Build a Home for People Living with HIV/AIDS

Dear Global Givers,

Once again, thank you, on behalf of all of us, for supporting our center for people living with HIV-AIDS. Our Place-Coffee Bay is currently providing a home to about twenty people, mainly children, women, teen-agers, and elderly. At Our Place these people have created a loving family structure, with adults looking after children as mother and father figures. At present, this center comprises five rooms, including the room that is being used as a kitchen. Some of these rooms consist of mud-huts with straw roofs that were built with the money that was collected through Global Giving.

We have recently added a kindergarten at our center in Coffee Bay. This new facility is providing approximately 15 young children with pre-literacy training. Some of these children are living with us full-time; some of them come for the day and go back to their families in the evening. Many of these children had never held a pencil and a piece of paper in their hands before coming to Our Place. At our kindergarten they use writing tools, they sing songs and nursery rhymes in both in their native language (isiXhosa) and English, and they gain familiarity with the alphabet and numbers. These activities increase dramatically these children’s chances of succeeding in school. In addition, our kindergarten ensures that even the children who do not live with us full-time receive at least one balanced meal every day. Sadly, it is not uncommon for the children of the area not to be fed on a daily basis, as many families have to subsist without an income.

Since our last update, we have also started a vegetable garden for the community. This project is a step towards making Our Place more self-sustainable, as food is a big part of our operating costs. In addition, the garden is a very important resource for several families living in the area. The men and women who help us farm the land receive a stipend, in addition to a share of the harvest.

In terms of construction work, we have built three toilets, put in water tanks to cut down on the cost of water supply, and put a fence around the property to protect the younger children. We have also rebuilt and strengthened the roofs of our buildings, which were blown off by a storm last November.

Our goal is to continue growing, as the need for food, shelter, palliative care, and a caring family structure is immense in the area. We need to strengthen our presence in Coffee Bay also because, by living with dignity, our people are role models in the fight against the stigma of HIV-AIDS in the community. Fighting the stigma is essential, as many of the victims of the pandemic are subjected to discrimination and abuse.

Thank you for supporting us, from all of us, from the bottom of our hearts. Andrea Parmegiani