The project, Ikageng Itireleng, is a community outreach project which currently serves more than 1300 Orphaned and Vulnerable Children (OVC). The number of orphans cared for has increased rapidly since 2004. Most of the children have been witnessed as Child- Headed Households (CHH) of which one child in an average of six children per household is forced by circumstances to meet the needs of the younger siblings or assume the role of a parent. Others have either a terminally ill parent or no parents at all while some survive with their grandparents who hardly have enough on their social grants to maintain the numerous needs of their grandparents.
What is Ikageng about? Ikageng Itireleng literally means “build yourself, do it for yourself” in Setswana, one of the 11 official languages spoken in South Africa. Ikageng is unique because it ensures that children are taken care under the environment they grew up in instead of institutionalising them, thus providing a circle of support that includes home-based care giving which ensures sibling solidarity, with the help of 20 dedicated staff members and 22 Volunteers. Theoretically there are several options for the crisis of Africa’s orphans. Yet, the only large-scale viable option that is most costeffective is the community-based care model. This typically means that either extended family members or other voluntary caregivers already within the community takes the child in and provides care. For reasons of culture and tradition, and to spread limited financial support as far as possible, this is the model that serves as the philosophical starting point for providing real aid to Africa’s orphans. Even with strong support from NGOs and other community members, in the real world of poverty, disease, stigma and a disintegrating social fabric that the AIDS pandemic creates, the holistic capacity that Ikageng gives is a comprehensive response to the orphan crisis in Soweto.