A full time project coordinator carries out the work with the help of volunteers. We are currently funded by a grant from the AIDS Foundation, various churches, and we have a vehicle which was donated by a private company. We are looking for further sources of funding in order to make this project sustainable and increase the scope of its work. Most babies born with HIV die by the age of 4yrs. Many women in Ingwavuma have 5 or more children.
Many fathers have no contact with and provide no financial support for their children.
Orphans are usually supported by their extended family, but this structure is failing as more and more young adults die from AIDS Life expectancy is predicted to drop to 48 years by 2010. Therefore there will be less grannies in the future to shoulder the burden of caring for the orphans We currently have 700 orphans registered with our project, but the actual number of orphans in the community is far greater. Our Response There is an urgent need to build up support structures within the community. There is a tradition of extended families caring for orphans, but in this area of high unemployment, they are struggling to cope with the large numbers of dependants as well as debts incurred by the cost of hospital care and of funerals for the parents. The government provides support in the form of child support grants and foster grants, but most people find the mountain of paper-work involved insurmountable and never access these grants.