South Africa is home to an estimated 1.2 million children orphaned because of AIDS and has the largest number of people living with HIV of any country in the world today. Poverty and illiteracy, the legacies of apartheid, fuel the pandemic. It was the country where HOPEHIV's vision began in 2000. Our first project, Zodwa's House, was based in Soweto, the largest township in South Africa.
Since then we have continued to reach out in many different ways to tackle the myriad and changing ways in which orphaned children need help in different provinces. In Durban we support work with street children; in Mpumalanga province we are equipping day care centres for orphans. Across South Africa, we are rolling out an effective peer education program to tackle the increasing rates of HIV infection amongst orphaned and vulnerable adolescents and equip them as leaders for the future. We have developed a creative arts training program that enables traumatised and grieving children to express themselves. We also equip organisations to use memory box techniques. Finally, we help orphaned children in the townships to find a safe and loving home through foster care.
