Etafeni Day Care Centre

The centre provides a crèche, pre-school education and after-care programmes for mainly AIDS-affected children (along with a nutrition programme, community care workers, and social workers); a building programme for destitute men and women; income-generation programmes for HIV+ women and grandmothers (involving sewing and beading, some of which has been ordered by Woolworths); a Mothers to Mothers (PMTCT) programme (2006 Platinum award-winner); a non-medical Voluntary Counselling and Testing programme; an AIDS Counsellor programme; a link with Linge Primary School nearby (children from the pre-school go straight to Linge’s Grade One Class); and a laundry service for child-headed households.The Centre also cultivates vegetable gardens, that provide for the nutrition programme, rooms for counselling. All the buildings on the Etafeni propoerty were constructed by local workers, who were first trained by Etafeni, and are thus being given an opportunity to create a livelihood for themselves.

Innovation

The Centre provides almost all the elements an AIDS-affected child needs, all in one place. There is also an emphasis on developmental psychology for the children, which helps them to deal with the inevitable difficulties and losses involved with being AIDS-affected or infected.

Effectiveness

11 AIDS-affected children enrolled in the preschool; HIV+ gardener, that manages the thriving vegetable garden, is employed; formerly destitute builders employed both on-site, and outside Etafeni because of the training received.

Poverty Impact

50 builders trained, with 24 employed outside Etafeni, and 20 on-site; the project also employs 24 counsellors and 2 coordinators; 6 edu-carers, 1 cook, 1 cleaner, 1 administrator; 18 community-care workers.

Sustainability

A number of groups have provided funding for the project, and some of the funding comes from external/international agencies. However, the Provincial Department of Health also gave the project some help with start-up costs. Thus far, Etafeni is well-provided for for the next couple of years. They have a sound fund-raiser base.

Replication

Given the dearth of high quality care for children affected by HIV, Etafeni is a model that is entirely replicable because it used labour from within the community to construct the building, to tend to the gardens, to generate income, to form partnerships, etc.

Partnerships

• Provincial Departments of Health; Social Services
• City of Cape Town
• Absolute Return for Kids; Mother to Mother to Be; Etafeni Playgroup project