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Translate literally this means New Dawn and it is a is a small community organisation which offers a loving future to orphans in the large sprawling township of Khayelitsha, Cape Town, home to over half a million people. Since 2000, they have enabled hundreds of children infected and affected by AIDS to move successfully into long term foster care.
For many HIV+ children, institutional care is seen as the only option for them as it is assumed that foster parents will not take on the emotional and medical responsibility. However, Umtha Welanga is changing this attitude by pioneering an effective identification, training and support system for local foster parents.
Umtha works with over 140 foster, extended and HIV affected families living in Khayelitsha and liaises closely with government social services to provide the necessary information to ensure vulnerable children are safely and legally placed. Foster parents are carefully screened and some foster parents also act as emergency places of refuge for very damaged children.
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