Christian Aid appeals to West to help bring families together this Christmas

By [pburton]

We all know Christian Aid as one of the charities at the sharp end of delivering relief to the disaster-stricken regions of the world.

But it is also involved in long-term projects – striving to bring a better quality of life to people in less dramatic ways.

This month it is calling on us to "Help bring families together this Christmas" in various parts of the world where war, famine, disease and all manner of natural disasters have broken up already vulnerable communities and created endless shanty towns of refugees and orphans.

The Thandanani Children's Foundation is a non-profit organisation that helps supply community-based care and support for orphans and other vulnerable children in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province of South Africa.

Founded in 1989, Thandanani – which means "love one another" in Zulu – aims to create a safe and supportive environment for such children, particularly the ones affected by or infected with HIV/Aids.

The charity focuses its efforts in the Richmond and Msunduzi communities, near Pietermaritzburg, where it sets out to cater for the children's basic material, physical, learning and emotional needs.

With a staff of 20 and a team of about 140 volunteers, it supports about 2,050 children in about 700 households across 16 historically disadvantaged communities; nine out of 10 of these youngsters are Aids orphans. It also backs eight early-learning centres and is keen to encourage community-based food gardens, kitchens and income-generating projects.

It is vital work. The African Aids pandemic has largely been forgotten by the world's media, but at ground level its effects are still a terrible reality. One person in five in South Africa is infected with HIV.

The virus has taken a foothold in the sprawling "informal settlements" around cities such as Pietermaritzburg since the collapse of apartheid, as families abandoned the townships to which they were bound for generations. A lack of education and investment, plus the population's unwillingness to accept the scale of the problem, have led to these shanty towns becoming hotbeds of HIV.

The reticence is surprising: everything about the disease points to a widespread free-and-easy sexual lifestyle,yet the stigma attached to HIV is still strong.

The latest figures show the nine countries of southern Africa carry a disproportionate share of the world Aids burden, accounting for 35 per cent of HIV infection and 38 per cent of Aids deaths last year.

Here we look at just a handful of the people who are being helped by Thandanani – and there are details of how you can help Christian Aid support this and other vital projects all over the developing world.

FANISIWA AND THE SISTERS

Volunteer Faniswa Maduna is 30, and both her parents died when she was a teenager. Mother of a 13-year-old son, she has been volunteering with Thandanani for six years, and says her boy is proud of her and even helps to identify children who might be in need of help. She got involved when Thandanani came to her community looking for volunteers: "I like to help people and work with children. I like volunteering, and that's why I still do it – not because of money, but because of love."

Once a fortnight, the 140 volunteers meet the Thandanani staff, bringing a list of items needed by their families: cooking or cleaning equipment, clothing, emergency food vouchers. As there is not enough money to go around, they have to make a case for each donation.

Ntombifuthi and Phumzile are orphaned sisters with whom Faniswa has been working for four years. Their home is down well-trodden pathways between breeze-block homes scattered randomly on a desolate hillside, where the ground is thick red mud.

Inside are a bed, a table, chairs and a portable cooking stove. Ntombifuthi, 18, perches on the bed and says: "Most of my friends live with their parents or guardians. They feel sorry for me; I don't have any adults around, and they think I am a loose child."

Faniswa has helped the girls get grants and life skills training. They are also supported by a 77-year-old gogo, which means grandmother in Zulu.

Faniswa says the girls don't talk about their parents' death.

"The families I work with don't tell me if their parents died of HIV," she explains. "They don't tell anyone, because of the stigma. HIV is there, though – and it is killing."

She works with 13 families, and has worked with about 20 families all told: "It never ends, as I am always in contact with them; they become my friends as well."

A part-trained teacher, she works at the school until 2.30pm Monday to Friday and volunteers after that. Her role as a teacher allows her to identify children who need help. The work can be emotionally draining. She said: "Life is tough, but if you can hear others' problems, you learn they are suffering too and need your help."