Welcome once again, it’s a pleasure to be sharing our newsletter with you.

ADMISSIONS:

We welcomed 2 new girls in the month of September. One was admitted on the 1st, 13 years old and is from around Pretoria. She is in grade 8 and was successfully registered with Hospital school. The other one was admitted on the 27th but left the following day because she was not sure she wanted to be with Fatima House or not. She was 16 years old and in grade 10.

Unfortunately one of the girls who was doing grade 8, just decided to go back to her boyfriend’s place from where the social worker had removed her from thinking it was in her best interest as a pregnant minor to be placed in a safe environment up until she had given birth. She was due to give birth in October. It was exam time only for the matric girl. She wrote her preliminaries which prepare her for the forth coming final exams. All the others only wrote class tests.

BIRTHS AND FAREWELLS:

We bade farewell to the Johannesburg girl. She gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on the 28th of September. It was a normal birth and she was discharged the following day. She was with Fatima House for a month. Fortunately for her the Children’s Home that she was staying in before she joined Fatima House took her back together with the child. She had been uncertain for a while about whether to keep the baby or give her up for adoption. She finally made up her mind that she wanted the baby hence she could be put into foster care.

ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS:

Fatima House was a part of the “Change Starts in Hatfield” SPCA exhibition or expo on the 16th of September at The Fields Mall in Hatfield. It was a huge success for all participating organizations got to show case, and distribute their pamphlets or brochures with information of their services to the general public. Most of the participants were students from the neighbouring University of Pretoria.

The Department of Social Development seems to have heeded our plea for the non payment of place of safety girls. They did send three officials for a meeting here at Fatima House on the 21st and 22nd of September. They gathered all the information that they needed and the following day we were asked to hand in the necessary documents for claiming for the place of safety fees. We hope that something will be done this time around for it is becoming increasingly difficult to continue with our services to the pregnant girls in need.The 25th of September was Fatima House’s Annual General Meeting. The board members, Good Shepherd sister’s friends and collaborators of Fatima House were all in attendance.

We still involve our girls in various self help skills such as card making, knitting, and sewing, cross stitching, crotching, basic computer training skills and cooking (which is only implemented on Saturdays). We get them to engage in a variety of activities with a positive hope that when they go back home mastering any one of the skills, they can be able to make a living, become independent and most importantly take care of their babies, (most want to keep their babies). Girls also do swimming during their free time. Get a look at some of our pictures - it was computer time and baby bathing exercise!

THANKS:

Our thanks go to all who support this kind of service that we render to our pregnant ladies, our Board of management, donors; friends of Fatima House, Good Shepherd people, our collaborators and most importantly the girls for choosing life for their babies.

Compiled by the Social Worker!