Phedišang has four main objectives that it works to achieve:

• Leaving the children where they and their families want them to be - with relatives in their villages.
  

  There is not money or time to build hospices and/ or hospitals, and the children do not want to move - neither do their foster families want them to. If some things can be attended to and the some of the stresses of extra children and mouths to feed can be alleviated, then they want to stay there - in the community to which they belong. In the impoverished area where Phedišang operates, the nurturing, direction and push for education are sometimes stretched when there are no parents - Phedišang tries to provide these for the orphans.

• Using existing infrastructures to provide the children with two well-balanced meals a day, 365 days a year.
  

  The strain of extra mouths to feed on a foster family already on the bread-line cannot be underestimated - it usually means that everyone goes without. Research now confirms that hungry children do not progress as well as others at school. Looking at the Phedišang children - in centres that have been operating for between 18 months and four years - the effect of full tummies has helped the children focus on school and not worry about where their next meal is coming from. Phedišang workers and carers can and do take on and attend to other issues - life skills, goals, vision, dreams and education.

• Monitoring the childrens' health and ensuring that they have access to the state health system including visits by a Clinic Sister (nurse) and access to nearby clinics as well as the local hospital service.
  

  It would be wishful and over-optimistic to take over provision of health services for poor people in South Africa, even if it was restricted to the six villages with Phedišang centres. The responsibility of providing health care services to all people, including the poor, in South Africa lies with the government. Phedišang badgers the official services at various levels, to ensure that the services to which the people are entitled, are indeed provided. By doing this, Phedišang can really get leverage out of donor contributions, and achieve similar results with far less money.

• Collecting all the required documents and having them processed so that the child receives prescribed Government grants on a monthly basis. Once foster carers are receiving grants, they become responsible for the payment of the R100 monthly fee to Phedišang, which releases donor money to fund another child.
  

  Similar to the provision of health care; the responsibility for care of orphans ultimately lies with the South African government. Phedišang can and does help Foster Carers to obtain the Foster Care Grant (set at R680 per month in 2007) in respect of orphans. Over five years, Phedišang has helped to obtain 169 such grants, which has been a major source of relief for those children. Unfortunately, there is some squandering of grant money by the 'Fosters', and where we become aware of this, Phedišang lobbies for the government to intervene; as any concerned community organization should. This would be by monitoring or admonishing the Foster Carer, and in the worst case, taking steps to formally replace the Foster Carer.

  The South African government has been stirred into action in the Maruleng area, partly by the prodding and pricking and activities of Phedišang. The (S.A.) government has started some similar drop-in centres; which care for orphans in nearby villages - we are proud we can say that Phedišang centres do more for the children. The (S.A.) government has provided food parcels (sometimes erratically) to families in need. In response to much active lobbying by Phedišang, the government has assisted with the obtaining of grants, laying on special magistrates to do court sessions and give court orders where required.

In addition to this, Phedišang realizes the long term goals of the organization are important to achieving overall success.

• Creating a replicable model
  

  Phedišang believes that their tested model is the optimal way of addressing this particular problem. It has been documented in a short and simple manual, which has been given to other organizations to work on or with. As and when stronger continuous funding becomes available, Phedišang can expand into more centres nearby, where the need has already been identified.

• Sustainability within the community
  

  Interventions into poor communities such as those in Maruleng need to be sustainable to be worthwhile. Phedišang is conscious of that, and is always working at sustainability - building capacity and developing local skills, expertise and experience, and encouraging a sense of ownership and responsibility. We aim to ensure that wherever new methods of doing things are introduced, one of the local workers is completely involved and will carry on once Phedišang or the volunteer concerned is no longer present.