Sparrow village in dire straits
According to Corine, the NGO has been falling short in most of its services due to lack of funding or financing assistance.
What used to be a fully-fledged non-profit organisation bustling with funds and resources has turned into a place of complete despair over the years.
The founder and director of Sparrow Rainbow Village, Reverend Doctor Corine McClintock, recently made the tough challenges faced by the Maraisburg-based NGO public, in a bid to attract attention from potential corporate sponsors or rekindle support from those that have stopped supporting them.
The village and ministry have for many years been a beacon of hope for the patients and children under their care and guidance. The NGO’s original mission was to provide care and comfort to adults and children who have been infected or affected by the HIV/ AIDS pandemic. The organisation is both a hospice for the terminally ill and a children’s home for the vulnerable children who have become homeless due to the death of one or both of their parents – making the ministry one of health and hope for them.
However, according to Corine, the NGO has been falling short in most of its services due to lack of funding. “Sparrow is an NGO reliant on goodwill and government funding, but due to the Esidemeni debacle, which has resulted in the government having to pay out substantial amounts of money, and various other excuses, we’ve received nothing except promises that are never fulfilled,” she explained.
She claimed further that Sparrow is just one of several NGO hospices that have received nothing from government since October 2018.
Further, Corine claimed that the empty promises had resulted in the retrenchment of many employees who were fully dependent on their jobs to feed their families.
“We are now appealing to big corporates who run Corporate Social Investment (CSI) programmes to adopt a security guard, maintenance person, nurse, bookkeeper or driver of hospital and school transport vehicles,” she said.
Corine emphasised their need for security staff, saying that they had suffered a number of robberies on the property. “We have lost valuable equipment such as stoves, fridges and all mechanical items as well as two cars.”
“We refuse to throw out sick people who have been in our care for 20 years, as well as many teenagers whose lives we saved that are currently doing well in school. Please help and don’t let Sparrow Village be forced to close its doors.”
To donate or find out more about Sparrow Village, call Corine on 082 200 4193 or 079 886 1890, email corine@sparrow.org.za or finance2@sparrow.org.za, or visit their website at https://www.sparrow.org.za.
