Like a hungry wolf, the cold wind howled through the broken door and damaged roof of the house. Shivering, Tombi held her one-year-old baby close and prayed. "Nkosi (God), please help us. My brother and I are starving. My milk is drying up and my baby will soon go hungry too. Please help us."
Tombi is the head of this small household. She had to leave school to care for her sick mother who died soon afterwards. Pining for a father figure, Tombi latched on to a seemingly kind man from her community. He in turn left her pregnant and alone, after taking advantage of her need for affection and care.
Now Tombi struggles daily to look after her baby, her little brother and herself. There is no food in the cupboard, no container to fetch water or even money to buy water. This is the state in which the SOS family strengthening programme Sekhukhune found them.
Sekhukhune is in the north of South Africa, in the North West region of Mpumalanga and southern part of Limpopo. It has a young population; half are under 18 and 95% of the people live in 529 rural settlement areas. The number of orphaned and vulnerable children increases daily there, as parents succumb to AIDS or other illnesses.
South Africa is home to the world's largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS, with 5.5 million people infected. The country has one of the fastest growing epidemics in the world. One out of every five adults (between 15 and 49), including one out of every three pregnant women, are living with HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS/ 07 AIDS epidemic update). As a result, this country is faced with an unprecedented orphan crisis. It is estimated that by 2010, more than 2.3 million children under 15 will have lost one or both of their parents. (UNAIDS/UNICEF/USAID Children on the Brink, 2002). This means that out of every six South African children, one will be an orphan.
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| Some families in Sekhukhune live in dire circumstances |
The SOS Social Centre Sekhukhune started operating in January 2006 and its family strengthening programme currently supports 177 families with a total of 464 children. Its focus is on providing material, educational and medical support, especially for HIV/AIDS affected families, in addition to offering them counselling, support as regards income generating activities, and organising HIV/AIDS awareness/prevention campaigns. Sibling-headed households like Tombi's are assisted in caring for their children, and the programme is actively backed up by the local community.
The SOS family strengthening programme started out by giving Tombi and her family a food parcel, blankets and clothing. They bought a door to replace the damaged one and found someone to fix the roof for them. The programme co-ordinator arranged for Tombi and her brother to go back to school and purchased school uniforms and books for both of them. Tombi's baby is in a day-care centre during the week for R100 (13 USD) fee a month, also covered by the programme.
The family is a long way from self-sufficiency but when Tombi prays now, she says, "Nkosi, thank you that we can go to school with full stomachs. Thank you for answering my prayer through the SOS family strengthening programme."
At present there are eight SOS Children's Villages, six SOS Youth Facilities, seven SOS Kindergartens, one SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, one SOS Mother and Staff Training Centre and eleven SOS Social Centres in South Africa.
For privacy reasons we have changed the name of the beneficiary.