GCH Partners with CareNow to Establish a Clinic in South Africa

2007-08-17

Giving Children Hope shipped out a container to Mapela, South Africa in conjunction with the CareNow Foundation in Westlake Village, CA. The shipment contained all of the necessary items to establish a community health clinic in a region where there is very little access to health care. The medicines, supplies and equipment, totaling 16,733 pounds of humanitarian aid, arrived into port on October 1, 2007.

CareNow is partnered with Lily of the Valley Children’s Orphanage and is under the direction of Dr. Noel Wright, Executive Director. A full needs assessment was conducted and this clinic will provide basic medical services to the local community as well as the children at the orphanage.

South Africa is often called the “Rainbow Nation”, a term coined by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and later adopted by then President Nelson Mandela, metaphor used to describe the country’s newly-developing multicultural diversity. The spread of AIDS (acquired immune-deficiency syndrome) is now a pandemic, with an estimated 38.6 million people now living with the disease worldwide. In 2007, an estimated 33.2 million people lived with the disease worldwide, and it killed an estimated 2.1 million people, including 330,000 children. According to AVERT an international AIDS charity, the spread of AIDS is an alarming problem in South Africa with up to 31% of pregnant women found to be HIV infected in 2005 and the infection rate among adults estimated at 20%. Most deaths are people who are also economically active, resulting in many families losing their primary wage earners. This is resulting in many ‘AIDS orphans’ who in many cases depend on the state for care and financial support. It is estimated that there are 1,200,000 orphans in South Africa.

This project has been especially important to our Director of Advancement, Program & Administration, Jenise Steverding, as she was recently living in South Africa and became aware of Lily of the Valley last November. “I feel that God brought me in contact with board members of LOTV last year specifically so GCH could partner on this project. It was an exciting day for me when the container left our facility and I can’t wait to see pictures of its safe arrival to South Africa! Thanks to every single person who participated to bring this project to fruition!”