iThemba Lethu is now connected to

PAYPAL…..

What does this mean?

Online giving is now possible.
This will make individual and company donations so much easier – especially from the United States and the United Kingdom

Please remember to still email iThemba Lethu with your details so that we can send you a thank you note – PAYPAL does not allow us to track who donations have been made by.

 

 

 

Thank you for supporting our work and for your generosity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A team of volunteers from Overlake Community Church (Seattle) participate in the annual Leader’s camps. 

Thoughts from a volunteer…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Celebrating another adoption – thoughts from the new mom…

“Before we considered adopting, we admittedly had all sorts of stereotypes about adoptees, about orphans, and about people infected with HIV. Without even thinking, we believed that adopting an older child, adopting trans-racially, and adopting a child with special medical needs was beyond our capabilities. All of this changed when we visited Ithemba Lethu. After meeting the children there and seeing the incredible love and care the staff provided, all our stereotypes and fears were completely obliterated. God spoke to our hearts in a powerful way. We adopted an incredible 5 year old boy, Duzi, on July 1, 2010. I cannot begin to describe the blessing he is in our family. He is adorable, inquisitive, and really likes to wrestle with his 8 year old brother. He loves playing soccer, jumping on the trampoline, and reading books. We have bonded powerfully with Duzi and I simply cannot imagine our family without him. There are challenges, to be sure. But, the joy we experience in our relationship with him trumps any challenge. We believe, with our whole hearts, that God is big enough to help us care for Duzi, help us heal his wounds, and pave the way for a remarkable and astonishing future.

 

Uploaded:  26 October 2010

 

New shipment of breastmilk from the USA… 

In September 2010, we received our 7^th shipment of donor milk of 5,000 ozs (148 litres) from the International Breastmilk Project in the USA. In the past few years we have received 7,768 litres of breastmilk from wonderful donor mothers in the USA.

some of our babies at iThemba Lethu being fed the donor breastmilk

 The breastmilk received is carefully screened according to the standards laid down by the Human Milk Banking Association of America. This includes a lifestyle review, a medical release from the mother and baby’s healthcare provider; as well as, a negative blood test for HIV, HTLV, Hepatitis B, C, and syphilis.

all this beautiful milk!!!

For this and for future breastmilk shipments the International Breastmilk Project have partnered with the Mothers Milk Bank of Ohio, a non- profit organization which works along similar lines to our breastmilk bank.  We are so grateful to the donor mothers and the wonderful staff of the Mother Milk Bank of Ohio who worked so hard to make this happen.

Quick International Courier (QIC), a priority transportation and logistics company with offices throughout the world, has again generously donated the transport of the milk to South Africa.  Etlin Storage in Durban kindly facilitated the transportation of the precious cargo from the airport to the iThemba Lethu breastmilk bank.

This donor breastmilk will be used to feed the vulnerable and immune-compromised babies we care for at Ithemba Lethu and in a local Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The milk is life-giving to these babies and brings hope and health to them.

pasteurising the donor breastmilk in the new iThemba Lethu pasteuriser

 Thank you for caring and giving.       

 Uploaded:  4 October 2010

 

Innovations in Local Sustainability

As part of the Imagine Durban project and the Municipal Institute of
Learning (MILE), the eThekwini Municipality corporate policy unit has written a book in which they highlight best practices in the city. 

iThemba Lethu was selected to showcase both the HIV Prevention Programme and the Breastmilk Bank projects – the only organisation in the publication that appeared twice!

This exciting publication documents 32 stories on local sustainability drawn from all walks of life within city.  This is the first publication that combines innovations not only by local government, but also by communities, NGO’s, small businesses and individuals.

The book includes a dvd with a mini-clip of each of the case studies documented.  The launch took place on Friday the 13th of August 2010 at the Durban Exhibition Centre.

For further information visit:  www.imaginedurban.co.za or www.mile.org.za

Uploaded:  September  2010

 

 

Evaluation conducted by HEARD

The Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban undertook to “explore the impact of the iThemba Lethu programme on HIV risk-taking behaviour among youth living in Cato Manor”. The sample for the retrospective research was the first group of children who participated in the iThemba Lethu HIV Prevention Programme pilot (2002 – 2006). The research was conducted in 2008 and included a self-administered survey tool and focus groups in two schools in Cato Manor and two control schools.  The final report was released by HEARD in 2010.

 “the iThemba Lethu HIV prevention programme represents an innovative 

and far-reaching response to the HIV pandemic,  

spearheaded and executed by talented and committed personnel.   

The forward-thinking nature of the iThemba Lethu leadership is reflected in their willingness to invite an objective, external evaluation of their programme in order to inform future scale-up”. 

 From the outset, the report recognised that iThemba Lethu set out with a specific goal to:

·         address issues that were visibly neglected in other HIV prevention programmes;

·         recognised the need for a well-grounded programme empowering learners to take control of their lives through personal vision, valuing each other, making wise decisions and prioritising abstinence as the most reliable form of HIV prevention in the context in which the programme is implemented.

 

 iThemba Lethu understood that a single programme could not tackle the broad range of interventions being covered by parallel programmes and therefore the iThemba Lethu programme developers made a conscious decision to focus on aspects that were patently not being covered by these agencies. 

 

 The report detailed the iThemba Lethu programme design and concept that centres on:

·         initiating dialogue on specific issues with young children (starting with pre-adolescents in Grade 5) which is an age group that most programmes do not address; 

·         building resilience and a sense of self-worth in the children;

·         giving them sound public health messages that will empower them to avoid risky behaviour.

 

  Results of Qualitative analysis 

·         iThemba Lethu is a highly valued programme in the community;

·         learners, teachers and parents all praised the programme for providing much needed material, social and spiritual support;

·         the programme fostered dialogue on issues related to gender, religion, violence, self esteem, substance use, hope and HIV;

·         the youth workers (mentors) were praised as the linchpins of the intervention;

·         youth workers were commended for their ongoing commitment to the youth;

·         learners recognised the importance of abstinence as an important HIV prevention tool and a means to prevent teenage pregnancy;

·         learners were ambivalent about the 100% efficacy of condom use as an HIV prevention strategy. (This is not surprising given the age group (10-15 years) and the economically challenged context in which the children live).

 

  Results of Quantitative analysis 

·         high scores on a number of resilience dimensions including hope, mastery and optimism;

·         participation in iThemba Lethu showed a lower likelihood of children ‘ever having had sex’;

·         this effect (lower likelihood of ‘ever having had sex’) was stronger in boys;

·         particularly significant is the fact that only 20% of the iThemba Lethu boys reported having had sex in the past year (compared to 35% of boys not exposed to the iThemba Lethu programme);

·         children who had previously engaged in sexual activity indicated being prepared to change behaviour (i.e this suggests evidence of ‘secondary abstinence‘);   

·         participation in iThemba Lethu was associated with an increased positive attitude to abstaining;

·         increased perception of friend support for abstaining;

·         increased perception in being able to control whether or not they abstained from sex;

·         participants exposed to iThemba Lethu did not consider condoms to be the ‘most reliable’ form of HIV prevention.

 In summary, the overall evaluation revealed:

·         success achieved in building confidence and resilience;

·         success in creating a safe place for children to explore issues around HIV and abstinence – particularly in the context of difficult socio-economic conditions in which they live;

·         the programme is novel in the extent to which it embraces a wide-ranging approach involving learners, teachers and the family;

·         a commitment to a child development approach;

·         an explicit concern with the broader determinants of the children’s health;

·         success in creating an environment for positive communication about life skills, HIV/AIDS and socio economic challenges;

·         inclusive activities that constitute the programme and a holistic approach of engaging youth, teachers and caregivers/parents;

·         the programme did not concentrate on encouraging the children to use condoms;

·         that other harm reducing strategies were employed – such as encouraging school attendance, and working to create safe and supportive home and school environments.

Finally the evaluation states:

 “that the  iThemba Lethu HIV Prevention Programme has fulfilled its objective

of imbuing young people with hope and a sense of destiny.   

It has helped young people understand the value of sound relationships  

(not only sexual relationships)  

and most importantly, it has led to a significant increase  

in the number of young people who have chosen to delay sexual debut.   

Of importance is the significant reduction in the number of male learners in the intervention group  

who had sex in the last year compared to those in the control group.” 

 

Uploaded:  September  2010