Friends of Cape Child (1173004)
Trustees Annual Report 01/01/2025 – 31/12/2025
This report for the calendar year 2025 covers fundraising and activity by the UK Charity Friends of Cape Child (reg’d 1173004).
We hosted our annual fundraising Sale Day at Botany House on September 25[th] this year, it was once again our main source of funds and was really well attended despite 35 regular attendees being unable to attend for a variety of reasons more important than shopping! £5305.64 was the total on the day before Gift Aid was added. Other donations were received from a Family Trust as a one-off donation of £1000.00, regular monthly donations of £881.98. Gift Aid contributions for the year totalled an additional £749.50.
Total Donations £7937.50
The main beneficiary this year is again Hazel’s Centre for Hope in Cape Town. We donated £6666.69 to her this year. We replaced her washing machine and also donated extra funds due to a fraud over payments from another donor where an intermediary decided to keep some of the cash!
Hazel continues to do her fantastic work and the biggest news this year concerns her oldest children. Gift who graduated last year is working at an apprenticeship for administration skills and is doing very well.
Sisikelelwe is about to finish his Finance Degree at Stellenbosch University, he has done so well that his lecturers encouraged him to stay for a Masters but he has just signed a contract to start at BDO UK , Cape Town in the Real Estate Audit team in January. I am incredibly proud of him, how he has grown in maturity while at Stellenbosch including mentoring other students. We have given him a formal clothing grant for his needs as he starts his Professional journey.
I know he will continue to contribute to help Hazel which is fantastic as he is really bright boy.
A little more good news, in January we decided to send Jerusalem (17) to a state boarding school in the Eastern Cape as the school was so poor where he was in Mitchell’s Plain. He is doing well and has expressed an interest in going to Agricultural College rather than University and there is one in Grahamstown so we shall explore getting a place to fund there for 2026.
Zimi who is now 15 is a super footballer and is working so hard, he practices with a club locally daily and is working hard at school, we have bought him a Man City ‘Rodri’ second hand shirt for Christmas to encourage him further!
Umam aged 11 is being bullied badly at school and was forced to smoke or has got in with the wrong crowd and was caught smoking. One of these is the case and Hazel thinks the former, as a matter of urgency we need to find him a place at another school and she will work on this when she returns from the Christmas break. The smaller children are all doing very well and thriving.
Unfortunately one of the oldest girls, Sisipho who has been with Hazel since birth is behaving appallingly, she is a beautiful girl and has pushed all the boundaries, often not returning home and is a poor example to the younger children. This has been incredibly hurtful for Hazel, Sisipho came to her a few months old when her mother in Khayelitsha abandoned her, she is HIV positive and Hazel has managed her anti retro viral medication actively and taken her to a lot of counselling to address her abandonment
as a baby. She is now 18 and will have to leave the home if she cannot gather herself and behave correctly. This is clearly not what we want to see but the greater good of the family is more important. Hazel would put her in touch with social workers or return her to her mother.
One of the major challenges which Hazel faces is the area in which she lives, this is the third relocation in the time I have known her and the surrounding area is riddled with gang, gun and drug crime at a high level. In the New Year Hazel intends to move to a marginally better area which will an incur an uplift in her rent of approximated ZAR4000 per month. The back up power supply of battery and inverter to combat loadshedding which we purchased in 2023 can be moved from this house to the new rental property. This is going to be met in the first instance by a US donor who I am in contact with, not the easiest interaction but we are grateful for his support and interest in Hazel.
Having spoken to Hazel when we met in November there was an elephant in the room to address being her age, 54 and the youngest child’s age (3), assuming that Hazel guides this little girl until she is at least 18 as she has all of her charges then she would be 70 by that time. She agrees that she cannot take on any more small children unless it is for respite care with a firm end date. This allows her and us to plan ahead as she would like to look to move from Mitchell’s Plain to the Eastern Cape. This is a more authentic and traditional environment for the children to grow up in and would be closer to Hazel’s own family for support. Property is much less expensive there and ideally we would look to help Hazel buy land in Butterworth and build an appropriate dwelling. This is not a small undertaking, Sisikelelwe is researching costs, Warren and I would be happy to buy a piece of land on which to build but fundraising would need to ramp up somewhat and I am hopefully that the US donor may be able to make a meaningful contribution but I will need full figures to make a proposal to him. This project will be my focus in 2026.
Other beneficiaries this year included once again the Zeerust Boys Home who received Winter Clothing and a food allowance a small gift each and a food allowance for Christmas £377.26.
We made a one off donation to a girls home of summer clothing £112.00 and once again covered the Mukholi twin girls school uniform and stationery costs £194.53.
We finish the year with £6516.45 in cash and I plan to host one or perhaps 2 Charity Sales in 2026.
I need to lobby for some corporate money next year which is not an easy ask but that will have to be on the radar.
All in all a good year with fewer large unexpected bills than in 2024. This year I have not paid a Christmas bonus to Hazel and her two ladies as the costs have been pretty fast and furious in the last months. I would like to see the donation in the bank for the rent uplift and keep our powder dry in case that does not happen. If it does we should be able to reward Hazel and her ‘aunties’ in the New Year.
One small change in 2026 is that HMRC require all tax returns to be made digitally, I have investigated a software provider who will file on our behalf without a subscription at an estimated cost of £150 per year which feels like a waste of money but is unavoidable.
Trustees remain unchanged:-
Victoria Butler
James Brounger
Sarah Rock
Best wishes
Vicci Butler, Chair of Trustees
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| FOCC Accounts 01/01/2025 - 31/12/2025 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash at bankJanuary 1st 2025 | £ 6,134.26 | |||
| Cash held in ZAR at Nedbank, Hout Bay | £ 455.22 | |||
| £ 6,589.48 | ||||
| Donations | € 7,187.62 | |||
| Gift Aid | € 749.50 | |||
| Credits | £ 7,937.12 | € 14,526.60 | ||
| HSBC Bank Charges | -£ 35.00 | |||
| Fundraising Website | -£ 374.08 | |||
| Marketing of Fundraising Sale | -£ 250.00 | |||
| -£ 659.08 | ||||
| Disbursements to South African Charities | ||||
| Hazel's Home for Hope, Cape Town | -£ 6,536.25 | |||
| Zeerust Boy's Home, Christmas | -£ 282.60 | |||
| Mukholi Twins School Uniform and Statione | -£ 194.53 | |||
| Girls Home clothing Donation | -£ 112.60 | |||
| -£ 7,125.98 | ||||
| Debits | -£ 7,785.06 | |||
| £ 6,741.54 | ||||
| Cash at Bank December 31st 2025 | £ 5,915.91 | |||
| Petty Cash, rafe foat | £ 53.00 | |||
| Cash held in ZAR at Nedbank, Hout Bay | £ 772.63 | |||
| £ 6,741.54 | £ 6,741.54 | |||