Sedibeng Sa Bophelo Community Project is a community based project that offers nutritional support for orphaned and vulnerable children and child headed households. Furthermore we are a drop-in centre for social services for AGYWs against abuse . We also provide HIV Testing Services, linkage to care and chronic illnesses adherence clubs and support for people living with HIV. We are also one the HIV Testing centres in Soweto that are catalysts in the distribution of HIV Oral self testing kits.
Currently we are not receiving any financial grant to support this project which has been running from the year 2000. The City of Johannesburg Child Welfare used to have in place measures to assist with financial and life skills ;capacity building and excursions for orphaned and vulnerable children and peer educators. But not anymore. Woolworth's retailers has been donating groceries and clothing to the project for the past ten(10) years, so has the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department.
We have a sewing project which needs capital to get it off the ground. We got a donation from the City of Johannesburg former Mayor Masondo which money was used to purchase 8 industrial sewing machines, a railway container and some sewing supplies. We need enough capital to pay for qualified seamstresses who we intend using also to share their skills to develop unemployed local women and unemployed youth. Unemployed women in the townships common victims of GBV and IPV. we plan to assist them.
Long term financial sustainability for women is key to reducing cases of GBV/IPV and potential new HIV infections among AGYWs. Through this project we hope to run programs that are intended to rebuild families, provide early childhood development opportunities at Sedibeng Sa Bophelo and educate men to be positive role models for our boys who are currently under the scourge of drug abuse in large numbers.
