Diary of a Project Visit: Bev visits Hlanganani Ngothando (HNO)-Bulwer

HNO is an amazing organisation serving the communities of Bulwer and has now expanded some of its work to Pietermartizburg, Ixopo and Centocow. Our allocations lady, Bev Gillespie visited this organization recently.

She was impressed by the database of all the people in the area, they know that the have over 2500 OVCs (Orphans and Vulnerable children) being cared for by “granny” clusters. They are also assisting with support and training of 36 creches/preschools. At the moment this support includes training and getting grants for decent toilets and sanitation. Unemployment amongst the youth is a great problem so they run a volunteer programme: for the first 3 months the work is unpaid; the successful volunteers can then move onto receiving a stipend of R 300 for the next 3 months. Thereafter, if you move to the next level you receive a stipend of R900 per month plus access to supplementary benefits such as: additional English lessons; joining computer training classes; assistance with learners licence etc. All this plus the actual working experience mean that many young people can find jobs in the formal sector. The volunteers go out every morning to the surrounding villages; doing basic home care, first aid, distributing food, assisting with letter writing and filling in forms and collecting data, which is added to the database in the afternoon. In this way they can monitor the sick and vulnerable children.