BEN/10/027 - Building a home for HIV/AIDS-affected children

Objective: To build a dormitory for children whose parents suffer from HIV/AIDS

Background: While parents are struggling to survive the disease, or after they die, their children, sometime less than three years old, are faced with enormous difficulties, and are rejected even by close relatives and friends. Many very young girls have to give up school to run the house, and have to work hard or prostitute themselves to survive and provide subsistence to their younger brothers and sisters. Some become pregnant and are themselves contaminated by HIV/AIDS. JS has set up a programme to take care of children made orphans by HIV/AIDS. The programme includes health care, schooling, training, clothing, social re-insertion, and also re-locating the children in close families. The number of these children is increasing very rapidly, and problems are arising in the re-locating of children in other families; several cases of abuse were reported. It has therefore become urgent to provide these children with a decent shelter. The JS project is to build one module comprising two dormitories, with a capacity for 150 children (in the mid-term). To feed the children, JS has established a small farm (agriculture, small husbandry). A school teacher and two cooks are necessary to run the project, and their salaries will be covered by JS. Future plans include setting up a kinder garden and a primary school, which would also be open to families able to pay a subscription as school fees; the income will then allow to increase the centre’s capacities.

Use of Funds: The amount requested from the Fund is only to acquire building materials (cement, sand, iron framework). JS is financing, through the contributions of its members, the purchase of the land, all the manpower, and the purchase of some other material (wood, widows, doors.)

Beneficiaries: 60