New season for iThemba Lethu
A new board is looking forward to leading iThemba Lethu over the next five years.
ITHEMBA Lethu, an NGO located in the heart of Manor Gardens which invests in children and families threatened by HIV/AIDS, is going into a new season with a new management team.
Founded by Professor Anna Coutsoudis and her management team in 2000, their vision was to alleviate the pain of the orphaned and vulnerable children left in the devastating wake of the pandemic of HIV infected mothers who were dying of AIDS. They started a transition home to care for six vulnerable babies at a time, who could then be reunited with extended biological families or adopted into new families.
Over the past 15 years of Anna’s reign as chairperson, iThemba Lethu has facilitated 88 adoptions and 24 reunifications. It has also impacted on approximately 29 852 learners and their families through their behavioural change intervention and collected breast-milk from 502 donor mothers in order to nurture and nourish all the babies in the transition homes.
Anna recently handed over the leadership baton to Mark Slaughter and his management team. Mark is a successful businessman and elder of Glenridge Church, who will lead the team for the next five year tenure. At the official management handover dinner, Mark said: “I have big shoes to fill. By faith Anna has laid a good foundation with eternal values. My desire is to build on these values and keep our focus through the power of prayer!”
The new board also includes a past staff member Thuthukile Mkhize, who worked in the organisation as a youth worker and then team leader over the past seven years in the HIV Prevention Programme in the schools of Cato Manor. What makes Thuts’ appointment to the executive team more significant is their desire to implement changes from the bottom up, by understanding the nature of the community in which iThemba Lethu operates, in order to make their programmes more effective, empowering and enterprising into the future.
For more information on how to get involved at iThemba Lethu, go to www.ithembalethu.org.za or contact them on 031 261 7723 or karen@ithembalethu.org.za
