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Elonwabeni Child and Family Centre was established 3 years ago. It was founded through combined efforts of South Africans and German individuals. The group still exists, and is known as SAAIDS - www.saaids.de
This group first met in November 2001, with the vision to make a difference in the lives of children living with or affected by HIV/AIDS. The goal was to raise awareness around the plight of people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as raise funds for various HIV/AIDS-child related programmes in Cape Town.
The group found a haven with the Mennonite Church in Regensburg - they made their resources and infrastructure available to the group, supporting both financially and throught their prayers - www.mennoniten-regensburg.de |
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Various HIV/AIDS related projects - 2001 to 2006
The first 4-5 years were spent financially supporting a variety of projects in Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha. Projects which were supported included:
- Tafelsig United AIDS Project
- Sinethemba: Place of Care in Heinz Park
- Empilweni: Counselling Centre for traumatised children
- Fikelela: Place of Care for children in Khayelitsha
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During this time, it became clear that there was a great need for an HV/AIDS Children's Shelter in Mitchells Plain. Given that the vision included the preservation of families, SAAIDS realised the importance of assisting South Africans to establish a children's centre which made provision for both aspects - providing a child a temporary, safe haven, as well as focussing on the integration of the child back into the community and family.
In 2006, Act of Grace 35 was formed and Elonwabeni Children's Centre was established. The first people were employed in the organisation. ECC was originally setup for 6 children only. We have since grown and been able to care for up to 16 children at a given time. |
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In the last year (2008/2009), the Family Preservation aspect of our work has taken off. In order for us to take care of the child effectively, we find ourselves more and more involved in the lives of the families. For this very reason, it is clear to us that our name no longer fully reflected our target group. We therefore made a decision to extend the name to include 'family', as this is one of our target groups. Our name therefore has been changed to: Elonwabeni Child and Family Centre.
Given our strong roots with our sister organisation, SAAIDS in Germany, a decision was made in September 2009, that the partnership will be strengthened by an agreement of cooperation between the 2 organisations. |
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