ElectricAid Project of the Month

A Sanctuary for HIV/AIDS Orphans in South Africa

Friends in Ireland was founded by Marian Finucane and John Clarke in June 2002 after a visit to Cape Town, South Africa, where they saw first hand the plight of orphaned and abandoned HIV/AIDS babies.

As HIV/AIDS is rampant in Kokstad, Friends in Ireland saw a desperate need for a hospice - a sanctuary where mothers in the last couple of weeks of their lives could take refuge and continue to have their babies with them to the end and where very ill babies and small children could be nursed to the end and have their mothers with them.

It was decided that the hospice should be built in the children's own local environment, where they could be loved and nurtured by their own house mother - who would be able to administer antiretroviral AIDS medication.

Two orphan houses were built across from the hospice and beside a day care centre, which looks after 75 other infected children who may have lost one or both parents but who still have relatives alive and with whom they live.

The project was such a success that Friends in Ireland was asked to build more day care centres for the children and a small clinic to act as a respite centre for mothers who are HIV/AIDS positive.

ElectricAid was asked to fund the first project in this plan. The day care centre and the clinic will be built in the town of Kokstad, where the HIV/AIDs infection rate in those mothers who present for ante-natal care is 43.5%.

Friends in Ireland hopes to establish a total of four of these centres, together with a hospice and two orphan houses. There are an estimated 50,000 orphaned children in the area -- the need is almost infinite.

ElectricAid approved funding in early 2006 and the orphan centre has been built and is a great success. The hospice has also opened and is now providing a safe home for nine teenage boys, with food, medication and safe secure loving care for these children. The centre has been such a success that Friends in Ireland has expanded its plans to add a girls' wing to the centre and to provide foster houses for the children.

ElectricAid Monthly Draw Winner

ElectricAid's lucky winner of the month is Sylvester Walsh, ESB Networks, South Lotts Rd. The prize for this month is a €500 shopping voucher, sponsored by Group Finance.

ElectricAid