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About Us
 Situated 30km south of Johannesburg on an informal settlement called Sweet Waters, Net HIV/AIDS Youth Project is a youth managed organisation caring for children infected by HIV/AIDS in Sweet Waters and surrounding informal settlements, Thumlamtwana and Weillers Farm.
In 1999 as a group of unemployed youths, we founded the above organisation and started caring for children orphaned by AIDS. Seeing that the number of children orphaned by AIDS was increasing at an alarming rate, Joseph Tshabalala, the founder of the organisation mobilised the youths and asked them to assist him in his non-profit organisation.
He drew the youths away from drugs and other abusive substances. Nnini Mokhali did the cooking for the children using a single paraffin stove. Operating from a very small worn out shack, with extreme temperatures was not at all easy. When it rained the shack flooded and the children were forced to squeeze into a small dry corner.
Without any financial support from any institutions, we collected money amongst ourselves and bought a 25l can of paraffin which we started selling to the community as no-one uses electricity in the informal settlement. With the little profit that we made, we bought 12.5kgs of cake flour and we started to bake home-made-fat-cakes which we sold and used the profit money to buy food for the children. More youths become supportive and helped the organisation to excel, despite the financial difficulties that we encountered.
As the petrol prices started to sky rocket and more children came to us looking for help it became an overwhelming struggle to feed the children.
 In 2004 we applied for registration with the Department of Social Services which we received in 2005. The next problem we faced was finding a large enough place with water, electricity and proper sanitation to hold the centre.
We approached Mrs Elfie Wietzman who has a 21 hectare plot nearby the informal settlement and asked if we could use her property. She agreed to rent us 2 rooms at a cost of R650 per month.
With 64 children at the centre the place is still too small. The other part of the house is also rented. The owner is currently selling her property and we do not have the money to buy it. These children are so much in need of a home. Losing a home to these children will lead them into prostitution and some will be forced into child labour in order to support their siblings.
Twelve of our children are already on ARV'S and we hire a taxi to travel 30km to the nearest hospital which costs R400 a visit. This has also been a very difficult situation for us. We had a bakkie of our own that was donated by Epol. It was involved in an accident and this became a set back for us forcing the organisation to seek transport once more from the taxi's.
We run a small ill-equipped library in order to promote a culture of reading and literacy, which is used mostly by youths for studies. A food garden project helps to feed the children at the centre. We also run a brick-making project and we use our donated printers to do CV'S for people in order to generate funds. We are no longer struggling with the rent money since the U.S. Ambassador's Small Grants Program is funding us in order to pay for the rent and buy income generating equipment. Although the funds cannot be used to buy property, renovate or buy a new bakkie, it does play a very big role in turning Net HIV/AIDS into a self-reliable organisation - like buying school material for our kids and paying of school fees.
We also run a poultry and egg project with 500 laying chickens. We rely on these projects and any other donations to pay for the rent, transport and hospital bills and other expenses.
 Eighty of the children that we help are attending school at primary and secondary level. Children have no access to play ground facilities. The economic issues also seem to be the main cause of on going issue with children's health.
Without any form of support from our local government, we continue to strive to make a difference in our communities as we see that HIV/AIDS has become the number one killer. Lack of proper infrasructure's as well as recreational centers has lead the youths into active sex, resulting with early chilhood pregnacy. Most of these children are orphaned children who are forced to live this kind of life in order to take care of their siblings.
It is simply because their parents have died or are too sick to take care of them.
These parents are leaving their children behind due to HIV/AIDS and some cannot afford to feed and take care of them. More children gets infected and this causes more children to die from HIV/AIDS.
We at Net HIV/AIDS, do make sure that we give them all the best we can and help them get basic needs, treatments, check ups as well as education. The establishment of Net HIV/AIDS has lead to many children and youths using the center. |
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