Future Dream Centre

This message has already been posted in Dutch; we apologize for any double emails.

Dear all,

Yesterday, we had a meeting at Dream Centre. With this message, we'd like to inform you about what was discussed and how we will continue from now on.

Future

The organization DC has been experiencing financial difficulties for some time now. The costs for caring for the patients exceeds the income of the department of health. For this reason, DC decided to close its doors. To pay outstanding salaries and debts, the building that DC is housed in, will be sold.

What does this mean for Be More?

With the closure of DC, the volunteer program that Be More offers here unfortunately has to stop as well. We regret this deeply, especially since the program has been very successful the past years; countless of  volunteers have worked hard these years, to great pleasure of staff and patients at DC.

Regardless of the financial problems, and speculation around this, it is not possible for us to continue the program.

How to move on

It is unknown at this moment when DC will close its doors exactly. The coming months, DC will continue to operate normally, and Be More volunteers will continue to help caring for the patients.

At the moment, Be More is in touch with several organizations in the Durban area working on healthcare. We will look at partnerships with these organizations and at starting a volunteer program there.

Until the end of May volunteer can work at DC as usual.  After that, Be More will discontinue the program, and offer already confirmed volunteers an alternative at another program. These volunteers have been informed by us.

The patients

We are obviously concerned about the patients at DC. In our meeting this has been discussed; DC will do anything they can to only close its doors once a fitting alternative has been found for each patient. We will keep you informed about this, as soon as we know or hear more.

Financials

Many of you have enthusiastically raised money for DC the past years. We have discussed this as well. Management at DC has acknowledged they feel a great responsibility towards Be More and our volunteers. We have therefore agreed on the following:

1. The donations made to DC in the past three months will be reimbursed to Be More.

2. The money not spent in accordance with our agreement, in the past half year, will be fully reimbursed to Be More.

3. The value of the materials donated in the past will be reimbursed to Be More after the sale of the building, insofar as these materials will no longer be used for the benefit of patients.

This money will be reimbursed to Be More after the sale of the building and payment of the outstanding salaries, in accordance with South African law.

The money dat Be More will receive back from Be More, will be spent in agreement with volunteers and donors, on a similar project. As soon as we know more about this, we will let you know through this community.

Finally

As sais, we deeply regret having to end our partnership with Dream Centre. The past years our volunteers and us have been able to do much for the patients, and we have been able to support the staff in their work. We would have like to continue this work in better circumstances.

We would hereby like to express our gratitude towards all our volunteers for their hard work and involvement with DC.

More information

If you have any questions after reading all this, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will try our best to give you all the information you need.


Kind regards,

Tamara
Michel