Wola Nani, Xhosa for “embrace’, is a non-profit organisation to help bring relief to the local South African communities hardest hit by the HIV crisis, and to help them cope with the emotional and financial strains brought about by HIV and AIDS.
Focusing on the needs of HIV positive women and their children, Wola Nani’s services aim to ease the burden of HIV by enabling people living with the virus to respond positively and attain the skills to develop their own coping strategies. Historically disenfranchised, disempowered and marginalised, women bear the brunt of the national pandemic. They have little voice to articulate their needs or to claim the services on which their survival depends.
Description
These tealights are made by HIV positive women, and gives sense of achievement, and provides them much needed therapy and a desperately needed source of income, even if their helps deteriorates. The project provides skills and a regular, sustainable income but more importantly it facilitates empowerment through the womens' ability to support themselves and their families. “It has helped a lot as I had no money to buy food. Making the crafts means I can now buy food, vitamins and send my children to school.”
As society’s most vulnerable members, HIV is especially cruel to the poor. Khayelitsha, a sprawling township near Cape Town, has an HIV rate of 22%. 1 in 3 mothers will pass on their infection to their baby – most will die in their first year with few surviving to the age of five. With health services already stretched to the limit and unemployment at nearly 50%, making extreme economic hardship a daily reality, Wola Nani is working to fill the gap that leaves people with HIV and AIDS particularly exposed.
Hapsari is very proud to support this project.
Each holder comes with a small candle glass and a tealight.
