About
South Africa continues to experience one of the most severe AIDS epidemics in the world. According to the UNAIDS 2008 report, there were approximately 5.7 million people living with HIV in South Africa at the end of 2007, and almost 1,000 AIDS deaths occurring every day.
Soweto Connection was set up in November 2003 to raise funds in Ireland for South African community-based groups that are working with people affected by HIV/AIDS. The money collected makes urgent treatment available to HIV/AIDS patients, provides home-based care to sufferers, and assists in HIV/AIDS prevention services. All donations are gratefully accepted, and all money goes directly to helping patients and their families.
Background
In South Africa there are millions of people who are HIV-positive. The number of HIV/AIDS victims and affected families is growing everyday, and the situation is now getting quite desperate in many communities. Families lack money not only for basic medical care, but for food and clothes. They are burdened with the high cost of funerals and medical treatment, and as a result the HIV/AIDS epidemic pushes households and whole communities deeper and deeper into poverty. There is no social welfare, and many of the households are headed up by children or aged grandparents as the parents have died. More and more people are dying from AIDS, and the health sector is unable to cope.
Throughout the country there are many community groups who are doing exceptionally good work for HIV/AIDS orphans and families badly affected by HIV/AIDS. They work on the ground, with little or no overhead, so all the resources they have go straight to help the people who need it. They provide basic nourishment and nutrition to sufferers, medical care and emergency relief with whatever drugs they can afford, and they provide information services and broader orphan and family support services
Founders
Soweto Connection was founded by Sheila Killian and John Lannon, two Irish people living in South Africa. Sheila and John met with HIV/AIDS support groups in late 2003, and identified how monies could best be channelled into their work.
As with so many ventures, the idea to fundraise in Ireland for South African HIV/AIDS support groups came through personal contacts. The first connections were made through friends and acquaintances in Soweto, a township just outside Johannesburg. It was here Sheila and John first identified the grave need that existed in the townships and informal settlements of South Africa - hence the name across thousands of miles, to Irish friends and acquaintances in social groups and workplaces, helped turn people's kindness into other people's lifelines.
Several years later practical help is still being delivered by Soweto Connection to groups and organisations in many parts of South Africa.