THERE are many organisations that look after the needs of a range of children: street children, abandoned babies, Aids orphans, HIV positive children, and others. Some operate overnight shelters while others offer residential care from birth to the age of 18. Some operate drop-in centres. Most engage in outreach programmes. Some are Christian-based organisations, while others are non-sectarian. Some, like Cotlands, Streetwise and the Orlando Children's Home, are well-known; others are less so.

Described here are several such organisations. All employ some permanent staff but also make use of volunteers. If you would like your organisation added to the list, please e-mail the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Shelter, schooling, computers, sport
The Berea church centre can take in 26 children. All are given shelter and must go to school. The children are also offered computer literacy training and sporting activities, including netball, cricket and volleyball.

Contact person: Mike Sunker
Tel: (011) 642 4420
Fax: (011) 642 4420
Address: 15 Mitchell Street, Berea 2198

Cotlands is a non-profit South African organisation that provides for orphaned and vulnerable children’s needs. We are currently active in six provinces, providing a full continuum of care to over 8,000 beneficiaries. Our projects offer services ranging from community based care through to residential care of vulnerable children between the ages of 0 and 12 years. Most of the children come to us having been neglected, abused, abandoned or suffering from a life-threatening illness. Our programs include home based care, early childhood development centres, toy libraries, food gardens, counselling, places of safety and end-stage palliative care for children with AIDS. Our focus is to develop each child holistically, focusing on their health, educational and psychosocial needs. In this way, we will be able to proactively impact the child, the family, the community and the nation for now and the future.

Address: 134 Stanton Street, Turffontein
Tel: 011 683 7200
Fax: 011 683 6688
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.cotlands.org

Creche, play, craft
This pre-primary school is supported by the Johannesburg Child Welfare Society and functions as an all-day crèche for working parents.

Contact person: Ingrid Okkers
Address: 52 Ametas Street, Nancefield, Eldorado Park
Tel: (011) 342-2935

Creche, play, craft
This pre-primary school is supported by the Johannesburg Child Welfare Society and functions as an all-day crèche for working parents.

Contact person: Mahlako Kotsi
Address: 52 Ametas Street, Nancefield, Eldorado Park
Tel: (011) 342-2935

Hearts of Hope is a voluntary organisation that started in December 2002 by the efforts of Rivonia Catholic Church and St Lukes Anglican Church members. It cares for vulnerable and abandoned children who are infected and affected by HIV/Aids. The organisation houses six children and two foster parents at a three-bedroom home called "Thabang".

"Thabang" is the first of many homes that Hearts of Hope would like to establish within local communities, however ongoing financial support as well as community involvement is needed to make this dream work. So far, "Thabang" provides a loving, safe and caring environment in which children can flourish and develop in a family environment. Hearts of Hope aims to facilitate adoption into families and to source foster parents.

For more information:
Contact: Deborah van Dongen or Brenda Wortley
Address: 102 Churchill Ave, Wendywood
Tel: 082 458 2677 or 083 444 8475
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.heartsofhope.org.za

Food, counselling, sport, home visits
The Berea-based organisation offers food to 80 children on Tuesday and Friday, as well as basic counselling on issues that affect them. Sport is laid on to draw them away from crime and begging: volleyball, soccer and netball. Those children who want to reunite with their families are offered home visits.

Contact person: B Curtis
Address: 15 Mitchell Street, Berea 2198
Tel: (011) 706 8519
Fax: (011) 886 1601

Capacity building, research, policy development
The Alliance, which serves all of Gauteng and, especially, Johannesburg, is an umbrella organisation for groups dealing with street children. It engages in capacity building in these organisations. It also carries out research on trends and issues relating to street children and policy development. Results of its research are shared with local, provincial and national government and the United Nations.

The goal of the alliance is to promote the reintegration of children into the community through family reunification where possible. It is also involved in updating the databases of organisations and other stakeholders, advocacy and lobbying groups.

Contact person: Liebe Kellen
Tel: (011) 982-7609
Fax: 086 513 2767
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OR

Contact person: Ivor Matshali
Tel: (011) 484-1590
Fax: (011) 484-6278
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Shelter, schooling, training, home-based care, outreach
There are two havens named after South Africa's best-known Aids patient, Nkosi Johnson, who was born HIV positive and died 12 years later from an Aids-related illness. The house in Berea takes in Aids orphans; the original establishment, in Berea, houses HIV positive mothers and their children as well as Aids orphans, both HIV positive and negative. In addition, Nkosi's Haven looks after the needs of a number of Aids orphans in Klipspruit West and Sebokeng, providing food, clothing, school fees and emotional support and counselling, coming through with crisis intervention as well when necessary. In all, the organisation looks after 69 children and 17 mothers. Its outreach programme includes talks on HIV/Aids at schools and companies, and training for companies, targeting the workforce; specialised packages are arranged, depending on the companies' needs.

Nkosi's Haven
23 Mitchell Street, Berea 2198
PO Box 403, Melville 2109
Contact person: Gail Johnson
Tel: (011) 942 5580
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web site: www.nkosishaven.org

Shelter, schooling, adoption, fostering, creche
This venerable institution has been going since 1940, taking in abandoned or orphaned children, aged newborn to 18, sent there by the Children's Court. Orlando is linked to Johannesburg Child Welfare for adoptions, although they do some on their own and also try to place children for fostering. There are currently more than 60 children resident at the home. The younger ones attend a creche on the premises, along with many other toddlers who live in the community. The older ones are sent to schools in the vicinity. Cared for at the home are children abandoned for a variety of reasons: some because they are physically or mentally handicapped; others because of their HIV status or because their parents have died and their relatives cannot take care of them. The home carries out an outreach programme, addressing teenagers at schools and pregnant women in clinics, telling them of the effect of abandoning their babies and explaining that there are other options.

Contact person: Mirriam Mazibuko
Tel: (011) 935-1209
Fax: (011) 935-1144
Address: 6514 Mooki Street, Orlando East.
Postal address: PO Box 123, Orlando 1804

The centre provides residential care for children from age 0 – 18. It also serves as a day care during the day.

Contact person: Phineas Phiti
Tel: (011) 984 4117
Fax: (011) 986 1717
Postal address: P.O Box 1808, Dube, Soweto, 1804

Shelter, training, sport, family reunion
Rhema's shelters in Hillbrow and the CBD take up to 50 children and all of them are required to attend school fulltime. Among extra-curricular activities is art-making; the products are sold at flea markets to help fund the programme. The church also tries to reunite the children with their immediate or extended families.

Contact person: Alan McCauley 
Tel: (011) 796 4070
Fax: (011) 796 4225
Postal address: Private Bag X3062, Randburg 2125
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Web site: www.rhema.co.za , then click on rsf

Creche, play, craft
A pre-primary school in Alexandra, supported by the Johannesburg Child Welfare Society, which functions as an all-day creche for working parents.

Contact person: Sheila Luvuno
Address: 62 2nd Avenue, Alexandra
Tel: (011) 443-3224

Specialised schooling, skills training, jobs initiative
This is a registered non-profit organisation that provides disadvantaged children and youth with learning and intellectual disabilities, with access to affordable, specialised education. The Sparrow Schools Educational Trust runs three different, yet interrelated, educational centres - a primary school, technical skills centre, and a job creation initiative - for children between the ages of 7 and 19. All the children who attend are disadvantaged and have varying degrees of educational backlogs, remedial problems, learning difficulties or intellectual disabilities. Situated in Johannesburg, the centres cater for over 850 learners annually, helping them, where possible, to overcome their learning disabilities and equipping them with the knowledge and skills needed to become independent and contributing members of society.

Contact person: Kathryn Clay
Address: corner Gerty and Herman streets, Sophiatown
Tel: 011 673 3558/4410
E-mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Shelter, schooling, art, drama, sport
Up to 24 children are offered accommodation at the Streetwise shelter in Bertrams (there are also branches in Pretoria and KwaZulu-Natal) and an education at the New Nation School in Cottesloe. They are also given a chance to learn fine art, drama and gumboot dance. Sport is at the centre of the service, says Streetwise: soccer, athletics and basketball form part of their extra-mural activities. The organisation has been around since 1986; they try to serve as a link between the child and his or her estranged family, hoping for reunification; links continue even when the child has returned home.

Contact person: K Mogashoa
Tel: (011) 614 7883
Fax: (011) 481 5127
Address: 47 Terrace Road, Bertrams 2000
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Life skills, entrepreneurial training, craft, sport
This is a project of Johannesburg Child Welfare, located in Doornfontein. Thembalethu distributes food, clothing and blankets to children on the street, invites them to come to its drop-in centre and, when a girl wishes to come off the streets, arranges accommodation at Usindiso Shelter at Albert Street.

The drop-in centre at the corner of Noord and End streets in Doornfontein offers tuition in sewing and knitting to 30 girls between the ages of eight and 18, as well as lessons in basic life skills - conflict resolution, for example - and tries to work towards reuniting the girls with their families. Items made by the girls are sold at flea markets to help them earn an income. They are also encouraged to do gardening, which helps with food for distribution on the streets. Sport, including soccer, netball and athletics, is also offered to the girls

Contact person: T Mashiya
Address: corner Noord and End Streets, Doornfontein
Tel: (011) 402 8073
Fax: (011) 331 6192

Shelter, food, sport, art
Up to 80 children between the ages of eight and 18 are offered overnight accommodation in the Shelter in Hillbrow by this organisation, one of the first in the city to take on the plight of streetchildren. In addition, food is provided twice daily to children sleeping on the streets. Those in the shelter are required to go to school and expected to take part in organised sport. As part of its training for entrepreneurship, art classes are also on offer.

Contact person: Ivor Matshili 
Tel: (011) 484 1590/1
Fax: (011) 883 4387
Postal address: PO Box 650843, Benmore 2010

• Giving hope to Hillbrow's children of the streets

Food, accommodation
Run by Usindiso Ministries, the shelter in Albert Street currently houses 80 women with their children and 20 teenage girls. There's also a nursery school on the premises that looks after 55 children.

Contact person: Jay Bradley
Tel: (011) 334-1143/4 or 082-902-4611
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Developmental skills workshops
The Workers Education Project is an organisation geared towards the training of workers on issues relating to their rights. However there is within WEP a project for street children, called the Socially Excluded Project (SEP), which conducts workshops, through the Johannesburg Alliance for Street Children, for street children on their rights and on developmental skills such as assertiveness and conflict resolution. These workshops are also conducted at an annual Alliance camp for children from the streets.

Contact person: T Mdakane
Address: PO Box 10353, Johannesburg 2000
Tel: (011) 838-2181
Fax: (011) 838-2182

Shelter, training, sport, Christian values
The organisation offers shelter in Lenasia South to 54 children and mixes in a strong emphasis on Christian values and beliefs. All are required to go to school. In addition, youths are given entrepreneurial training such as carpentry and welding, and the sale of the items benefits the youths. Sport, say organisers, is at the centre of the service: soccer, athletics and basketball.

Contact person: Fikile Mpungose
Address: PO Box 79473, Senderwood 2145
Physical address: K43 Road, House 15, Municipal complex, Extension 10, Lenasia South East
Tel: (011) 857 1742/ 1700
Fax: (011) 615 8913
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it