In South Africa there is an increasing demand for the care of orphans and vulnerable children, due predominantly to HIV / AIDS.

The country has limited facilities in terms of places of safety, orphanages and suitable foster care parents or potentially adoptive parents coupled with huge increases in demand for these facilities.

The social worker network and support function is deficient in that it cannot cope with the demand placed upon it.

It is our belief that every child deserves a safe and nurturing environment to grow up in and if this cannot be created in a normal family environment it should be done through a foster care programme within the community.

Any child exposed to undue emotional, physical or abuse of any kind should have access to appropriate support in a timely manner to ensure the best well being of that child.

Our objective, at Isibani, is to establish a formal support and training programme to address these issues with the intention of bridging the gap between what the government states as its objectives and what it is physically able to deliver.

In the long term we would hope to be able to step back as government services are more able to service the demand.

The following services are the bare minimum required in order to support this objective:

• Courses and workshops specifically designed around the needs of the orphans and vulnerable children who have been placed with foster families.
• Training around the complex issues that will be faced by foster parents.
• Training of community support members to facilitate and mentor foster children and their foster families on a day to day local community level.

• Identifying and liaising with prospective foster care families. (providing training as detailed above)
• Processing foster care placements through the courts.
• Processing child removals.

• Supporting and counseling children that have been abused in readiness for giving evidence in court.
• Trauma and rape counseling.
• Setting up support groups in local villages supporting orphans and vulnerable children.

• Assisting partner NGOs with court and welfare support services.
• Working alongside the local police, welfare, education, courts and health departments to identify and alleviate the issues they are facing.

We are looking for financial assistance from willing donors to help us fulfil our objective:

• The funding will take the form of establishing a training and education programme and employing, full time staff to assist in this.
• Further funds are required to establish a Foster parent network with ongoing counselling and support.

Mandisa´s story has been the case study for this project. You can read all about her story on this page