What is happening at Yabonga
Blankets for Community Mothers
It is winter in Cape Town and especially in the shacks of the townships it is wet and very very cold. As the Community Mothers do not have a lot of the furniture and the children usually sit on the floor to eat and play, we needed help quick! Thanks to Brimstone we managed to give several nice, thick, warm blankets to each CM to keep the children warm.
School Holidays
It is also school holidays and the OVCs spend more time than usual at the Community Mum. They therefore cook a little earlier in theh day and the children busy themselves with creative arts and crafts work. Obviously they have to watch soccer as well! Manyof the CMs have a TV but if not the Youth Counsellors have arranged a communal meeting space close by to make sure the children don't miss any of the action. Each group of children has also received a bunch of DVDs to watch duringthose rainy afternoons. Chocolate and Popcorn were distributed as little treats.
Holiday Events for OVCs and Youth 
On the 11th of June we had a great World Cup Opening Party and the children, as well as the youth, had a joyous time and celebrated their team and the fact that South Africa is hosting this massive event. It was loads and loads of fun for everyone: the vuvuzelas were blown, the drums beaten and even the 'diski dance' performed. Luckily our team performed as well - though only a draw the kids and Community Mothers present celebrated as if Bafana won the World Cup!!
Empowering HIV Children and Mothers
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.
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 200 women have graduated as peer educators. Ten HIV/Aids support centres have been established in the communities and 120 women are employed in these centres as peer educators.
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