1000 and counting

Life has been continuing its busy pace at TTL during February and March and unfortunately because of our faulty internet connection, we haven’t been able to provide many updates!

Alongside all the outreach visits and comings and goings in the safe-home, TTL hit an important milestone this month: since our start in 2004, TTL has supported over 1000 children.

Perhaps what is most significant about this milestone is not the number itself but that TTL didn’t even skip a beat and just kept on going. I knew that TTL would reach its 1000^th child sometime this month but by the time I had a chance to check our numbers, we already had 1012 children on our books. Ask around at TTL, and except for the few of us who play around with TTL’s statistics, probably none of the staff could tell you that we had hit this incredible milestone. But ask them to tell you about the individual children TTL supports and stories will abound. In the end that really is the strength of what TTL does – it’s not about numbers but rather ensuring that every vulnerable child TTL reaches receives the personalised support they need and deserve to make a full recovery. So in recognition of this important event, here are some stories of just a handful of the new clients TTL started supporting over the past few weeks.

Liteboho is a 4 ½ year old girl who was referred to TTL because she is malnourished. Currently she is being cared for by her grandmother because her mother has left to go find work in South Africa. Her grandmother is also caring for three other children, two who are under the age of five, and so resources are stretched very thin.

Relekane was referred to TTL by the Chief in his village because he is malnourished and underweight for his 1 ½ years of age. He is still being cared for by both his parents but there is no stable source of income and there are 10 people in the household, seven of whom are under 18.

Retsepile is a 5 month old boy whose mother is suffering from HIV-related illnesses and struggling to care for him. Retsepile is exposed to HIV but luckily his first test has come back negative. Hopefully with TTL’s support his development and growth will stay on track.

Nteboheng is a 11 month old girl who was referred to TTL by the nurse at St. Martin and immediately brought to the safe-home and admitted to hospital. She is severely malnourished, HIV + and recently started ARVs. She is now back in the safe-home where hopefully her recovery will continue as swiftly and smoothly as possible.

Any one of these children could be TTL’s special 1000^th client, but what will be an even better event is the day that each one of these children meet their personal milestone of being healthy and strong enough to graduate from TTL.