Ladies and gentlemen
Good morning to you all.

HIV and AIDS is one of the key challenges facing South Africa today. As stated in the country's HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan of 2007/11, more than five million people were estimated to be living with HIV in 2005, in the country.

One of the key priorities stated in the Strategic Plan is to lessen the impact of AIDS and to create an enabling social environment for care, treatment and support. Included in the deliverables is the need to strengthen the implementation of the Orphans and Vulnerable Children programmes, and the expansion of Home Community Based Care, as part of the Social Sector Plan of the Expanded Public Works Programme.

I will outline progress made in implementing these provisions, through the department's Policy Framework and National Action Plan.

Database of OVCs

We are in the process of developing a national database of orphans and vulnerable children, which will be inclusive of child-headed households. The 2001 Census put the figure of child-headed households at more than 248 000 and there is no doubt a significant increase to date.

Children heading households assume the role of primary caregivers, looking after sick parents and/or younger siblings, with limited or no resources, especially in families affected by AIDS.

A working group made up of the Departments of Social Development, Health, Education and Home Affairs has been established to work on this project. Statistics South Africa will provide technical assistance and guidance. Government has various programmes in place to assist OVCs. The anti-child poverty interventions provided include access to treatment, food, skills training and psycho-social support.

It also involves access to social grants, free education and health care, as well as statutory services such as alternative care and urgent assistance in cases of child abuse, neglect and exploitation.

The Children's Amendment Bill, passed by the National Assembly last week and referred to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) for concurrence, recognises and makes provision for child-headed households. The official recognition is extended to households headed by children over the age of 16.

We encourage children from child-headed households to remain in their communities instead of alternative care, such as orphanages. It is important for them to grow up with a cultural identity and a sense of belonging. It also places an obligation on neighbours and the community in general to look after these children, and not outsource this responsibility to government.

The children will continue to be provided with State protection while under the supervision of designated adults in their communities. The Children's Amendment Bill places a limitation on the powers available to supervisors of child-headed households, by obliging them to consult with the children. It also empowers the children to report inadequate supervision or abuse.

I will outline some of the services to affected children:

1. Home Community Based Care

Most services to OVCs are rendered through the Home-Community Based Care programme. Currently there are 1 700 organisations rendering this service nationally.

Services rendered include:

* early identification of vulnerable children and their families and referral to appropriate services such as alternative care
* training of community caregivers as part of the Expanded Public Works Programme
* psychosocial support and material assistance
* facilitation of support groups and anti-retroviral drug adherence support.

During the last financial year, we managed to reach the following beneficiaries through the programme:

* The number of orphans and vulnerable children who were identified and have received services was 206 889.
* Number of families that benefited from the programme: 356 073.
* Number of food parcels distributed: 155 754.
* Number of child headed households assisted: 34 025.
* Number of children who benefited from cooked meals provided from the various community multi-purpose centres: 102 723.
* Number of school uniforms distributed: 47 607.
* Number of caregivers receiving stipends: 11 059.
* Funded non-governmental, faith-based and community organisations: 750.

Drop in centres

The department has established a number of multi purpose or drop-in centres. Children from child-headed households are provided with meals before they go to school and are also given lunch boxes. The caregivers also assist children with homework and life skills training. The intention is to have the centres in every district in the country.

Child Care forums

There are currently 600 Child Care forums countrywide. The forums work closely with social workers, welfare organisations and other structures in the community.

Social security and welfare services

The Departments of Social Development, Justice and Constitutional Development and Home Affairs are working together to reduce the foster care placement backlogs nationally. An innovation in the Children's Amendment Bill is the inclusion of a provision for the placement of children with a family member. In addition, we have introduced a cluster foster care scheme which is to be managed by non-profit organisations. In practice this will accommodate care to groups of children in houses accommodating not more than six children per house.

With regards to social assistance, to date, 462 294 children receive the foster care grant. More than 8 million poor children receive the child support grant, and 100 681 children with disabilities receive the care dependency grant.

Community care givers

Most of the work done so far would not be possible without dedicated and committed community caregivers. We are working with the Department of Health, to develop the Regulatory Framework to standardise conditions on the recruitment, employment and remuneration of community caregivers.

We are also working jointly with the Health and Welfare Sector Education and Training Authority (Seta) to facilitate the accreditation of training service providers who will train the caregivers.

Partnerships

The department has established partnerships with a number of organisations to improve service delivery to OVCs.

These include various non-government organisations, faith-based organisations and others who contribute enormously to mitigate the impact of HIV and AIDS in our communities.

We have in place the National Action Committee for Children Infected and Affected by HIV and AIDS (NACCA). The structure is made up national and provincial government departments, non-government organisations, faith-based organisations, community-based organisations as well as donor and development agencies.

Key international partnerships in the support of vulnerable children include the following:

* a partnership with United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) to roll out child care forums in all provinces
* a collaboration with the German Development Bank to conduct a situation analysis of child-headed households
* partnership with the Japanese International Co-operation Agency and Department of Health to develop an integrated monitoring and evaluation system for the Home-Community Based Care programme.
* collaboration with the British Department of International Development to provide capacity building to community and faith-based organisations. The programme focuses on management issues such financial management, fundraising and project management.

Conclusion

We believe we have made some progress in alleviating the negative impact of HIV and AIDS on our children, in line with general government objectives. However, much more remains to be done. We appreciate the support we receive from civil society, donor and development agencies, and the faith-based sector amongst others. The support enables us to continue with the fight against the epidemic, and any progress made is a shared achievement.

Thank you.

Issued by: Department of Social Development
12 November 2007