Franklin is located approximately 30 kilometres North of Kokstad and represents Friends in Ireland’s largest Project within the KwaZulu Natal Province of South Africa. Franklin is a chronically disadvantaged community with a large informal settlement in which hundreds of families live in temporary and makeshift dwellings, unsuitable to an extremely harsh weather the area experiences, and devoid of basic utilities such as electricity; clean running water or sanitation.
People have migrated to Franklin in search of work for many years. However with the closure of the milk processing plants and the railway station chances of finding employment in Franklin are minimal. The Majority of these people left their villages in the surrounding mountains and across the border in Lesotho. These rural migrants now live in the resulting informal settlement developed upon a marsh area, close to where the Milk processing factories had previously been located.
The distressing and counter-productive stigma that surrounds HIV AIDS in much of South Africa is plainly evident in Franklin. The failure to recognise the reality of the infection and its scale makes the lives of ordinary people affected by it incredibly difficult. They face isolation, alienation and often actual abuse or neglect, adults and children alike.
Friends in Ireland established a crèche in Franklin in 2006, the primary purpose of which was to address the needs of the youngest children living in the informal settlement. Today that crèche has a regular attendance of 50 children, all of whom are fed twice a day with a nutritionally appropriate breakfast and dinner. These orphans and vulnerable children gain the opportunity to begin the process of formal education, through the South African government recognised Early Childhood Development programme.
Friends in Ireland have completed construction of two Cluster Foster Homes which will assist the community in addressing the huge strain placed upon it by increasing numbers of HIV AIDS orphans. Once registered the homes will accommodate 12 orphans in a residential setting designed to be as natural a family setting as possible, and offer them a stable and healthy environment in which to grow and develop.
Friends in Ireland have also built a Drop-In Centre next to the local primary school, St. Paul’s. This Drop-In Centre provides support to 100 orphans who attend the school, and who are in some cases not only orphaned themselves, but also the heads of households with younger siblings. The children have been identified by the school and committee as those most in need. Each child receives two nutritional meals each day.
Vegetable gardens are established to supplement the nutrition programme at St. Paul’s and at the Crèche.
The drop in Centre at St. Pauls and the crèche facility are managed by a local Community Based Organisation called “Taimid ag Fas”. They are supported by our Community Development Officer and Child Care Officer to become a constituted Non Profit Organisation recognised by the Department of Social Development
Friends in Ireland are also at the forefront of initiatives in Franklin, in partnership with relevant Government Departments and other NGOs, to improve the primary health care facilities available to the population. We are also seeking ways to address the current of mistrust and shame which underlines the devastating effects of HIV AIDS upon the community, and its members.
To this end Friends in Ireland work with TB/HIV Care who have begun an extensive outreach programme for Voluntary Counselling Treatment and Testing and have successfully initiated a number of clients onto ARV treatment in the past number of months. |
