|
Yabonga Children, HIV and Aids
Yabonga is a non-governmental organisation which supports women, men and children who are infected or directly affected by HIV/Aids.
The mission of Yabonga is to create an effective, sustainable model of care that provides education, support and skills development in order to empower HIV positive women and men to effect positive change in the lives of their children, families and in the communities where they live, based on the principles of positive living, personal development and income generation.
Yabonga's World AIDS Day Celebration
Yabonga hosted its aannual World AIDS day Event on Friday the 2nd of December. It was a big celebration filled with joy and laughter and a few sad moments when we sad goodbye to our Programme Manager Ana Mdoda. This is the Director’s address to all Yabonga staff and several guests:
Good morning everyone and a special welcome to our guests from SA Police Wynberg, to our new trainees from the Strand, to Dr Nastassja Koen who will join our board of directors next year, and to our guest speaker from Deloitte, Zolisa Ceza.
I’d also like to mention how proud we are to have our largest group of matriculants with us today, and of course our ‘out of school youth’, the 2010 matriculants. Every year the management team struggles to convince me about the need to expand our projects into yet another new direction. Every year when this happens I argue, that for all the good reasons, Yabonga must remain focussed on what our core objectives are, especially during times when funding is exceedingly hard to secure. This year, I am so pleased that I lost the argument, and that we decided to include the ‘out of school matriculants’ of 2010 into our team.
Babazile Mdoda, Odwa Mantyi , Lungisa Gogo, Thandile Giyama and Avuyile Mvontshi, it has been our absolute pleasure having you with us for past year. It is seldom that the Wynberg team is as unanimous in their opinion as they have been about you. Besides being a wonderful and much needed additional set of hands, eyes, ears and feet in the office, your time spent with the children’s programme was an energy much needed and appreciated. In short, your youthful energy was like a breath of fresh air at Yabonga and an encouragement to us, and a lesson that we could never invest too much in our youth. We are so proud of your personal development that we have witnessed during the past year, and share all your excitement as you prepare to enter university and college in 2012.
Matriculants 2011, you have much to thank this group who have assisted us immensely in preparing the guidance that we were able to give to you during the past year, and which has resulted in all 30 of you being ready to tackle your tertiary studies next year. All that awaits you now are the results required for admission to your selected fields of study. We have seen your commitment to the preparation for your final examinations, and we are sure that the results will prove this. Good luck to you.
At this stage I have to thank our volunteers Chelsea Steck and Elora Way, who have spent many hours researching and producing a manual which incorporates all the information required by school leavers as they do their selection of further studies towards their chosen careers. We are so proud that this document has been identified by the National Planning Commission’s office, as one worthy to be incorporated in their strategy which will put our country back on track to fulfilling the promises made to our people when we voted the ANC into power in 1994.
Since its inception Yabonga has done nothing but to develop programmes to heal disenfranchised communities. We have felt the frustration when government does not acknowledge and support the work done by us and many other community based organisations. We are therefore very encouraged that in this small way, we are being recognised for our efforts. Thank you to Emily Rudolph and her team for prioritizing the production of this document, when I know you had a million other important matters to attend to.
2011, like several years before this has been a difficult one for us as we struggle with the shortage of funds and the reprioritizing how we spend the little that we do receive. Every year when we deliberate on how to continue on the reduced budget, we make really difficult decisions like – we have to stop the soup kitchen. Of course we are painfully aware of the importance of serving this small meal to our clients who often have this as their only meal to support their ARV medication.
Our shrinking budget also prevents us from paying our staff salaries commensurate with the work they do. We are deeply indebted to our project managers Emily and Lara Kelly, and our administration team Jacqui Bruce, Martine Katts and Vuyo Majiya. I know that with the skills that you have, you could all be earning at least double your salaries elsewhere. Yet you have chosen to stay and continue to build Yabonga. Your commitment to the development of our team, to our clients and to our communities is unsurpassed, and we are so, so grateful to you.
When we do consider cutting our programmes, the one area that is seldom affected is training. This has been our focus since we introduced our first training programme in 2001. Our persistence has paid off as our group of university students has grown to 10 in 2012. It is my proudest moment when I speak about the work we do in developing people, and I can now also speak about how many university graduates we will soon have in our midst. I have also studied at the University of South Africa. I know of the dedication required to make a success of distance learning. Blossom Ndlokovane, Nontembeko Ndevu, Joshua Mokgosi, Ana Mdoda, Nandipa Nteza, Mavuyie Majikela, Nolwazi Makhuluphala, Khuthala Makeleni, Eugenia Mbilana and Sondeswa Nkalane, we are so proud of you and so thankful that you are setting this example to our youth in showing the importance of further learning in order to reach your goals.
2011 has been a difficult year in many ways, but true to Yabonga tradition, we have found the means to grow our programmes even further. Two years ago our fieldworkers appealed to us to expand into the Strand/Helderberg area where services were practically non-existent. Of course we said no for all the right reasons - Strand is too far, we don’t have the resources, we don’t have trained staff from the area, etc, etc. Despite this, the teams from Makhaza made a plan to reach out to this area. During 2011 the Yabonga Ikwezi HIV Support Centre has shown the most growth, the most willingness on the part of staff and clients to grow the programmes, and have also produced the first set of new trainees who were trained within their community. A special thank you to Lara, Nontembeko and the team of in-house trainers who have produced this new set of peer educators. We welcome you to Yabonga and look forward to working with you during 2012.
When we analysed our spending last year, we realised that 2nd to salaries, nutrition was our biggest cost. Despite this we were unable to serve the most basic food – bread! So when we met a funder who was keen to fund a new project, we all shouted – A Bakery! We knew nothing about baking one loaf of bread, let alone 200 loaves a day. But true to Yabonga’s philosophy that we can achieve anything given the space and support, we have just opened our first bakery where we have been producing almost 200 loaves per day. And next week as we host Xmas parties for all our children, we will be serving our own Yabonga baked rolls! It is indeed another proud moment, but one not to be taken for granted. Martine and Emily, I know how out of your comfort zones you were as you planned the nitty-gritties of getting a bakery off the ground. It certainly was an education for us all. I do hope that you share in our sense of accomplishment as the loaves pop out of the ovens.
On a sad note, today we are taking leave of Ana. I have so many mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I feel like a proud mother who has nurtured a child to adulthood and is now watching her prepare to spread her wings. Of course this is what Yabonga hopes to achieve with every one of you, but with Ana, I somehow never really thought this would happen. I never imagined that Ana would one day say to me - I’ve done my bit, I need to create space for others. It is a scary moment for me, as Ana has in so many ways been my mentor and guide as we took decisions in ways that gave direction to Yabonga. Ana’s understanding of the community we serve, of gender issues we are confronted with, and ultimately of living with HIV, has been our guiding light. Ana, I cannot thank you enough for your contribution to building the foundation of this organisation that you now leave behind. We are forever indebted to you. We wish you well with your continuing growth and we are assured that whatever you choose to do next, your impact will be immense. Yabonga will remain your home, and we expect that you will continue to watch over us to ensure that our programmes remain appropriate and relevant in the communities we serve.
Ladies and gentlemen, in conclusion, I want to thank so many people for making our work possible. Our directors especially David and Ursel Barnes, to all our funders, especially the foreign funders who have remained committed to us despite the lack of support from our own government, the companies who offer professional services on a pro bono basis. The scores of volunteers who fill the gaps when we just run out of hours to get through all the demands of our programmes, and especially to each one of you, who continue to be true to our vision of empowering women and their families with education, love and support that enables them to follow your examples of continuing to live healthy purposeful lives despite the presence of HIV.
I thank you all, and wish you a well deserved rest over this holiday period.
Ulpha Robertson
Some Background
Yabonga was founded in 1998 and initially provided support for educare centres that were operating informally in squatter settlements. Later these backyard educare centres were provided with containers that had been converted to create more permanent and secure facilities.
In 2001 Yabonga built the Fikelela Children's Centre for HIV orphans in Khayelitsha.The operational management was subsequently handed to the Anglican Church and is still in operation today.
Yabonga has since focused on providing support for HIV-infected mothers and their children. In 2001 a pilot project was initiated with the aim of training infected mothers in HIV education, self-growth and income generation. The expectation was that the trainees would benefit on a personal level, and also serve as peer group educators in their home communities.
The pilot project was converted into a 4-month training programme and thus far over 300 women and about 50 men have graduated as peer educators. 14 HIV/Aids support centres have since been established in the communities and more then 100 women and men are employed in these centres as peer educators.
|
