TIMON HISTORY :: TIMON (2023)

When Anika and Daniel began assessing disability needs, they connected with a very dynamic District Rehabilitation Coordinator in Port Elizabeth, Tabiza Caga. Working with her and the therapists of the clinic in Port Elizabeth and Uitenhage, Anika and Daniel began to see children with cerebral palsy in clinics in clinics in the cities and in the Uitenhage Provincial Hospital. Many children needed special equipment. In government hospitals, funds were often in short supply or could not be obtained by these units. At that time , The situation differs depending on the province to the other, but until 2006, many disabled children in the Eastern Cape still did not receive the right equipment.

Daniel and Anika founded a close -up company called Timion Child Equipment.The choice of business form later turned out to be a mistake when the work they did was purely non-profit.Financing for the project was provided by donations from friends, family and Daniels church in Switzerland.Timion's donations came from a completed project for homeless people in Iraq, which Daniel started in 1998.

Daniel worked in the production of simple wooden equipment about three days a week. This took place in the yard of the couple's apartment, before a garage at UCSA. Anika designed and sewed cushion covers and upholstery for equipment and did the basic administration and record keeping. One to two days a week Anika and Daniel traveled to the clinic, in cities or to the hospital in the Uitenhage province to see disabled children.

It was the year when Daniel considered it necessary to get practical support in the workshop. In the beginning, most of the help of students at Christian School of Leadership from Zimbabwe and Zambia came, but Timion also received support from the local population - for over a yearIrene and Stuart Bradley invested in the project half a day a week.

In 2008 we welcomed our first Swiss volunteer, Debors Müller. She was a role that helped keep Timi -volunteer. Until the end of 2013, Timion hosted over 25 volunteers! In addition to providing practical help, volunteers are moral support and Let's see things with fresh eyes again.

The same year we started withprayer partner program.It is always possible for our disabled children to be "adopted" by prayer partners who commit to praying for the child on a regular basis.Timion then hired its first full -time employee for the workshop.The workload was steadily increasing.

We began to change the approach to children. Until then, we met with mothers and children in clinics in the city or at the provincial hospital in Uitenhage. However, this prevented us from getting to know the real situation. We also realized that relatives often had difficulties by delivering equipment to homes by public transport. Since then we have visited families to get to know the origins of these families better.

This allowed mothers to be more relaxed and solved the logistical problem of transporting equipment. By hiring Oswald, Daniel now had two people helping him in the workshop.

Until then, Timion tools and machines were do-it-yourself products. Surprisingly, they held up quite well for daily industrial use. In 2010, Timion had the opportunity to buy industrial woodworking machines at a very favorable price.

We could move to a bigger workshop again. Timion needed additional administrative support, so he hired a part-time secretary. At this time, Timion had five employees in addition to Daniel.

Anika, who founded Timion with Daniel, has decided formally withdrawing from the work of Timion.However, she is still involved in the procurement process, education and advisory role.Timion has now become a registered non-profit company.At that time, Timion included NPC board members Wilbur Wright, Selmari Potgieter and Daniel Meyer.Timion also received its NPC number and tax exemption status from SARS.

Thanks to the large and successful collection of money in Switzerland, Timion could buy VW Caddy. Till now it is used daily for home visits and has a lot of space for equipment or people.

Timion hired a full -time advisor, Nolubabalo.She started coming home visits, especially to support mothers emotionally and spiritually.She also coordinated the cell groups and house churches that emerged from the camps we drift.Timion's goal is for each camp to be followed by a support group that meets regularly.

In February, Timion employed the first professional carpenter as a volunteer. Nicolas is from France, and at that time he served with us as a civil servant. He helped to improve the qualifications of our employees, improve the quality of the equipment and increase the production efficiency.

Tymoteusz started working for Timion this year. Our dream has always been to receive young people from difficult environments and help them develop their skills. It was an exciting time when Timothy was with us, observing his personal development and as a carpenter.

Elbé, our long-time occupational therapist, went to work full-time in Jordan helping disabled refugees with disabled children. Karlien and Anne, South African occupational therapists, joined Timions this year. Having two permanent therapists who make home visits has really increased our capabilities .

We received a generous donation via caisse secours from the French Mennonite Church as well as a generous donation from a Swiss family and as a result we were able to purchase an additional caddy for use on our home visits. With two therapists, both cars were used daily for our home visits in the cities.

Anglican Help, an Australian humanitarian organization, began providing financial supportTimion Counselling ProgramFor guardians of disabled children. Timion also began to facilitate and support the creation of support groups for caregivers in many municipalities. Timion was accepted by the government as an official supplier of verticals. This 3-year contract allows us to sell verticals to government hospitals , and we hope that thanks to this we will be able to raise funds to support the project.

Hannah, who has already worked as a physical therapist with Timion, became our manager after Christofel went to the Philippines.Scliford joined our production team to help us with increased workload and worked with us until the end of 2016 before coming to Elbe at Elbe Middle East of the season.

This year we were welcomed to host Swiss officials who are trained carpenters. Raphaël pioneered this role as our first Swiss official.

On February 12, we were shaken by a tragic car accident in which our volunteer Alena Hübscher died and Raphaël was seriously injured. This is a very sad and difficult time, but the team and family truly experienced the comfort of God's community and love during that time.

Timion has been blessed with many volunteers who have played important roles.

In 2016, we employed Wian, who is responsible for our CNC machine, which we bought used. The CNC machine helps us increase our design ability and precision.

Lusanda joined our team as an advisor and Vuyani joined the workshop.

In Domino Sponsored Run, arranged by the Basel-based YMCA, Timion was the main recipient.This event raised enough money for Timion to build its own workshop.We are very excited and grateful for this prospect of having our own custom -built workshop.

In the meantime, a lot of money was also collected to create your own daycare in one of the cities where we earn.

The safety concerns of our Outreach Team resulted in the decision that a minimum of two people would go on the field visit.

The production system in the workshop has been rebuilt so that instead of a team working on a product, each team member produces a product for which they are fully responsible. The production team enjoyed this new approach because it gave everyone greater ownership of their work.

CNC manufacturing took on a greater role and the machine enabled more sophisticated designs. We have designed a new parking chair for children with severe disabilities. Other products have been remodeled.

Hannelie became our new secretary when Sammy left us to follow her to work more with young people and mothers.

We celebrated the tenth anniversary of Timion with about 300 people in a hall in one of the cities where we work.

Sonja and Tom Tschopp, along with their two children, left their home in Switzerland to work long -term with Timion in Jeffrey's Bay.
Sonja has started craft groups with mothers of children with cerebral palsy. The purpose of these groups is to learn new skills such as crocheting and sewing, while offering a platform where they can share their lives and encourage each other.
Tom founded a metal workshop to complement our timber disabled access equipment and supply metal elements where it is more structurally viable.

After more than a year's search for a suitable place for a day care center, a cheap former government house in Kwanobuhle municipality near Uitenhage was purchased.The house has been renovated and modernized by the Timion team to meet the requirements of the kindergarten.

A new closure camp has taken place.A closure camp allows us to help mothers find closure and healing from past events that have negatively impacted their lives.

In addition to the Debriefing Camp, we also conducted two respite camps and two therapy camps.

At the workshop we have built our own large CNC machine to further improve the quality and extent of our work. Sale of tables for wheelchairs increased sales of products and brought much necessary income to supplement donations.