April 12, 2006
By Emmanuel Mulaudzi
ONE year after the City of Johannesburg set up its Mayoral Aids Fund 3 000 people have benefited from its work.
It is planned that the fund will have a four-year lifespan. It aims to raise money to care for people living with Aids and HIV and children orphaned by Aids. It also works to support programmes that deal with the effects of HIV and Aids on the Joburg community.
It was set up in April 2005 and its first fund-raising events, a Mayoral Dinner and Golf Day, generated R632 510. That cash was used to establish the Buckets of Love and Care programme.
Proceeds from a performance of The Merry Widow at the Civic Theatre on 14 February generated an additional R135 000.
According to the City health department, which manages the fund, it is a conduit to distribute private-sector donations to the most needy and it supports sustainable and affordable initiatives at local level. It also assists small organisations that have limited funding and fund-raising capacity.
The department says it has two functions – a fund-raising mechanism and a grant disbursement and resource channelling mechanism.
Administration costs are carried by the City, and 100 percent of the donations received go to improve people's lives. Regional health department offices support and evaluate projects.
It partners private-sector, non-governmental and community-based organisations with the City to deal with the effects of HIV and Aids. There are two programmes under the Mayoral Aids Fund, namely Buckets of Love and Jozi Ihlomile.
Buckets of Love has two projects. Under one, plastic buckets are filled with non-perishable foodstuffs and household items that are distributed to the needy to meet the basic needs of nutrition and hygiene. The second focuses on training and supporting volunteers working in the HIV and Aids field.
"Local faith-based and non-governmental organisations act as distributors as they are in direct contact with the most needy people in the community," says Meisie Lerutla, the deputy director of the City's HIV and Aids programme.
She says an added benefit of Buckets of Love is that all the recipients are known to the City and can be registered on the indigent list for social assistance, such as foster grants for orphans.
Jozi Ihlomile is an umbrella programme to co-ordinate prevention, therapeutic and support projects linked to HIV and Aids and to support and train volunteers.
There are seven sub-programmes under it:
- Adopt-a-block, where volunteers visit needy people on their blocks to provide support;
- Community education on HIV and Aids;
- Support for people living with HIV and Aids, which provides counselling;
- Home-based care services, which assists patients physically and supervises taking of medication;
- Nutrition programme, which distributes food parcels to people living with Aids;
- Voluntary counselling and testing; and
- Indigent burials, which helps families bury their loved ones.
A statement from the health department says that the Mayoral Aids Fund "allows private and public sectors to jointly and successfully participate in a worthy cause". Individuals and communities benefit directly from contributors.
Donations are received from private-sector organisations, City employees and councillors. For more information, contact the Johannesburg health department on 011 407 6805.
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