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The Umhlabuyalingana District occupies the northernmost parts of South Africa’s KwaZulu/Natal Province, and lies along the border with Mozambique. In its annual reports, the SA government’s Statistics Department (StatsSA) lists Umhlabuyalingana District as the poorest by far in South Africa. It has only one tar road, virtually no infrastructure and one of the highest HIV infection rates in the country – consequently also one of the largest numbers of Aids orphans. Many of the orphans are not South African citizens – their parents were Mozambican refugees. They are therefore unable to access even the meagre social assistance offered by the South African government, and live in total destitution.
The Catholic Church has two projects in the District offering care and support to orphans – the Ndumo School Orphan Project at Ndumo, and Isibane Sezwe at Kosi Bay. At the beginning of 2010, SACBC entered into partnership with Homeplan – a Dutch NGO. Homeplan sponsored the building of 20 houses for orphans in the Umhlabuyalingana District. The two projects each identified the ten neediest orphan-headed households in their areas. Land was obtained in each area from the tribal authorities. Local contractors were instructed to build solid brick two-room houses with corrugated iron roofs.By the middle of October ten houses were already completed and occupied by orphans in Ndumo. At Kosi Bay, two were already completed and occupied by orphans. The other eight were near completion.
