The Masiela Trust Fund, which was established by government twelve years ago to look after orphans, is on the verge of collapse.
If the Trust goes under, over 20 000 children will be left in the lurch.
The Trust is left with about six staff members after 130 employees were retrenched.
Speaking to The Telegraph on Monday, Veronica Dabutha, the Executive Director of Masiela Trust, said the Trust is on the verge of collapse due to financial challenges.
“Truly speaking, in less than eight months, we will be forced to close down our operations if no one comes to our rescue because the funds left in our reserves are too little to sustain the Trust,” Dabutha said.
She explained that since Government stopped funding the Trust a few years ago, the organization was forced to cut down on staff as well as the activities that they hoped to undertake.
She said that, initially, they were given P1, 5 million annually by government.
“I really fail to understand why the government has just decided to stop funding us.”
She said when she took over as the director a few years ago, there were about 104 field officers, 16 program managers and 16 officers across the country.
With tears running down her face, Dabutha stated that “what hurts the most is the fact that we are unable to accomplish our mandate as the Trust and we have failed our children who are deeply in need”.
She said presently there are over 20 000 orphans that the Trust had to look after but the way the situation is, the children are now on their own because there is nothing that the Trust can do.
Dabutha said between the year 2009 and 2010 they were funded by a certain South African organization at a tune of P4m and the Trust managed to assist over 12 000 children.
