KUKHANY'OKUSHA CARES®
Kukhanyokusha Cares® is a church founded legally registered NGO with the sole purpose to provide full services under our “Love and Care Ministry”. Kukhany’okusha Cares® (KC) currently supports eight (8) Neighborhood Care Points (NCPs) – a UNICEF and Council of Swaziland Churches initiative, adopted and supported by the Kingdom of Swaziland – which strengthens social safety nets for children and families, and provides a protective environment that reduces hunger and vulnerability of children to abuse, violence, exploitation (including child trafficking and child labor). KC NCPs serve food 5-6 days a week, teach preschool age children as well as those who can’t afford schooling, provide ‘basic needs’ items such as toys, clothes, learning aids, light medication, etc. when/if available, supporting communities in rural areas. NCPs are run by local caregivers & teachers, mainly women, who are volunteer mothers, that want to give back to their communities through grassroots, holistic efforts, in accordance with their faith by providing family love and upbringing to children in need.
MISSION
To empower and enable Swaziland’s most disadvantaged, especially children, to break the cycle of poverty by providing material and spiritual support for comprehensive health: body, mind, & spirit.
VISION
To provide a sustainable stable source of basic needs to disadvantaged members of society, especially children, including but not limited to food, education, toys, learning aids, clothing, and spiritual support, in designated faith-based Neighborhood Care Points.
 THE SITUATION IN SWAZILAND, AND THE NEED FOR KC
FACT: every 3 seconds a child dies from starvation. Hungry children cannot thrive nor be educated successfully, and are more likely to take drastic measures, such as trading sex for food, thus continuing the cycle of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV.
FACT: 23% of Swaziland children have lost one or both parents;
3 / 10 children are considered orphaned or vulnerable with limited access to food, education, clothing, basic health, or psycho-social support. A ‘vulnerable child’ is a one under 18 years who satisfies one or more of the following criteria: parents/guardians are incapable of caring for him/her, physically challenged, staying alone or with poor elderly grandparents, lives in a poor sibling-headed household, has no fixed place of abode, lacks access to health care, education, food, clothing, psychological care and/or has no shelter to protect from the elements, exposed to sexual or physical abuse, including child labor.
FACT: As of 2011, an estimated 140,000 children have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS related causes and an additional 120,000 are highly vulnerable . Approximately 64% of the population lives below the poverty line ; 52% of Swaziland’s population is younger than 20 . The burden of caring for the sick and dying is driving many deeper into poverty.
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has created a crisis for the Swazi nation, spreading and having a deep negative impact on social, cultural and economic aspects of life. Although Swaziland is overwhelmed by the challenges brought about by the pandemic, communities, faith-based organizations, and community-based organizations continue to struggle, looking after their orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), often referred to as “bantfwana bendlunkulu” (children of the community).
Neighborhood Care Points give these kids a fighting chance.
2007 Swaziland Demographic and Health Survey (SDHS)
National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children 2006, pg. 11.
National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children, 2006; an estimated 70,000 children have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS related causes and an additional 60,000 are highly vulnerable. Today, the numbers are thought to have doubled.
Swaziland Household Income and Expenditure Survey, 2001
Swaziland Population and Housing Census, 2007
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