Community Care Programme

At the beginning of October the Khuphuka Project conducted a quarterly analysis of its work (July to September 2009) in its Community Care Programme.  161 households were provided with home based care during this period, which includes HIV / AIDS counseling / prevention, nutrition and health promotion advice. The vast majority of our clients are female (over 80%) and 92% are unemployed.

 

It is very encouraging to note that people are slowly disclosing their status to Khuphuka and getting tested due to our interventions. In this period 40% presented as HIV Positive and 40% reported as not knowing their status as our last quarterly analysis showed that 66% of clients did not know their status and 23% revealed themselves to be HIV Positive. It still highlights the urgent need for local Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) services which Khuphuka intends to provide in early 2010 once we establish our temporary premises on site.

 

Out of 161 households there are 98 children who are orphaned and in a vulnerable situation and these cases have been referred to our new Child Support Programme. 73% of households had food security issues and our information and advocacy service is busy liaising with SASSA in Pietermaritzburg regarding the allocation of temporary food parcels and supporting people with the processing of grant applications. Many referrals were made to the Khuphuka Youth Programme regarding the need for outdoor food gardens as a more sustainable way to counteract food insecurity. There are more than 30 people attending the three support groups of People Living with HIV and Aids (PLWHA) and monthly meetings are also well attended. 

 

Information and Advocacy Programme

There were 119 people served during this period. This was more than the previous period due to the start of our outreach clinic in Stepmore in September. The vast majority of clients continue to be female (66%). Again a high number of people did not have any basic documentation such as ID cards or birth certificates which is essential to applying for any grant support from the government.

 

85% of people reported as being unemployed and only 45% are in receipt of some form of grant support such as child income support, despite having an entitlement to other state grants. It is a common trend that there is grant support in a household but because the number of people in a household is so high, it means that the impact of that grant on food security is negligible. The average monthly income of households dealt with was around R400 with the average number of people in households coming to 8 people per household.

 

During this period people needed information and support on applying for or progressing grant applications in particular with regard to child support grant, foster care grant and disability grant and requests for emergency food parcels were high. The local Department of Social Development (DSD), who administer food parcels in cases of serious deprivation,could not issue any food parcels in cases we referred to them during this period. Khuphuka then made contact with SASSA in Pietermaritzburg who informed us that the budget for such food parcels has been exhausted but they have agreed to do an outreach service to the community to try and process on the spot certain grants to entitled people in the community so they can deal with the food security issue in certain households.  

 

In September the Khuphuka Project initiated a new information clinic in Stepmore, a large community adjacent to uMqatsheni. This clinic was very well attended which showed a great need for this service in this area. Khuphuka intends to continue with this service on a monthly basis. This clinic generated different types of queries such as those related to workplace exploitation. Khuphuka intends to make contact with the Department of Labour to arrange for their Labour Mobile Unit to visit the communities of uMqatsheni and Stepmore in early 2010.

 

Child Support Programme

As mentioned above out of 161 households that Khuphuka is currently dealing with there are 98 children who are orphaned or in a vulnerable situation. These cases have been referred to our new Child Support Worker who is carrying out an individual assessment of each child’s needs and liaising with local social workers on their behalf.

 

The Child Support Worker will also liaise with local schools and crèches to identify children in need of support, and is busy networking with local NGO’s and government departments to build strategic alliances.  We hope to identify and provide specialized training for the child support worker early next year to build up the capacity of the programme.

 

In October all Khuphuka staff completed a one week accredited training in Child and Youth Care with the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW) as part of our involvement in their Volunteer Mentor Project.  

 

Youth Awareness and Empowerment Programme

Our youth co-ordinator Skhumbuzo continues to hold fortnightly HIV and AIDS awareness workshops in both the High School and Primary School of uMqatsheni. The attendance is always high in each workshop. Skhumbuzo also secured a place on a week-long intensive course in Johannesburg with Count on Me, an initiative of Kagisotv, an organization which focuses on men having a key role to play in the fight to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. This course will greatly inform Skhumbuzo’s work with young men in the community.  

 

An exciting new development within the Khuphuka Projects youth programme has been the development of the Khanyisa project (Khanyisa literally means ‘to enlighten’ in isiZulu). Khanyisa is a project which focuses on the young men within the communities we work in.  Traditionally the most difficult group to work with and to achieve lasting behavioural change, young men are often written off by their communities and as a result feel alienated.  The Khanyisa Project works from the assumption that young men, given the opportunity, can and will play an active and positive role within their community.

 

Khanyisa facilitates 3 day wilderness workshops with groups of young men in partnership with KZN Wildlife.  Participants camp, sleep in caves and hike in the Drakensberg mountains of KwaZulu-Natal.  The focus of the workshops is Ubuntu, the African concept of interdependence- that we can only be human in relation to others, and that through knowing this deeply it becomes natural to care for and be of service to others.  The young men are encouraged to explore Ubuntu and question whether it is present in themselves and/or their community, and also how to rediscover it for themselves and their community.  Using Ubuntu as a core theme, the leaders facilitate exercises which explore subjects such as inequality, gender violence and HIV and AIDS.  The young men are encouraged to personally and as a group reflect upon what true courage is and what it means to be a man in this rapidly changing world, each man making a ‘commitment to change’ at the end of the workshop which is then reviewed at a subsequent workshop.

The workshops are having a deep and visible effect upon the young men who are participating.  Holding the workshops within the dramatic natural beauty of the Drakensberg mountains leads to sustained energy to undertake the personal work required of the men, and the outdoor activities builds strong trust within the group extremely rapidly. For more information on this exciting new work please visit our website at http://www.khuphuka.org/19.html <http://www.khuphuka.org/19.html>

 

Khuphuka Project Strategic Plan 2010-2013

The management and staff of Khuphuka have since June been involved in discussions on strategic priorities and planning for the next three years, after the comprehensive needs assessment of the uMqatsheni community in each of the nine tribal wards. A strategic plan has been adopted which sets out the Project vision, mission and strategic priorities for the next three years.  It also sets out our five programme areas – Community Care, Child Support, Information and Advocacy, Youth Awareness and Empowerment, Capacity Building and Organisational Development.  A copy will be available on our website in early January 2010. 

 

Funding Update

The Khuphuka Project has made significant progress in the last two months in attempting to secure core funding for the Project. A number of key funders have made site visits to the Project in October and November and have been very impressed with our operations and our dedicated team of volunteers. We are very confident that we will have good news to share with our supporters in our next email update in 2010.

 

Fundraising Appeal

In January 2010 we will move to a temporary container on the beautiful plot of land that we are in the process of purchasing at a nominal fee from SAPPI. This will enable us to have access to electricity, water and telephone.  We are still on track to build three buildings to support our services and programmes; a Community Outreach centre, Child Support Centre and a Training and Meeting centre.  

 

We are delighted to report that we have raised enough money for our Training and Meeting Centre but need to raise about $110,000 to fully complete the building project. We want to help you to help us so if you can feel the motivation arising in you to organize a fundraising event please email matt@khuphuka.org <mailto:matt@khuphuka.org>  leaving a contact number and Matt will call you and offer advice on organising an event and any further support you may need.

 

As part of a fundraising strategy to raise money for our building project, the staff of the Khuphuka Project recorded a music CD of traditional Zulu songs and the finished version will be available very soon. If you are interested in purchasing the CD or selling copies at a fundraising event, please email office@khuphuka.org <mailto:office@khuphuka.org>  

 

Thank You!

A very big thank you to London Insight who raised over £15,000 pounds for Khuphuka after holding a very successful sponsored ‘Walk for Khuphuka’ in early October. More information can be found on their website at www.londoninsightmeditation.org.uk <http://www.londoninsightmeditation.org.uk/>

 

Many thanks to Pam Weiss who has donated a portion of the profits from her business Appropriate Responses towards the work of Khuphuka, and to Susan & Ford Schmann Foundation, for their very generous donation.

 

Heartfelt thanks also goes to the many individual donors who gave so generously to our project over the past two months. The management and staff of the Khuphuka Project are extremely grateful for these expressions of generosity. 

 

For more information on our Project please contact us at

office@khuphuka.org <mailto:office@khuphuka.org>