BRIEF AND PROGRAM
CHALLENGES FACED BY ORPHANS & UNDERPRIVILLED YOUTH IN
SOUTH AFRICA THE CONTEXT OF OUR
WORK
Over the past decade, the number of youth & vulnerable children living in South
Africa has been escalating at an alarming rate. In 2024, the number of orphans had
alarming grown.Over one million of those children have lost their parents to HIV/AIDS-
related complications and suffer the following problems that challenged us to start up a
stretching hand to the orphans, vulnerable,needy children and youth in South Africa:
Extreme Poverty:
Many of these children are deprived of their basic needs due to high levels of poverty.
Nearly half of the population lives below the poverty line, out of which 19% are children.
South Africa rural areas in particular struggle with a very high poverty rate.
Caretaking:
After their parents die or become disabled by illness, orphans and vulnerable children as
young as five years old become both mother and father to their younger siblings. Those
whose parents suffer from HIV/AIDS face an additional burden of care as complications
develop and worsen over time. Children are forced to drop out of school as they try and
provide necessities for their siblings.
Unfair wages:
Orphans have to find work wherever they can due to their lack of education and
resources: laboring in fields, tending cattle, carrying water, or other back-breaking tasks.
When they can find work, orphans are often paid unfair wages because they have no
alternative but to accept whatever is given. When there is no work, they must beg for or
steal food to ward off starvation. Survival becomes a daily struggle.
Exploitation:
Living in extreme poverty without the support of their parents, orphans are vulnerable to
additional kinds of exploitation. Neighbors and occasionally relatives can take advantage
of them because they know that there is no longer an adult to enforce the children’s
property rights. Orphans are also vulnerable to physical abuse. These children are
beaten and sometimes mutilated after they are driven by hunger to steal small amounts
of food to eat. Girls are subject to sexual exploitation when they face the hard choice of selling their bodies for food or watching their families go hungry.
Isolation:
Many of these children live in communities where there are widespread misconceptions
about the causes of HIV/AIDS. After their parents die from HIV/AIDS-related
complications, they are shunned by neighbors and community members for fear of
catching the disease. Orphans find themselves isolated within their communities,
surrounded by those who are unwilling or unable to reach out to them.
It was while facing these serious issues that Given Mango Foundation was formed.
CORE COMPETENCIES
We believe that every one of our children must be exposed to at least six core
competencies that we consider necessary to excel in this world today:
1. Ethics and integrity
2. Entrepreneurship
3. Spiritual development
4. ICT
5. Environmental Literacy
6. Talent development.
As we embark on Nhlanhla Zwane Foundation becoming a first-class children’s center, it
will be our commitment to provide these core competencies to all those who will emerge.
from it.
Child advocacy and community outreach.
This covers all interventions to empower children in especially difficult circumstances. It
aims at encouraging commitment and action from the community to empower children /
young people.
PROGRAM
We will work towards implementing:
Counselling, child recovery, and reunification with their families
Advocacy for children through media coverage
Child care and protection
Skills development for young people
Maternal and child health care
Parental education on good child care
Teaching parental skills, parental guidance, encouraging parental literacy, and
cultural identity
Equipment for children’s activities
Monitoring and evaluation of the above
Food parcels distribution
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