At the end of each year it’s good to be able to look back to see how much progress we’ve made, and 2018 is no exception.
There have been some big staff changes, as we hired two new house moms. Both have been amazing with the children and love being mothers; they have been so good at learning new parenting techniques and applying them to our diverse family culture. Corrinne, our admin lady, who had been with us since the start of HTH, immigrated to Ireland. We replaced her with Chantelle, who has brought an immense vibrancy and professionalism to our team.
As for the children, we have seen huge growth in them in all phases of life. We have never received so many compliments about their behaviour and how well mannered they are, and also in so many other areas. Ollie has improved her grades from a low C average to almost all B’s and is living up to her potential that all her teachers over the last three years have said she possesses. She has also been working hard on being truthful and honest, even in tough situations. For grade 1 and most of grade 2 Sonny has been at a small home-school based school because he was so far behind academically, but he has done so well that we have been able to move him to Haven Academy, a main-stream school, where he is excelling. Zac keeps astounding us with how well he is coping with his attachment disorder. He has been so much better socialising with friends at school, and getting along with the other children at home, where he used to fight over every small thing. None of them are perfect, but they all seem to be making huge strides.
The only aspect of HTH that has been a strain for us in 2018 is on the financial side, as it is the first year since we have started, that we have been losing money on a monthly basis. This is an enormous stress for us. South Africa has been through some financially hard times, resulting in our loss of some big donors here. With the rand strengthening against the dollar at the beginning of the year, our income from the States took a bad hit, decreasing our intake. However, our running costs continue to increase, especially now that all but one of our children are enrolled in schools.
Notwithstanding our struggles, we have to look at the children and how they have thrived, so for that reason we have to admit that 2018 has been another successful year. We thank you for partnering with us, for helping us raise children with Hope, and for giving them the brightest futures possible.