In South Africa today, there are already 1.2 million children who have been orphaned by AIDS, making it home to more AIDS orphans than any other country in the world. There are also an alarming number of vulnerable children whose survival, care, protection, and development are being compromised by this disease and its effects. Recognizing the severity of this catastrophe, ANSA brought together a task force of leading South African AIDS specialists, child welfare organizations, community development experts, educators and activists to develop ANSA’s orphaned and vulnerable children program, It Takes a Village (ITV). ITV is a groundbreaking collaboration providing comprehensive services to orphaned children in South Africa who have fallen through society’s safety net: those living in child-run households, where the eldest child is raising his or her siblings; orphans taken in by neighborhood families or elderly relatives with scant resources; and vulnerable children whose parents are dying. ITV was developed to ensure that the physical, emotional, social, intellectual, and cultural needs of these children are met in meaningful and long-lasting ways. ITV is implemented by local community-based organizations and overseen by the highly respected AIDS Foundation of South Africa (AFSA). ANSA provides the funding and resources and AFSA provides the training and oversight to build local capacity to provide vital services to orphans, their caregivers, and their community. In the spring of 2005, ITV launched operations in the South African towns of Ingwavuma, Etete and Groutville, in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, in partnership with Ingwavuma Orphan Care and Sinosizo Home Based Care. Kwazulu-Natal is considered ground zero of the global AIDS pandemic and these particular communities have almost 40% of adults living with HIV/AIDS. It was critical that ITV selected partners who were located in close proximity to government anti-retroviral treatment sites in order to defer premature deaths of parents and other family members living with HIV/AIDS. Click here to read the story of Henry Mathenjwa, one orphan living in Ingwavuma. ITV services include:
ANSA's Amandla AIDS Fund has already allocated $750,000 to fund ITV for three years in the three pilot communities. We’re now working to raise the money needed to continue the program in these three communities for at least 10 years, as well as to bring ITV to the many other communities and provinces where it's desperately needed. You can help. Your donation will make all the difference in these children's lives. It costs less than 50 cents a day to provide ITV care and services to one orphaned child. For less than $7—the cost of two cups of cappuccino—you can send an orphaned South African child to school for a year. For approximately $180, you can provide support for an orphaned child for 12 months. For $125,000, you can fund an ITV program in a community for a year. Please help us to care for these children, who need our support and resources to survive. Story of Henry Mathenjwa Henry and his four younger sisters are AIDS orphans living with their grandmother, who is disabled and has no income. Henry, age 11, loves learning and knows it is important to get an education, but his grandmother cannot afford to pay school fees. Henry would not give up on his dream. He took his sisters and stood outside the classroom window so they could listen to the lessons and continue to learn. Our local partner group, Ingwavuma Orphan Care, found out about Henry and his sisters. They paid the children's school fees and provided them with the necessary school uniforms and books. Now Henry and his sisters sit in the classroom and study along with the other children. There are over 1 million promising children like Henry, in townships, villages and cities across South Africa, who need our help. Please join us and together we can change lives. Photograph by Gordon Clark, from his book Transitions Southern Africa  |