Earlier today I was informed that Marang House is one of the finalists in the Wesbank / Proudly South African Homegrown Awards. Marang House is a finalist in the 'Nation Builder of the Year' category, which is a special category for non-profit organisations.

On 24 May 2007, during a big gala dinner, the winner of the award will be announced. It would really be a big honour and milestone for Marang House to receive this award, as it is one of the most important awards that a South African organisation can win. Everybody at Marang House is therefore very excited about this news and we are all holding thumbs to win this prestigious award.

You can follow all the developments that will lead to big gala dinner in May on this blog.

In an interesting article in today's newspaper Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, is urging donors to also assist non-aids orphans. This is something that Marang House has been advocating for since its establishment in 1998.

I have had many experiences where potential donors were interested in supporting Marang House, until they realised that it doesn't care for children affected by the HIV/AIDS crisis. There is however definitively already a trend going on where donors are slowly getting a little 'bored' with the huge HIV/AIDS problem and are looking to diversify their support efforts.

People tend to forget that there are many other South African children who are struggling, with their health or otherwise, and who are sometimes forgotten due to the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa. These children also deserve the support that they so desperately long for and I am very glad that President Mbeki has raised the issue.


Mbeki urges donors to help non-Aids orphans too

The Star, 4 April 2007

President Thabo Mbeki wants to know why Aids orphans should be given special treatment while other parentless children go hungry.

Mbeki also criticised donors for preferentially funding non-governmental organisations (NGOs) looking after children whose parents had died of Aids while other orphans were being neglected.

He was reacting yesterday to a plea from a member of the National House of Traditional Leaders, Siphiwe Kunene, for all orphans to be taken care of.

Kunene told a story of five children living in the same house. Two of them are Aids orphans who are fed by charities, but the other three, though poor, go hungry.

He said one of the children with parents had said: "I wish my mother and father could die (so that) I can also enjoy those meals".

Mbeki said: "An orphan is an orphan. You cannot say (these orphans) are special because their parents died from Aids.

"An orphan whose parents died in a car accident is an orphan. We have to respond to the conditions of these children …

"We can't have a situation where there are five hungry children and you feed two and leave the other three. It can't be right," Mbeki said, urging traditional leaders to speak out loudly about this issue.

He cited an example of how some NGOs were funded for looking after Aids orphans.
"(An) NGO would go to people with money and say: 'I have established a non-governmental organisation to look after orphans whose parents have died in road accidents,' and the people with money don't respond," the president said.

"And when you go to the same people and say, 'I have established an NGO to look after children whose parents have died of Aids,' then you get the money. It's wrong."
Mbeki was at a debate of traditional leaders in Pretoria when Kunene brought up the orphans story.

Kunene said they had established centres in rural villages to feed Aids orphans.