Women's Shelters
From a Women's Shelter to Freedom:
Support programs for HIV/AIDS abused women and orphans in 5 shelters in Gauteng Province to heal inside and gain access to education and a career. 100% of these women have been raped, and subject to prostitution, and have HIV/AIDS
Project Details
South Africa continues to be home to the world’s largest population of people living with HIV—5.7 million in 2007. Just under 12% of South Africa's population of 48 million are infected. The number infected is larger than in any other single country in the world, according to UNAIDS.
Roughly 4 in every 5 people with HIV/AIDS aged 20-24 are women. In 2005, there were 3.5 million orphans in South Africa. In 2008, more than 14 million children in sub-Saharan Africa had lost one or both parents to AIDS.
COMMUNITY works with several shelters and safe houses which care for abused HIV/AIDS women. These women have all been raped, forced into prostitution in Hillbrow and Berea in Johannesburg, and have often reached rock-bottom. We offer these women and children the opportunity for self-development and psycho-social healing courses, including Transcendental Meditation and yoga, and where they have completed high-school, we offer access to higher education, and access to a new career path (out of prostitution) providing true freedom, a life with a future.
Your Support Provides:
- Program Funding to build self-esteem of school learners and reduce alcohol and drug risks for 1 000 secondary students before November 2010, as part of the school Quiet Time program
- Higher Education Scholarships for women who have completed high school wanting to further their studies
- Self Development Training and Healing Courses including the TM technique for 100 women who have been taken off the streets and put into safe-houses
- Computer and Entrepreneurship training
Your generous contribution to COMMUNITY's Women’s Shelter programmes will ensure that we meet our goal of $18,500 for 2010 and continue to provide access to Self-Development programmes and quality education and skills training necessary for these young women and children to transform the cycle of abuse to opportunity.