Caring Hearts

Mission statement

Caring Hearts was created to honnor and celebrate carers and help them feel good, be healthy and joyful.

It started withschools in low income areas of Cape Town before addingcarers for abandonned, neglected, abused children in and around Cape Town. We are now looking at carers in all sectors like shelters for abused women, homeslesss people and other vulnerable individuals.

Why carers?

Most individuals and organizations would do all they can to care for children, women and old people . We are putting emphasis on caregivers but Caring Hearts has exactly the same goal. The idea is that the more we take care of the carers, the more they give to the people in need.

Theirs is a 24 hours job; 7 days a week; 365 days a year. Unwell, unhappy, demotivated, stressed and distressed carers are challenged to give.

Imagine an abused child arriving in a home, hungry, scared, terrorized, emotionally and physically beaten. His/her survival and development depends on the love and attention of a caregiver.

Caring Hearts attempts to replenish the body and soul of caregivers to encourage them to give more And it wants to do more by telling them that they are appreciated.

What do we do?

We started in Western Cape by listening to organizations and individualsfrom low to high income areas. We got an idea of what they think would help caregivers and the people they care for. This enabled us to put together a program of activities. Activities must stillbe adapted to each group of carers. Management style must be considered besides religious beliefs.

Schools in low income areas, old age homes, police stations, homeless shelters,orphanages andhomes for abandoned, abused children were the first to raise their hand and request our services.

School management and management of identified centres would invite us on a specific day to spend time treating carers with the following:

• neck, shoulder and back massage,
• Foot massage
• upper body shiatsu,
• laughter yoga
• team building
• parenting workshop
• nutrition course
• financial planning
• gift
• eats, tea, coffee, water and juice

What do we need?

To achieve the mission of caring and celebrating caregivers, we will need people and funds.

• Wellness practitioners. We need professional practitioners and other support personnel. Laughter therapists, massage, shiatsu, access bars and foot massage practitioners willing to donate time or work for an affordable fee.
• Funds. We need individuals and companies to understand the good work done by carers,its stressful nature and the importance of celebrating it. And they are willing to financially support Caring Hearts

Expanding same initiative

Caring Hearts started long before the creation of this organisation. We have been going to schools, old age homes, children’s homes etc for the last two years. It was mostly one person. It received impetus when friends began to see the physical, social and emotional benefits of yoga especially laughter yoga in townships. Other professional joined in and Caring Hearts was born.

This must continue. It must visit at least one centre per month to try to reach as the target population.

For that to happen, it needs special funding or at least six months. That is funding before more and more individuals and companies are made aware of the intiative and they are ready to support. Caring for Carers will be sustainable when we have been able to mobilise many individual donors giving small amounts of less thanR500 per month to complement funds from a few large donors.