others are taken in by other organisations,' he said.
Challenges
Mkandla confirmed that there is a lot of work to be done, however, funding is limited.
'The most serious challenge is rent, GDSD only provide 6% towards rent. Covid-19 also made us lose donors.
Many companies have closed down after Covid. Although we still have donors such as GDSD, Joburg South BMW, St Paul's Church in Mulbarton and Meals on Wheels (food), we need more donors to fulfil our mandate and also be able to pay for water and electricity,' noted Mkandla.
Some of the success stories
Makhunga mentioned that although they have their annual school holiday programme, space is a challenge as a great number of learners attend.
'Together with our caregivers, we assist in squatter camps with food parcels, although the numbers keep increasing. The recent fire at Booysens informal settlement, where we donated clothes and food, is one example where we had more people. We also did counselling to find out how they were coping and to establish their state of mind.
'We also place destitute people in safe havens, organise birth certificates, ID and SASSA grants. We offer psycho-social counselling and any other help they might need,' she said.
For more information, email Julson Mkandla at [e-mail] or contact him on 072 700 6221.
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