Projects

Children's Project

To date Yabonga has assisted 10 educare centres and established two preschool centres (Thandabantu School in Khayelitsha and Sunrise Preschool in Vrygrond).

The godfather programme has sponsored about 200 children for their first year at school every year since 2004 to provide them with uniforms, stationary packs and tuition fees. Yabonga currently supports 350 children through the Orphans and Vulnerable Children's Project.


Educare

Yabonga started establishing educare facilities in underprivileged areas in 1999. The aim was to kick-start these centres and then facilitate ongoing training and support.

To date it has supported projects in Vrygrond Muizenberg, Wallacedene, KTC, Citrusdal, Khayelitsha, Manenberg, Eerste Rivier, and Gugulethu. Once the infrastructure is in place, the focus is to help the caregivers improve their teaching skills so that quality educational programmes can be implemented.

Yabonga does not cover ongoing expenses or salaries for the teachers. The centres are runs as a business by the community organisations who are responsible for the collection of fees and government subsidies.

There must be community ownership as it is important that the local residents support the project and pride themselves on running a Yabonga educare centre. We work closely with the communities and other non-profit initiatives who are encouraged to offer food, health services and other forms of support.

Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC)

At the beginning of 2006 Yabonga started a programme of support for 40 orphaned and vulnerable children, whose mothers were known to us though their attencance in the support groups.

Initially, support was in the form of school uniforms, books and nutitinal support. Within a year, the number had grown to 240 children, and at the beginning of 2008 we are caring for 350 children in the OVC programme.

The services offered to the children have been expanded to include specialised counselling, family interventions, life skills programmes, leadership workshops and further enrichment during school breaks. The overwhelming desire of these children (age 5 to 20 years) is to be given the opportunity to "just be children" without having to fear the trauma associated with HIV, poverty, abuse, and their parents' death.

Community Mothers

The Community Mothers are clients in the HIV support centres who are trained in providing a safe home and nutritious meals to the children in the OVC programme. They are trained in counselling skills and HIV/Aids related issues which are of concern to the children. The Community Moms are often the safe haven for the children, where they can enjoy a healthy meal, the company of other children of their age and are free to talk to them about HIV related issues without fear of stigmatisation. The community mothers also keep in contact with the children's families and provide homework support.


HIV/Aids Support Centres

The demand of local clinics seeking the service of Yabonga's trained peer educators led to Yabonga setting up HIV support centres at various clinics in the communities where the women live. These centres are based in conveted containes that are funded by local businesses.

There are currently ten centres in Khayelitsha, Crossroads, Phillipi, Kuils River, Eerste River and Gugulethu. Yabonga also serves a further 20 clinics and 20 schools. The teams at each centre include a team leader, peer educators, lay counsellors, home-based carers and youth counsellors. The servies offered include HIV education in clinic waiting rooms and at schools, voluntary counselling and testing, individual and family counselling, nutritional support, support groups, and income generation programmes.

HIV/Aids Training

The HIV/Aids Training Programme was designed by Yabonga to equip peer educators with the skills set to support communities to live positively in the context of HIV and Aids. It runs over four months and covers HIV education, personal development and income generation skills. More specitic training is offered to candidates, who show potential in various areas of service, such as home-based care, lay and youth counselling. The programme has recently expanded to include a "men as partners" module, in which partners of women infected with HIV, who are part of Yabonga's programme, are offered education and couple counselling.

To date, 220 women and 10 men have completed the training programme, and 100 are employed as peer educators, lay cousellors, home-based carers and youth counsellors, home-based carers and youth counsellors.

Men's Programme

Yabonga is very proud to now have 15 men who have been trained and are working within our support centres and their communities. Our men run support groups for men, are involved with the male youth programme and do community based education in Taverns and Shebeens. Our men have also been trained as soccer coaches by SantosFC and run sports and enrichment programmes for our youth on an ongoing basis. Our men also tend to our food gardens at our support centres, which add extra nutritional value to the food that we provide everyday! Our men are making us proud as they grow into role models of good partners and good fathers within Yabonga and their own communities.