By Lone Lourens | Marketing and Fundraising Manager
Now, five months into 2023, the year has started to feel more normal than the years since 2020, with COVID almost feeling like a thing of the past. We are still cautious and still wear our masks to ensure the continued health and safety of those in our care. COVID has taught us a lot and hopefully made us more aware and prepared if anything like it should ever happen again. So our main focus has now returned to providing our residents with all they need to live healthy, happy, and fulfilling lives.
Department of Mental Health Audit
Our first audit for this year took place on the morning of February 16, 2023. The audits are conducted by the Department of Mental Health in order to monitor and assist NGOs in our sector. We used to only have one audit per year, but this has changed to three. Passing our audits is essential for Woodside, as the audits are what determine if we are able to apply for our operating licence each year. The audit went well. Our next audit is scheduled for May 18, 2023.
Changes at Woodside
Woodside’s matron, Tania Stegmann, left Woodside after 5 years of service due to some health difficulties that she had been experiencing. Sr. Rauletta Maarman, a registered nurse who has been at Woodside for 7 years, has taken over as the head of the nursing department. Sr. Maarman has been given the new title of Nursing Services Manager. Sr. Maarman has always been an exceptional nurse, and we know that she will thrive in her new role. One of her first big challenges is to find a registered nurse who will be assisting her on a daily basis and will also be able to split the on-call duties with her. Woodside has used our various social media platforms to advertise for the position, and we have received over 20 CVs from eager nurses. This will be a process, and Woodside will take the time to ensure that the person selected for this integral role is the right person for the job.
Wall Repair Fundraiser
Our first big fundraising project for this year was to raise funds to repair the wall outside one of our wards that faces the road. This wall was incredibly close to collapsing, and we desperately needed to raise funds to repair it and ensure the continued safety and well-being of our residents and staff. We launched the campaign on January 11, 2023, and were able to raise the funding needed for the repairs. The repairs were completed on February 10, 2023.
Rock Wall and Falling Rocks
Woodside has a rock wall at the very back of our property, and over time erosion has caused big chunks of rock to sometimes fall from the wall. Just recently, we had a large piece of rock fall, and it landed dangerously close to our building. The rocks will continue to erode and fall, and we are concerned that the next piece of rock will be big enough to cause damage to our building or, worse yet, possibly cause injury to our residents or staff. We are still trying to find someone who could possibly assist us with finding a way to secure the rock wall and what kind of costs will be involved. Once we know what the costs will be, we will begin our fundraising campaign to help fund the needed work.
Social Media
A goal that we have set ourselves for this year is for Woodside to attempt to be more active on our various social media platforms. We have planned to do at least one social media post per week, and so far we have been able to achieve this. We are hoping that by increasing our posts on social media, we will be able to garner a bigger following, which will in turn translate to donations for our sanctuary.
Resident Functions
There is nothing that the angels in our care enjoy more than spending time with their friends, dancing to music, and eating yummy treats. So far this year, we have had two big resident functions: one for Valentine’s Day on the 14th of February and one for Easter on the 6th of April. We are thrilled beyond words that our residents are finally able to celebrate these special days together and not just in their separate wards, as was required during COVID. We are looking forward to all the other special days and parties that will take place throughout the year.
Upcoming Resident Outings
We have been invited to two different outings this month. The first is an outing to the National Children’s Theatre to see a performance of The Hobbit, and the second is an invitation from the New Dawn Rotary Club to bring our residents on a day trip to the Field Berry Farm to pick berries. We are just working to finalise the days. Our residents so love going on outings, and we are so happy that we have finally begun to once again go on excursions.
Students
Woodside continues to offer practical training to nursing, care worker, and social work students, and while COVID-19 had a large effect on the number of students that Woodside has been able to assist since 2020, we are happy to report that in 2022, thanks to the lessening of COVID restrictions, Woodside has been able to once again assist students from colleges and training institutions in our community such as The University of the Witwatersrand (WITS), The University of Johannesburg (UJ), Baragwaneth Nursing College, and Anne Latsky Nursing College. Thus, Woodside has been able to assist a total of 90 nursing students and 1 social work student during 2022.
Woodside feels very strongly about assisting these students in their training, as it will provide them with indispensable knowledge in their future careers and will allow them to be better able to assist anyone with disabilities in the future. We are also hopeful that we will be able to offer practical training to even more students in the years to come.
Veggie Garden
Students from UJ come to Woodside to do their practical training. On Friday, March 3, the UJ students who had completed their practical course decided to plant a veggie garden for Woodside as a token of thanks to us. We are so grateful for this act of kindness and are looking forward to seeing the vegetables grow and eventually be harvested.
Woodside Sensory Garden: A New Project
Woodside is very proud of the variety of stimulation programmes we offer to our residents. However, we feel that there is always more that we can do if we are able to find donors who are willing to assist. One project that Woodside has wanted to do for a number of years now is to create a sensory garden for our residents. We do have a donor who is interested in assisting us with this project, and we have had a meeting with our donors to discuss what they would like to do for us. Our donor will be coming through to Woodside to begin the project on the 26th of May.
"A sensory garden is a self-contained garden area that allows visitors to enjoy a wide variety of sensory experiences (multi-sensory, touch, taste, smell, see, and hearing). Sensory gardens are designed to provide opportunities to stimulate the senses, both individually and in combination, in ways that users may not usually encounter.
"Sensory gardens have a wide range of educational and recreational applications. They can be used in the education of special-needs students, including autistic people. As a form of horticultural therapy, they may act as therapeutic gardens to help in the care of people with dementia."
Maintenance Issues
Woodside experienced a number of maintenance issues in April, including a burst geyser and a burst pipe. Since Woodside’s buildings are very old, it is not unusual for us to experience issues with our plumbing. Thankfully, we have a plumber whose family has been assisting Woodside for many years, and he and his team were able to come in and make the needed repairs.
In Closing
Our primary focus continues and will always be the provision of exceptional full-time care to all of our 85 profoundly intellectually disabled residents, 25 of whom are either orphaned or have no means of financial support (our Angels). The adults and children in our care require lifelong assistance and will never be able to care for themselves or filter into normal society, therefore, this is an ongoing project that will require constant funding to help us ensure that all our residents receive the very best care possible. Woodside Sanctuary is a special place where passion and purposefulness come together to help ensure that those who have been placed in our care are able to grow and develop to reach their full potential.
The GlobalGiving community has helped us raise almost 94% (R195 933.18) of our target towards the Woodside’s Angels project, and we simply cannot thank you enough for your incredible support and generosity. Your generous assistance has helped us to be able to continue to keep Woodside’s residents healthy and cared for by enabling us to provide food, medications, toiletries, a place of safety, holistic care, and stimulation for the 25 profoundly intellectually disabled orphans and vulnerable angels in our care.
Like many NPOs, Woodside Sanctuary is heavily reliant on the kindness and generosity of our donors and supporters, and it is only with their compassionate assistance that we are able to continue to maintain the highest standards of care and provide excellent nursing, medical, and residential care for all who live here. On behalf of Woodside Sanctuary and especially the angels in our care, we offer our deepest and most heartfelt thanks to our donors and supporters for their outstanding generosity and kindness during this exceedingly difficult time. Your care and compassion are what keep us going, and we are eternally grateful to you for all you have done to help and support us! Thank you!!
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