Lulisandla Kumntwana
Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa
Lulisandla Kumntwana runs a community-based programme to support orphans and vulnerable children by mobilising and supporting church-based teams of volunteers in the local area. Currently 48 family support teams involving over 350 volunteers are giving practical, emotional and spiritual care to over 3,000 orphans and vulnerable children.
As well as providing financial support to enable the practical aspects of this work to continue, iThemba is also supporting a local pastor who assists the volunteers from a spiritual perspective. We also help fund a support worker who specialises in working with HIV-positive children, including running a support group.
The support teams care for the children in practical ways by providing food and clothing and even funding urgent repairs to their houses. The activities are wide-ranging and make a great difference to children’s lives.
Schools advocacy
At the beginning of each school year, volunteers visit schools to ensure that orphans who cannot pay school fees are not excluded. Good relationships are being established with the schools.
Psychosocial workshops
The workshop programme aims to help young people in different areas of their lives. They share their experiences with others and talk about grief and death, life skills, substance abuse and teenage pregnancy. The co-ordinators have noticed that orphans who attend the workshops tend to develop more mature attitudes towards their situation. In one of the local areas on the coast, teenage boys tend to drop out of school in favour of the short-term benefits of temporary jobs. The proportion that choose this option has now decreased and teenagers understand the importance of education.
Foster placements
Forty children have been placed into foster care and there is ongoing supervision of almost 300 children currently being fostered. The foster-parent training programme is proving to be “challenging and helpful”.
Workshops to train izinduna
Izinduna are community leaders. Through this training they learn to help orphans and vulnerable children by assisting with applications for official documents like birth and death certificates, giving information to social workers and being aware of and reporting abuse, whether it is sexual, physical or emotional. These workshops will be held for each tribal authority in the local area.
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> Family support team brings hope to the Nxumalo family
