Giving Spirit Project News

Empowering Schools In South Africa To Care For Their HIV/AIDS Orphaned Students

As many know, Giving Spirit’s mission is to assist economically disadvantaged children in South Africa have access to education. Our latest project is focused on Orphaned and Vulnerable children, also known as OVC. These children have lost their parents due to death from HIV/AIDS related illnesses.  According to a report by the Human Rights Watch that researched South Africa, Kenya and Uganda, governments have not been succesful in their duties towards children affected by HIV/AIDS. In the absence of this support, non-profits like Giving Spirit, and the communities of these children hold the power to make the most difference.

Currently 1 in 7 South Africans is infected with HIV/AIDS. Moreover, over 3 million children have been orphaned by loss of parents to the disease. Though hard to imagine, stigma and marginalization in  South African communities hard-hit by HIV/AIDS is also a killer of solutions for these children. For fear of humiliation and being labeled as HIV carriers, most newly orphaned children do not seek help. How can a child survive, much less go to school when there is no one to care for them? Children who manage to make it to school often show up with chapped lips (common red flag for hunger), and display signs of not being able to function socially with other children or stay focused in class.  One former school teacher, Mrs Rapuleng who started a separate project to address this issue in her community of SOWETO stated,  ”What made me start the project was seeing my students dying,”.

School-based support is imperative. As representatives of the community, schools are in a position to serve as a vehicle for continued education, grief support, maintenance of a normal life, and most importantly acceptance and a 2nd chance for these children. 

Giving Spirit’s recent project addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS OVC’s involves raising awareness and needed funds that will support schools in key poor provinces of South Africa that have been hit hard by HIV/AIDS deaths of adults with children. In these areas, over 1/2 of the average schools population consists of orhaned and vulnerable children. Giving Spirit’s funding support will be used to assist these schools in providing free daily meals, transportation, uniforms, schools suppies and grief support where needed for OVC’s at their school. They will also be trained in identifying these children who need help but may have not come forward due to fear of stigma. 

If you would like to support our project, please click on the Global Giving widget on this page. For as little as $20 you can make a HUGE difference for one of these children. Please help us spread the word and stay tuned for updates. 

For more information on Giving Spirit visit www.givingspirit.org