A reflection on the COVID-19 related challenges of recent months from our Operations Director, Mme Lindiwe Kirstein.
COVID-19 has turned all our lives upside-down. All over the world, everyone, individuals and organizations alike, need to find a new “normal” to operate in. We are all aware that as “the going gets tough,” the ones that tend to suffer the most are the poorest of the poor and the vulnerable. Beautiful Gate, as a non-profit organization dependent on donations to survive, has also not been exempt or spared. We have had to find ways to still continue to take care of our 75 children, our staff, and our volunteers as best we can during these difficult times.
Our Management team, staff, and volunteers have been wonderful in the many ways that they are willing to make sacrifices to make it happen. First, Management had to make difficult decisions regarding how to maneuver the lockdown and still provide quality care to our children, while, at the same time, taking precautionary and protective measures against the spread of COVID-19 and still being compliant with set government lockdown rules. This resulted in ALL our Care Staff having to be “locked-down” on campus for weeks without going to their homes/families and all other staff working from home except the Nurse and others that periodically came to provide service they couldn’t provide remotely. The solidarity, unity, joy, and dedication displayed by all during these trying times was remarkable to behold.
Several of our staff and volunteers graciously took on the added role of teaching pre-school while schools have been closed during the lockdown.
Second, our partners, donors, and friends all around the world reacted swiftly to our frantic requests to wire funds to cover our lockdown needs and supplies, as well as extra staff needs. We are so aware that they are equally under pressure to get themselves ready for lockdowns and all the challenges ahead, but they heeded our cries for help and came through for us. Because of these sacrifices, we were able to survive the last two months of lockdown with no glitches. They truly exemplified 1 Timothy 6:18-19: “…use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.” We praise God for your sacrificial giving.
Third, as the lockdown has eased and we’ve all returned to work, it has been a hectic and stressful time of reassessing and reevaluating plans, operations, and budgets to ensure that we will be able to make it through the difficult times that are yet to come. A number of plans had to be canceled or postponed, several cost-cutting and cost-reduction measures had to be adopted (an exercise that we will continue to undertake for the next several months), new fundraising avenues and income-generation has scaled up, and an interim, short-term, extra-tight budget has been drawn up. Most of these will be shared in more detail with supporters, donors, and friends of BG to know how to be praying and supporting us during the coming months.
Bundling up and adding extra layers of warm clothing to help reduce spending on electricity during the cold winter months.
One example of the many sacrifices that our staff, volunteers, and children are making is a significant cut in heater usage this winter. Electricity is one of our biggest expenses during winter, as we would have our space heaters on from morning to dusk. Everyone who has been to Lesotho knows how freezing our winters are, especially in the mornings and at night. During the day, when we have sunny days, one is better off outside than inside the house or office. Our staff and volunteers agreed to have heaters on only two hours in the mornings in the offices and three hours in the baby-houses. Our Care staff has opted to use paraffin heaters, and they buy the paraffin themselves.
All these sacrifices, to me, are acts of worship that I believe God is pleased with. As it says in Hebrews 13:15-16: “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.”
Thank you everyone for going the extra mile and willingly making the sacrifices that have allowed us to continue offering our service to orphaned and vulnerable children. God bless you all!