South Africa has an enormous problem: some 2,5 million children have become heads of their households because HIV/AIDs and other diseases such as TB have incapacitated or killed their parents. MaAfrika Tikkun's aim is to support and care for these vulnerable children (OVCs) without institutionalizing them.

The early childhood development programmes will run from our community centres. Our Mfuleni community centre is almost complete; our Diepsloot construction is already underway, and building plans for Alexandra and Orange Farm have been approved.

The youth development programme caters for 7 to 19 year olds. The youths come to our centres after school and thereby avoid becoming influenced by gangs, becoming addicted to drugs and participating in crime.

We have two kinds of caregivers:

• Home-based Caregivers: They are assigned to families where someone is very sick, and they visit their clients daily or weekly.
  
• OVC (Orphans and vulnerable children) Caregivers: These caregivers help children who are in child-headed families to ensure they are healthy, being educated and given emotional support.

We are expanding the following community centres to include three new buildings each. These include:

• Early childhood development centres
• Youth development centres
• Palliative care and administration centres

Gauteng:

• Diepsloot (The Wings of Life Centre)
• Orange Farm (AreKopaneng Creche)
• Alexandra (The Phutaditjaba Community Centre)

Western Cape:

• Mfuleni (Mfuleni Community Park)
• Delft (Nelson Mandela Peace Park)

We provide hot nutritious meals daily and food parcels once a month for the families in our care. We also grow vegetables on our land which are used to supplement these meals.

Impoverished communities are especially susceptible to the impact of natural disasters and shortages in water, food, drainage and sanitation.

We work in conjunction with each city's emergency services and address any gaps in the provision of relief. 

We provide an emergency and disaster relief service to communities in need of assistance during difficult times. We distribute food, amenities (clothing, blankets, mattresses, cooking utensils) to those in need of help as an emergency interim temporary measure.

Caring for a child is a holistic responsibility, from infancy to matric. We care for families where parents are ill and offer support and skills development to the children

We have formed alliances with the following organisations which complement our programmes:

• OSSAC (Killarney)
• The Mitzvah School (Morningside)
• Temple Israel (Hillbrow)

We realise that public private partnership is the most effective and efficient method to improve service delivery and community development. We have therefore signed agreements with government whereby they provide the funding for certain projects and we manage the programme and all its details.