August – September 2009
The Khuphuka Project is an initiative of Dharmagiri Outreach (www.dharmagiri.org). Its mission is to support and empower those living with and affected by HIV and AIDS using dynamic, innovative and compassionate responses. These responses include the delivery of high quality home based care, information and advocacy, youth services, child protection and HIV and AIDS awareness and education programmes.
Khuphuka Project recruits new staff
In September the Khuphuka Project recruited two new full-time staff to join its dynamic team. Our new Child Support Worker Slindile Ntshalintshali who was formerly a Community Care Worker with Khuphuka will have responsibility for co-ordinating the Khuphuka Project response to the high level of children in the community who are orphaned or in a vulnerable situation. We also recruited a second Information and Advocacy Worker, Ntokozo Ncobeni to work on the implementation of the Information and Advocacy Programme. Ntokozo was formerly a Community Care Worker with Khuphuka and will start a part-time internship with the national human rights organization Black Sash in October.
Community Care Programme
In September our Community Care Co-ordinator successfully completed accredited training in HIV and AIDS Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT) in Durban. The Khuphuka Project plans to offer a voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) service within uMqatsheni in the near future. Our needs assessment revealed that people did not know their status for a myriad of reasons including the prohibitive cost of going to the nearest town to do VCT. Therefore Khuphuka decided to bring the service to the heart of the community.
Khuphuka has set up another People Living with HIV and AIDS support group within the community. There are now three groups operating within the community which are very well attended. We continue to enjoy a positive relationship with the local clinic in Underberg and are currently negotiating a memorandum of cooperation with the regional health department to strengthen this partnership working.
Our Community Care Co-ordinator has won a scholarship to participate in the Higher Certificate in Management which starts in Durban in October with the Foundation for Professional Development (FPD). This one year course aims to develop the management skills of young supervisors and team leaders working in the community and voluntary sector. The course is funded by USAID.
Information and Advocacy Programme
In September the Khuphuka Project initiated a new information and advocacy outreach 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 and thanks to local NGO KZNPPHC for making space available in their health clinic and for informing members of the community of the availability of the service.
At the end of September the information and advocacy workers held their first community information forum which was very well attended and highly participatory. It is planned to hold community information forums once a month in each of the tribal wards. This involves going to the different communities and informing people of their rights and entitlements and discussing issues and potential solutions in order for Khuphuka to communicate them to the relevant government department. It is hoped that these workshops will provide people with the skills and information to advocate on their own behalf.
Youth Awareness and Empowerment Programme
Our youth co-ordinator has finished the recruitment of nine volunteer youth leaders in each of the tribal wards to ensure activities with young people are taking place on a regular basis and to start a project whereby the youth assist vulnerable households in establishing food gardens as one way to counteract the food security crisis in the community. A week long training programme for the youth leaders took place in September to give the leaders a good grounding in issues relating to HIV and AIDS and one’s rights and entitlements.
Khuphuka has also made links with the Amawele Project in Kokstad which links schools in South Africa with schools in Ireland with the possibility of funding for the under-resourced schools in uMqatsheni. It is likely that they will be in a position to twin schools in the community with schools in Ireland in 2010. For more information on this project please visit www.amawele.org <http://www.amawele.org/>
There will be a collaboration between the Khuphuka Project and KZN Wildlife to facilitate HIV / AIDS camping awareness workshops with groups of young men in the Drakensberg Nature Reserve Park. The aim of these workshops is to explore the issues around what it means to be a young man in this rapidly changing world, exploring the use of power, responsibility, attitudes towards women, gender based and other forms of violence. The first workshop is due to take place in November.
Funding Update
Since the launch of the project in February of this year the Khuphuka Project has been busy making applications to various funders in South Africa to secure funding for its work programmes and activities. In July Ms. Chalone Savant, HIV / AIDS Community Grants Co-ordinator with the US Consulate in Durban did a site visit to the Khuphuka Project and invited us to make a funding application. We are delighted to report that the US Consulate approved funding to Khuphuka for the purchase of essential equipment for our community outreach centre and our income generation initiatives to the sum of $10,000 (R80,000). Sincere thanks to the US Consulate for this funding in recognition of our important work in the community.
At the end of September the Khuphuka Project received confirmation from the Committee on Development Education from the University of Helsinki, Finland that our application for funding towards the training and development of our staff had been approved. Many thanks to the Committee for funding this essential capacity building work to ensure that the project is effectively community run and community led.
Fundraising Appeal
The Khuphuka Project is based temporarily in the container of the tribal court. This container has no doors, electricity, water or telephone. We have been allocated a beautiful plot of land upon which we will be building the Khuphuka Community Outreach Centre. This will allow us to co-ordinate our services from an office, provide support groups, education, public meetings, training, HIV testing and counselling, youth groups and income generating projects. .
We need to raise about $140,000 to fully complete the building project. We want to help you to help us so if you can feel the motivation arising in you then please email 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.
Thank You!
Thank you to Thanissara, Siobhan Twomey and all at Samadhi Yoga Studio in Dublin for organizing a benefit night for the Khuphuka Project on 28th of August. Over 6,000 rand was raised on the night. London Insight will hold a sponsored ‘Walk for Khuphuka’ on Sunday 4th of October. More information can be found on their website at www.londoninsightmeditation.org.uk
Special thanks to John Walsh in South Africa who makes meditation benches and is offering a percentage of the proceeds to the Khuphuka Project. To order your meditation bench email contact@bodhiafrica.co.za ; to Nathan and Zohar in the UK who did a sponsored walk in aid of Khuphuka and to Clodagh Emo in Ireland who ran a half marathon to raise funds for Khuphuka. Also a big thank you to the Camellia Foundation who made a very generous donation of Rand 150,000 towards our building fund, and much appreciation to the Steripack company in Ireland who raised Euro1,200 towards our work.
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.