Angel Network Africa Grants

Salvation Army—Carl Sithole Centre (CSC) operates an HIV/AIDS program and initiative in over 300 community centers in Southern Africa, they have more than 250 trained officers giving leadership and support. To date, the Salvation Army—CSC, located in Johannesburg has a registered membership of 24,000 committed caring persons.

The programs strongly emphasize the involvement of women, youth and children, conducting specific targeted activities and services for these particular groups. These services include intervention, counseling, and healthcare programs to those affected by HIV/AIDS related matters.

The Salvation Army—CSC works diligently to design sustainable programs and capitalize maximally on the existing community and institutional resources. Their primary focus is on the work in historically disadvantaged, socially and economically deprived communities in the region.

Oprah's Angel Network is providing funding for a psychology team.

See an update from the show ChristmasKindness Follow-Ups.

The Chris Hani Independent School is housed in two truck containers located in the Joe Slovo Squatter Camp in Western Cape Town. It is dedicated to the concept of the transformation of South Africa from Apartheid through the education and empowerment of all the people.

The community-based school specifically targets children of the Joe Slovo camp dwellers, a group of uneducated and unemployed immigrants from various rural areas in South Africa. The school seeks to provide a primary learning program to functionally illiterate and culturally deprived children aged 5–16 who have limited language and social skills. The commitment is to teach and transform the children into school ready learners, who can be integrated into mainstream state supported public school systems.

Oprah's Angel Network is providing books and teacher training to this organization to enhance this great program.

See an update from the show ChristmasKindness Follow-Ups.

Kids Haven is a residential shelter for abused and abandoned homeless children. Their mission is to bring help and care to street children and others in need in their community.

This organization operates out of three sites serving 160 children and in some cases the parents as well. The children receive three meals per day, dormitory housing and the costs for attending public schools. There are also several other programs operated by Kids Haven, like the family reunification program that offers counseling and parenting courses to families that have been divided for various reasons, this is for the benefit of the children and the community. Another program is one that offers a safe haven to street children, by giving them provisions of two meals, adequate clothing and alternative schooling known as the bridging school.

Oprah's Angel Network provided a grant to Kids Haven to support their general operating costs.

See an update from the show ChristmasKindness Follow-Ups.

Thembalethu is a home-based care facility that provides support to more than 200 orphan headed households in the Shongwe Mission area. They provide food parcels, clothing, books, and toys to the children.

In some cases, they have placed an older child from one household in a home where two young children have been left on their own, creating a sub-family unit. Thembalethu's emphasis is on supporting the household rather than institutionalizing the children.

Oprah's Angel Network provided a grant to Thembalethu to support their general operating costs.

Tumelong Mission provides a safe, loving, caring environment for orphans and vulnerable children affected by the AIDS epidemic.

The Thusong Hospice, where at least one of the parents has been a patient, has referred majority of the children in the mission to them. The community strongly supports Tumelong Mission, believing that the orphaned children must not be institutionalized but remain in the area so that they will not lose their customs or language. Without placing increased pressure on next of kin and/or guardians, Tumelong Mission assists in providing schooling, transportation, meals and healthcare, to ease the increased responsibility on the families and the community.

Oprah's Angel Network provided a grant to Tumelong Mission to support their general operating costs.

The Chelstone Health Clinic treats pregnant women who have contracted HIV/AIDS. Located in a resource-poor community of Lusaka, Zambia, Chelstone is one of the few clinics in Zambia providing what's known as "prevention-of-Mother-to-Child-Transmission (pMTC)." With pMTC, expectant mothers and their newborns are given nevirapine, a drug that significantly lowers the infant's risk of infection at birth.

Chelstone also provides the life-saving anti-retroviral drugs to HIV positive parents, enabling them to stay alive long enough to raise their children.

Dr. Moses Sinkala, Director of the Chelstone Health Clinic, has a mission. "We're trying to keep the mothers alive, the fathers alive, and the family intact." To achieve this goal, Chelstone's multi-disciplinary teams also provide counseling and promote healthy behavior to enhance the entire family's well being.

The Umoyo Training Centre's goal is to build and sustain the capacity of vulnerable teenage girls who are orphaned (mainly due to HIV/AIDS) to more effectively cope with life.

Umoyo is based on a strategy that addresses young women's practical needs and assists them in coping with their difficult social and economic circumstances. They learn skills for income generation, literacy, and math, HIV/AIDS awareness and psychological needs such self-confidence, self-reliance and ethical training.

As a residential program, the young women are actively involved in learning by doing. All of the youth are engaged in the day-to-day operations of Umoyo and are expected to learn skills to ensure that the center runs smoothly. The girls remain in regular contact with their guardians and they go home every month so they still feel connected to their communities.

In the Zambian language of Bemba, "Yasheni" means "to enlighten." The Yasheni Community Centre strives to liberate the Chainda Township community from poverty, disease, illiteracy and ignorance. Yasheni actively promotes the rights of children and women. They directly implement child and personal development projects through community counseling, formal education, drama, literature, the media and recreational activities.

Yasheni also ensures quality health care is provided to orphans and vulnerable children, incapacitated parents, guardians, and disempowered women and youth. It enlists community support for children left orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

Furthermore, Yasheni provides a school facility and recreational activities for orphans and vulnerable children who for various reasons cannot be incorporated in the formal education system. They provide life skills and development training to caregivers and guardians. They involve caregivers, guardians and older children in income generating activities, enabling them to attain domestic sustainability, paving a way for individual members of society to achieve self-actualization and to realize their maximum personal and collective potential.

More ways the Angel Network is making a difference in Africa.