Karissa Samuel

The Ntshulisa Foundation (TNF) enriches the lives of orphaned and/or displaced children who are in the care of various non-profit organisations (beneficiary organisations). TNF has partnered with these beneficiary organisations to supplement the primary requirements of the children in their care. Importantly, TNF strives to focus on interaction with the children to socialise, nurture and love them, as well as providing material support. TNF has developed a two pronged approach to helping: 1. It assists beneficiary organizations develop their strategies, identify their requirements/needs and budget accordingly. TNF then communicates this. 2. TNF engages and partners with social enablers (i.e. volunteers, professionals and corporations) who are want to provide resources to worthy causes in order to provide a conduit to meeting their Community Support Initiatives (CSI). How does it work? To bridge the gap, TNF has created the Social Action Network that connects beneficiaries with social enablers. The beneficiaries’ needs are categorised as short-term, discrete, or individual projects. The resources that the social enablers are willing to provide, ranges from people’s time to visit and host children; specialist skills (i.e. dentistry or accountancy); through to providing materials and/or cash that meet the needs of the beneficiaries. The Social Action Network is the ideal melting pot to match the needs of the beneficiaries and offerings of the social enablers. TNF’s intervention ranges from simple introductions and the handover of donations, through to the project management of large scale interventions. For example, the rebuilding of orphanage rooms with donor money, materials and staff; or arranging company/departmental social outings.