Say hello to 10-year-old Nicholas. He is deaf and suffered mild brain damage at birth.  Nicholas will smile at you and then run to play with friends at NOAH’s Ark in Midrand where his sister, Beatrice, is learning to care for her little brother’s needs.  Shacks and mud roads blemish the outside as the Ark serves four informal settlements. But inside, dozens of children sing, laugh, eat, play and learn, guided by loving care-givers—community volunteers trained to be social workers by Noah’s Ark.       

NOAH is a nongovernmental organization that “Nurtures Orphans of AIDS for Humanity”. 

Sponsored by USAID, funds from President Bush’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), NOAH aims to help Nicholas and a staggering number of poverty-affected children orphaned by AIDS to mature into

emotionally and psychologically stable adults. Since April 2004, NOAH has established 13 community Arks nationwide and networks of resource centers that train local volunteers to support and protect nearly 4,000 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC), also assisting their families. In the next year, NOAH, with PEPFAR funding, plans to mobilize and train volunteers in 28 communities, establish 20 new resource centers and train their staff to help 8,000 needy children.  Carefully developed programs help children with education, nutrition, healthcare, life skills training and counseling.  Children enrolled in NOAH’s Arks are kept in school or provided with educational alternatives through study skills; homework supervision; and access to a library, computers and internet  connectivity where possible.  Some Arks offer after-school mentoring in Math, Biology and English.  In Vosloorus, 14 orphans have been accepted into school after the basic education provided by NOAH volunteers was sufficient to ensure entry.  The computer program at another Ark has instilled the children with self-esteem and confidence to see themselves as worthy of respect, a feeling that was lacking among the orphans in the community before NOAH’s support started. USAID South Africa Deputy Director, Denise Rollins, says, “NOAH is gallantly navigating full steam ahead into the flood of AIDS orphans, giving them protection and care so they can make it through life’s storms.”

NOAH’s Director in Midrand, Tshepho Chuene, describes his Ark that assists Nicholas as “a lifeline to children from poor communities who arrive from a bad environment, demoralized emotionally, physically and spiritually.” 

Each day poses new challenges for Nicholas as he falls behind at school, gets frustrated with teachers and is upset not to have any school friends.  He goes straight to NOAH’s Ark after school every day, from where his sister walks him home. “Home” is a one-room shack of cardboard and iron sheets, where Nicholas lives with his mother and sister.

Thankfully, Nicholas seems to be thriving at NOAH. Under the ever-watchful eye of his sister, he spends hours enjoying basic educational games on the computer, playing football with other children and eating his lunch—that includes vegetables and fruit from “survival” gardens planted and tended at the premises.

NOAH assigned a social worker who visits Nicholas at home and monitors the child’s well-being, identifying where additional assistance is needed for school and his medical conditions. That’s how his beloved sister, Beatrice, started learning care-giving techniques from Noah. His social worker has also registered Nicholas to obtain a birth certificate and relevant grants that will assist him to source further appropriate assistance. 

The challenge posed by a child such as Nicholas is not uncommon, but through the community’s unfailing commitment to this program and through invaluable support from partners such as USAID and PEPFAR, this challenge is surmountable.  Noah strives to ensure that children such as Nicholas will live a long, healthy and happy life.  Noah asserts, “Today they live in our world; tomorrow we will live in theirs.’