On October 27, officials from the Gauteng Department of Social Development’s HIV/Aids and EPWP Directorate visited the Klipspruit West Family Centre to assess progress and compliance in the implementation of the Isibindi Model.

Isibindi means courage or bravery in isiZulu. The Isibindi Model is a community-based prevention and early intervention programme run in partnership with the Department of Social Development and the National Association of Child and Youth Care Workers.

It aims to provide care, protection and developmental support to orphans, child-headed households, and vulnerable children affected by HIV/Aids and poverty.

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According to the department, studies have found that 80% of children in orphanages in South Africa are not orphans.
They have living family members and are separated because of poverty, violence and the absence of support, not because their families do not want them.

One such child is 23-year-old Previous Xulu, who is a beneficiary at the Klipspruit West Family Centre under the Expanded Public Works Programme, Isibindi Model.

Xulu went to the centre in 2008. He said that growing up in a vulnerable community, his parents had alcohol addictions and did not worry about what was happening to him and his siblings.

“KWFC became a safe space for me and my siblings. It is where we got nutritious meals before we went to school, and even after school, we came back to have something to eat,” he explained.

He said one of the services that stood out for him while in the centre was the educational support, citing that they used to assist with homework and reading, especially because his mother was illiterate.

“Today, I am giving back to the community. After I matriculated in 2020, I had been unemployed for six years,” Xulu shared.
“Then last year, they called me and said, ‘We have received your CV; come.’ I am now working as an EPWP caregiver, providing educational support to children, and I think it’s in line with a calling, seeing how I grew up, and somebody was there for me,” he continued.

“I want to be there for children in our communities who are going through what I went through. For someone who went through neglect at home, it is about making a change in our community where children are vulnerable and turning to gangsterism and so forth