We at Vuleka have become increasingly concerned at the rising number of children who are being orphaned. We have lived with high levels of violence for some years. Added to this now is the increased impact of HIV/AIDS. Death of a young parent is becoming less uncommon.

The Vuleka Council and staff know that death of a parent is one of the most traumatic events for a young child. When the child’s whole world has fallen apart, the school must represent some sort of stability in that child’s life. To close the school doors to a child at this time would both barbaric and unchristian. The Council and staff decided in 2000 that orphaned children must stay at Vuleka and complete the junior primary phase of school and perhaps be supported further. Yet in order to operate, Vuleka needs fee money (and a lot of fundraising on top of this to keep those fees affordable in the first place). It was therefore decided to establish an orphans fund to enable the school to keep these children at school.

At Vuleka in 2011, there are 58 children who have been orphaned and most of those are supported by the Orphans Fund. The Vuleka Orphans Fund also helps several past pupils.  All are on 100% fee support, and schooling (and in some cases transport) for these is R492 000 for the year. This is the minimum target that we must meet this year. It is over and above the R1.2m that is fundraised annually to keep the school fees affordable to our parents. In addition, another 25 orphans at the school come from various children's homes and are paid for by other charities or individual corporate sponsors.  A further three orphans are paid for with money left in trust from their parent's provident fund.

We also have a substantial number of children on fee support in the form of bursaries - 76 in 2010, costing the school R660 000.

While these children are not necessarily themselves HIV positive, others are. In February 2002, we had our first AIDS death when one of our Grade 1’s died, devastating the staff and children at St Mark’s in North Riding. A second child died at Christmas 2003. We have appointed a social worker to the staff to help us and our families cope better with the far-reaching effect of AIDS. At present we have at least ten children who are HIV positive and four with AIDS…as far as we know.

Vuleka holds various fundraising events specifically for the Orphans Fund.