The delegation consisted of:

· Minister of State Ministry and for European Affairs of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Mr Willi Staechele

· Minister for Youth, Culture, Education and Sports of Baden-Wuerttemberg, Mr Helmut Rau

They were accompanied by two other delegations members, Mr. Holger Brehm and

Mr. Georg Daiber.

Lynne Brown (MEC Finance), Santos chairman, Goolam Allie, Mrs. Malika Allie, Santos Youth Director, Duncan Crowie and staff attended this big event as well.

The Yabonga people who were there are as follows:

Emily Rudolph and Robyn Cohen

Wynberg head office staff and directors

110 x OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children aged 6 – 15yrs) from their various communities

40 x Youth – aged 16 – 20

16 Youth Councellors

Their Community Mothers

Their Men’s group – Peer Educators

The event took place between 11h00 and 14h00 at the Santos Football Club Academy- 324 Lansdowne Road, Lansdowne.

Here is an outline of the Programme:

11h00 – 12h00: Yabonga youth (aged 15+), from their various support centres participated in a football training workshop and a drumming workshop which were facilitated by their Male Peer Educators

12h00 – 13h00: Distribution of annual school uniforms and stationary packs to 110 of their OVC’s (Orphans and Vulnerable Children), which was facilitated by their Youth Counsellors and Community Mothers

13h00 – 14h00: Lunch was served for all

The Yabonga kids were served with some nice hot chocolate and something sweet, which complemented the unfortunate cold weather very well. They then showed off their wonderful drum and singing skills by singing happy birthday both in English and Xhosa to Santos Chairman, Goolam Allie.

There after the kids awaited the German delegation with anticipation in. Yabonga Director, Ulpha Roberts, addressed the guests and Yabonga staff started distributing school uniforms and stationary packs to the kids, which were filled with so much happiness and appreciation.

Gifts were then given with the compliments of Yabonga to the German delegation and Santos Football Club. Replicas and lapel pins were then given by Duncan Crowie, with the compliments of Mr.Goolam Allie, to the German delegation.

A lovely lunch was then served to all, by Mrs. Van Niekerk of Santos Football Club, which the kids enjoyed so much. To conclude the day, the Yabonga kids sang beautifully, while pictures were taken of them, the Yabonga youth, their Councellors, Community Mothers, the Men’s group – Peer Educators,Mr. Goolam Allie and the German delegation.

Once again, a HUGE thank you to all at Santos who made Saturday possible –please pass on our appreciation and gratitude-Robyn Cohen

Programmes and Development Manager-Yabonga

A huge thank youfrom all at Santos Football Club to all at Yabonga, the German delegation and consulate for their attendance and for making this event a possibility and great success.

“Yabonga supports Santos, and Santos will support Yabonga!!!!”




About Yabonga:

Yabonga – Children, HIV & Aids - is a NPO which supports women, men and children who are infected and living with HIV and Aids, or who are affected by HIV and Aids.

Yabonga runs HIV/Aids support centres where an extensive service is offered around HIV education, support groups, counselling, medication adherence and home based care. The people who work at the support centres are HIV infected women and men. Most were previously unemployed and have received training through Yabonga to become HIV/Aids peer educators in the townships.

Yabonga aims to bring about meaningful change in the lives of HIV positive women and men, their affected families and their communities. Our objective is to promote positive healthy living. This includes improved self-esteem, prospects for work and the provision of food and better health for themselves and their families.

Over the last few years we saw a dramatic increase in numbers of children who were either infected through birth or early sexual activity, or who suffered from the effects of HIV/Aids in their families. Yabonga started offering support groups, school packages, camps and psycho-social support to these impoverished and vulnerable children. The ages of the children range from 5- 20 years and activities are organised according to different age groups.

A group of Yabonga peer educators received special training which qualified them to work as youth counsellors with the children. Our OVC (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) programme's currently supports over 400 school-going children aged between 6 and 20 years.

These children have either lost parents or guardians to AIDS, or are living with parents who are HIV-positive. The children’s nutritional needs are taken care of by Community Mothers and support groups are held in these women’s homes, creating an additional place of safety for them.

Yabonga also supports 4 community crèches where over 500 preschool children are exposed to a quality preschool programme. Yabonga focuses on the educational programmes implemented to ensure that the children enter formal schooling with the necessary skills.

The centres include programmes that offer support to HIV vulnerable children and their families. Yabonga supports a new primary school in the Vrygrond area – Capricorn Primary, which aims to be a national model of educational excellence.

Yabonga is very proud to now have 15 men who have been trained and are working within our support centres and their communities. Our men run support groups for men, are involved with the youth programme and also do community based education in Taverns and Shebeens.

Our men have also been trained as soccer coaches by SantosFC and run sports and enrichment programmes for our youth on an ongoing basis. Our men also tend to our food gardens at our support centres, which add extra nutritional value to the food that we provide everyday.

Our achievements for 2007 included:

· Offering a support programme around HIV/Aids to 15.000 clients weekly at 9 Yabonga support centres

· Training HIV +ve people and employing 100 HIV pos. women as peer educators

· The growth in the orphans and vulnerable children receiving support to over 350

· The success of the ‘men as partners’ programme – training and employment of 15 x men to run this programme

· Winning two categories in the Masibambisane awards and winning a silver award in the Impumelelo awards

· Presenting our project at the World Aids Conference in Canada.

For the coming months we will embark on an ambitious expansion programme reinforcing our objectives of education and skills development in impoverished communities, so that they are empowered to help themselves and play a constructive role in society.

The new projects for 2008 are:

· Further expansion of the orphans and vulnerable children programme to offer support to at least 500 children (we are witnessing exploding numbers of needy children)

· Introduction of the training programme to HIV positive mothers in E Cape and N Cape

· Youth mentorship programme

· Community mothers nutrition project and expansion of “men as partners” programme