Overview

• Total Population: 44,344,136

• Infant mortality rate (per 1000 live births): 68.81

• People living with HIV/AIDS: 5.3 million

• Unemployment rate: 26.2%

• Population below poverty line: 50%

• Life expectancy at birth: 43.27 years

Every year thousands of migrants arrive in Johannesburg, not just from rural areas but also as refugees from other African countries. They join the high number of homeless and destitute people already struggling to survive on the streets. Many have HIV/AIDS.

Life for those left in rural areas is no better. The Tswana people at Groot Marico, a rural backwater, have been caught in a cycle of poverty and many there have HIV/AIDS too. Exploitative landlords, slave wages and ill-health have produced a hopelessness resulting in alcoholism and child neglect.

ROKPA helps through:

The ROKPA Soup Kitchen in Johannesburg

which provides food, clothing and advice about HIV/AIDS. Help is also given through outreach work among the homeless community, offering counselling as well as encouragement to children and young adults to settle in shelters where education is on offer.

During 2004 over 10,000 nutritious meals were served, and free medical care, clothing and shoes were also provided.

There are hundreds more who are going without and could be supported if the funds were available. £30 buys 100 hot meals at the Johannesburg Soup Kitchen.

Employment and training at Groot Marico

Building work at a decent wage is being offered to the local people at the ROKPA Centre at Groot Marico. Locals are learning skills and being taught to read and write.

• To convert a garage into a classroom will cost £3,660
• Salary for the teacher is £400 a month

Life On The Streets

The Soup Kitchen in Johannesburg supports many children like Sbusiso with food, clothing and advice about HIV/AIDS. Sbusiso is 16 years old. After the death of his mother Sbusiso's father decided to sell the shack in which they lived.

Sbusiso then had to move to Johannesburg as his father could no longer care for him. His only means of support on the streets of Johannesburg is the little money he earns guarding hawkers' trolleys parked on the pavement during the night. Sbusiso regularly has a meal at the ROKPA soup kitchen.