Lithemba Support Group
KwaZakhele Township, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
Lithemba Support Group is one of five community-based organisations supported by iThemba in the Port Elizabeth area. The focus of Lithemba’s work is Aaron Gqadu Primary School where the organisation was founded in 2003.
It started when a group of teachers decided that they wanted to help the suffering children they encountered on a daily basis in their classrooms. Notes would be sent around the staff room informing the teachers of the death of yet another parent: it was a regular event. The orphaned children would start looking untidy at school, their uniforms would turn to rags, they would lose weight, begin to fall behind with school work and gradually drop out of school. Something needed to be done.
The situation at Aaron Gqadu Primary School is now very different. Four times a week Lithemba provides food for 180 HIV-affected children at the school before classes start and at break time. The volunteers who hand out the food are a source of comfort and support; surrogate parents in many cases. Lithemba also works with parents before they die and extended family members afterwards to ensure support for the children.
The Lithemba office is located in the heart of the community and is a convenient source of information and advice on all matters relating to HIV and AIDS for all members of the community.
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