Making a difference: HIV and AIDS in South Africa

Children at the Tumelong haven for children affected by HIV and AIDS. [Simon Rawles]

The Tumelong Mission Haven in South Africa opens its doors every day to more than 60 orphans and vulnerable children aged between four months and seven years.

Since 2001, the centre has provided a safe haven for children whose parents are ill or who have died as a result of AIDS, offering a daily hot meal as well as food parcels and clothes to the most vulnerable families.

On Saturdays, the centre invites 120 older children affected by AIDS to teach them vital life skills and to give computer training that will help them to become economically and socially independent.

Thulani (not his real name) was just three years old when he lost his mother to AIDS. Now aged six, he has been brought up by his grandparents on their meagre pension in a dusty two-room shack.

The CAFOD-funded haven offers a chance for Thulani and his eight-year-old brother to flourish, away from the stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS.

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