Overview
The Mpilonhle Mobile Health and Computer Unit has launched a program to provide food parcels for 40 child-headed households in rural Zululand, with plans for expansion. Initially funded by Oprah’s Angel Network, the initiative was created in collaboration with local schools and the Department of Social Welfare to support orphans in need. While the program has funding for three months, Mpilonhle aims to secure additional support to continue providing essential services, including health education, HIV/AIDS and TB testing, and computer training for over 3,500 children in the region.
Article
Forty child-headed households are to receive food parcels for the next three months, and plans are in place to expand this programme of aiding the most vulnerable in rural Zululand communities.
The programme, run by the Mpilonhle Mobile Health and Computer Unit based in Mtubatuba, received initial funding from Oprah’s Angel Network and was launched at Madwaleni High School in the Mkhwanazi Traditional Authority area in the uMkhanyakude District.
Dr Michael Bennish of Mpilonhle said the orphans most in need had been identified through consultation with the non-profit organisation’s social welfare staff, principals of four schools and the Department of Social Welfare.
The four schools, from which 10 pupils of each were identified for the food parcels, receive support from Mpilonhle’s Mobile Health and Computer Units funded and initiated by the Charlize Theron Africa Outreach Project in conjunction with Oprah’s Angel Network.
The chairman of the Mpilonhle board, uMkhanyakude mayor Lawrence Mthombeni, said at the launch that while children’s health and education needs were taken care of, they were to no avail as long as there was no food in their homes.
“We have sufficient funds to sup- ply food parcels for three months, but we need more funding to sus- tain this project. Anyone can help by making a donation,” said Mthombeni.
The families receiving support were headed by orphans who were still at school but were just older than 18, the age below which the family would have been eligible for government grants to orphans.
Bennish said that through the mobile units, 3 500 children had been tested for HIV/Aids and TB and had received health education and counselling, basie health care and computer training.
“The food parcel project is just one aspect of our overall pro- gramme. We would like to expand and extend what we do in providing the essentials of life that so many of us take for granted.”
Funding for an additional two mobile units was being awarded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief.
“These additional units would help us in expanding the integrated HIV prevention, health and com- puter education services to other schools and communities in the area,” said Bennish.
