Kwethu Children's Village has been providing loving refuge for HIV orphans for 17 years. Its success story boasts 40 confident, healthy school leavers and 18 university or tertiary graduates. As the children grow beyond their teenage years, the warmth and ready counsel of the Kwethu home continues, in support of their personal dreams . Covering the costs of tertiary education will ensure these balanced young people secure work or professions to carry them well into successful adulthood,
Orphan and vulnerable school-leavers growing up into young adults presents new challenges.... We provide family warmth, residential care & support for them in a rural community with high incidence of medical & economic challenge. Close ties to family or area of origin are supported. After completing high school, these young adults require educational support as they identify career opportunities, achieve qualification, develop effective life skills, find jobs & commence adulthood.
Our program pays the institutional fees, builds resilience , and provides opportunities for once vulnerable youth to achieve a sound tertiary qualification. This project capacitates our teenagers to secure permanent income by mentoring, modelling discipline, setting goals, and supporting their studies towards appropriate career choices, education and training. With the horizon of a successful profession, a sense of responsibility and leadership is thus cultivated, with a desire to give back.
Educated, skilled, confident and compassionate youth, strengthened by social, spiritual and community fabric will be the result of this project. The critical support provided by our program builds leadership, entrepeneurial confidence, positive relationships, healthy values and accountability. Young Kwethu graduates have come back to work in the Uthukela district, providing evidence of the high value we set on giving back to this community of 150 000+ and to the benefits of tertiary education.
