Housemothers

Local housemothers are recruited by word of mouth. We have learned that it is better to find a lady with a mother heart and train her to be a medical caregiver rather than training a medical caregiver to have a mother heart! After following a training programme, new applicants are first trained as relievers of present housemothers. Housemothers preferably need to have had their own children; furthermore, their children need to be older than 10 years. Preferably, we would like to have a couple look after our children, but with less than 5% in our local community being married, it is extremely difficult to find a couple with love and passion for HIV-orphans. Mothers care for the children for 21 days per month, with two breaks of 4 days each. The same reliever always looks after the children whilst the mother is away to give stability and strengthen their bonding process.