Small Projects Foundation
The Small Projects Foundation (SPF) runs an HIV/AIDS action programme in the Eastern Cape, where levels of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment are notoriously high. This area of South Africa is largely populated by rural people, who have little access to the poorly equipped provincial health service and are therefore particularly vulnerable to disease. HIV/AIDS is a massive problem - up to a quarter of the population of the Eastern Cape are now infected.
The SPF helps communities to combat HIV/AIDS through education, care and support. Each community nominates volunteers who receive training leading to a national qualification in prevention of HIV, counselling, nutrition and home-based care. There are now 540 volunteers in the Eastern Cape whose healthcare activities have improved the lives of 450,000 people.
The success of the programme was recently acknowledged by the provincial government, which asked the SPF to take on the management of all 4865 community healthcare workers in the Eastern Cape. Trained volunteers now receive a monthly stipend of 600 South African Rand from the government - a welcome recognition of their services considering that many of them walk for miles each day in order to run workshops and provide home care.
The success of the SPF in the Eastern Cape has prompted plans to expand the programme to KwaZulu Natal, where HIV/AIDS infection rates are the highest in all South Africa.
