By Nicola Stuart-Thompson | Director
(a) Introduction:
With the help of you, our donor, we managed to purchase 150 blankets for children who are living in Mavele and Nkambako villages in rural Limpopo province, South Africa. This project focused on children who are most vulnerable - those infected or affected by HIV and AIDS. South Africa faces one of the most serious burdens of disease, which includes the HIV and AIDS pandemic as well as the highest co-infection rate of HIV and Tuberculosis. Children, as always, bear the brunt of this burden and many have lost parents and other family members to illness. Non-government organisations play an important role in providing additional support to these children who live in situations of extreme poverty - sharing small living spaces and possessions with others and often going to bed hungry at the end of a hard day.
(b) The Project:
The blanket project would provide 150 children with blankets. These children have been identified by the CHoiCe Trust social worker who works in the 2 rural villages due to their extreme vulnerability. The blankets were therefore not only intended to give the child something to keep them warm in winter, but they were also a symbol of support and care for the child, who was given something beautiful to own for themselves. In order to further maximise on the impact of the blanket, CHoiCe Trust identified the need to embroider key child rights messages on the blankets so that it would itself provide a platform to promote rights of children. These rights must be the rights that are most important to children.
(c) Progress:
The children in the project with CHoiCe Trust were engaged in a process of rights identification through a series of facilitated dialogues during the last few months. The children were asked to illustrate which rights they felt were most important to them. This provided a space for the children to creatively share about their own needs. Through this process, the children identified the following 4 rights:
- Children have the right to an education
- Children have the right to clothes
- Children have the right to healthy food and water
- Children have the right to a clean house
Pictures of the submissions by the children have been attached here.
Currently, the blankets have been purchased and are being printed with the above rights. The distribution of the blankets will take place during the next few weeks as it is currently school holiday and our social worker will be able to travel to the home of each child for individual distribution.
(d) Conclusion:
The children in the project are extremely excited to receive their blankets! They have loved the process of creatively identifying the key rights which they feel should be represented on the blankets, and the process of giving a voice to the actual needs of the children has been an additional benefit of this distribution process.
On behalf of the children, CHoiCe wishes to thank all donors who made this process possible. We look forward to sharing more about the distribution of the blankets to these children.
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