Diocessan HIV/AIDS Program

Other Projects in the Diocese involving Orphans and Vulnerable Children

Kwasa Centre Creche and Pre-school in Daggafontein serves the informal settlement of Vukuzenzele, outside Springs, and has a registration of 60 children in the pre-school and 15 children in the creche. The number of children living in child-headed households is increasing in the settlement.

Zakheni Home-based Care in Tembisa West. Three caregivers have been trained as child-minders. They work specifically with the orphans. One of their functions is to help the children access grants and food parcels through the Department of Social Development.

St Boniface Anglican Church’s Feeding Scheme in Vosloorus targets school-going orphans and other vulnerable children who are given a plate of nourishing food to eat after school each day. Approximately 50 children benefit from the scheme. This number is expected to increase as the year progresses.

Ithemba Lethu Women’s Project started by members of St Albans Anglican Church, Daveyton, feeds 200 families twice weekly. The soup kitchen also feeds 150 orphans and other vulnerable children at a primary school two blocks away from the church. Women in the project provide home-based care in the surrounding community. The project has recently established a citizens’ advice and referral centre at the church. Two of its members have been trained in paralegal work.

Khulumani Children’s Care in Vukuzakhe, Volksrust was started by an Anglican Mothers’Union member who together with women from other church denominations, Roman Catholic,

Presbyterian, Apostolic Faith Mission, Uniting Reform and Methodist churches, feed 80 orphans and vulnerable children from primary and high schools in the township each day after school. They visit the children in their homes each day and assist the children wherever possible to access grants, sort out problems at school, accompany children to the local clinic when they are unwell etc.

St Peter and St Paul Anglican Church in Zakhile, Standerton, is feeding orphans and other vulnerable children in the Shukuma Primary School in the Rooikoppen informal settlement. Clothing is collected and distributed amongst the children.

St Boniface Anglican Church in Germiston has started a programme of ‘Support a Child’. 150 orphans and other vulnerable children in a primary school in the informal settlement of Dukathole are being fed each day through this programme. Members of local Methodist and Presbyterian churches are also involved in the scheme.

Khayalethu Creche and Pre-school run by the Anglican church in Daggakraal has a registration of 140 children. Khayalethu is working very hard to raise funds to build two more classrooms so that another 50 needy children is this very remote rural area will find placement.

A Children’s Advocate (Sizakele Shongwe) was appointed by the Diocese as from l September 2005, to manage and supervise its Orphans and Vulnerable Children programme. (The Elton John AIDS Foundation through the Bishop Simeon Trust is funding this programme). The Children’s Advocate will amongst other things be involved in developing training modules around child rights, legislation, child abuse, child health, counselling, social grants, children with HIV/AIDS etc. In the first year, the Children’s Advocate will train, manage and direct 60 local advocates in parishes, projects and communities in work relating to children.

A five-day workshop for children’s advocates was conducted by Sizakele Shongwe on 13 – 15 March and 22 – 23 March. 28 people attended the workshop. The work of these advocates to date has resulted in 877 orphans and vulnerable children ranging in ages between 0 – 18 years being identified and assisted.

Sizakele left the Diocese as at 21 April 2006 to take up a position in Government. Bafana Kunene was appointed as Diocesan Children’s Advocate as from 10 April 2006.

In July 2006 a further 37 children’s advocates were trained.

The main challenge that has become apparent through the practical work of the advocates is the backlog of child support grant applications being dealt with by the Social Services Department which is hampering the swift turnaround of cases submitted by the advocates.

The Diocese in partnership with the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW) has established two pilot projects involving child-headed households – in Thokoza and in Katlehong – using the Isibindi model. 30 prospective child and youth care workers have attended two training workshops in May (module 1) and June 2006 (module 2). 14 modules in all have to be covered to complete the training over a two-year period. USAID funding is being used for these two projects.