FOREIGN aid is making a huge difference to impoverished and AIDS-ravished communities in Zululand.
Epitomising this, United States Consul General in KZN, Taylor Ruggles, recently visited Community Based Organisations (CBOs) supported by the US Ambassador’s HIV/Aids Community Grants Programme in Zululand and Umkhanyakude.
This funding provides support to orphaned and vulnerable children, and care and treatment to people living with HIV through the purchase of equipment, training and capacity building, and the development of education and prevention campaigns.
The funding also supports income generation activities such as community gardens, block making and craft projects.
The Community Grants Programme operates nationwide and supports about 100 CBOs across the country, including 24 in KZN.
It is funded through the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR) and is specifically intended for direct grassroots development that builds capacity and empowers people to bring change to their own lives and communities in the fight against HIV.
During his trip through Zululand and Umkhanyakude, Ruggles met with leaders, ward councillors and community caregivers to discuss how to prevent new HIV infections through education, activism and by using the tools and assets available to them.
Protection
Sithembiso Gumbi, the councillor for Ward 5 in the Msebe Community, Nongoma, responded by inviting Ruggles to come speak directly to the youth, to encourage changes in behaviour and cement the principles of self-respect and protection of sexual partners.
He told Consul General Ruggles, ‘If you come back, I will get them here. I will get all the young men here to listen to you and to learn about HIV.
‘I am even scared to get tested, but you are encouraging me, and you can encourage my community.’
In response, the US Consulate in Durban is mobilising PEPFAR District support partners and the Community Grants CBOs to arrange an opportunity for voluntary male medical circumcision in 2014.
In Jozini, Ruggles visited Siyaphambili Qondile Home Based Care, an organisation that has used US government funding to purchase a pump to irrigate a garden that produced the income to build a resource centre and provide food parcels to people in need.
In Mseleni he met with the Sustainability Coordinators for Lulisandla Kumntwana Project, who will use the funding provided through the grants programme to develop small industries managed by HIV support groups.
These industries will generate income for households and families living below the poverty line.
These households are within communities adjacent to the game and nature reserves of this area and any income helps strengthen the coping strategies of families and thereby impacts on the growing problem of poaching in the area.
