Social workers in short supply in South Africa
At the Roodepoort Child Welfare Society, their caseload has risen from between 60 and 80 a year to well over 1,000.
Monitor writer Scott Baldauf and photographer Melanie Stetson Freeman explain why they decided to profile these two families who have taken in AIDS orphans.
How can we help African children orphaned by AIDS?
The Monitor continues an occasional series profiling two South African couples who opened their hearts and stretched their resources to give AIDS orphans a family. The Monamodis, who had two children already, found space in their four-room home for six cousins who lost their mothers to AIDS. The Selomas, an older couple whose only son was killed several years ago, took an almost unheard-of step in South Africa and volunteered to be foster parents to an orphaned boy. Now, they hope his sister will eventually be allowed to join him.
Gift started kindergarten this year, but misses his sister who was taken away in a custody dispute.
Thabang Thimbela's foster parents struggle to guide him and his foster sister Bulelwa through the temptations of adolescence.
Ever since their 21-year-old son was killed six years ago, Celina Seloma told her husband, Pule, that she wanted a child in their lives.
Olga and Pontsho Monamodi added six children to their family after Olga's sister and aunt both died.
At the Roodepoort Child Welfare Society, their caseload has risen from between 60 and 80 a year to well over 1,000.
The popular unrest of the last two years has left the Middle East volatile as 2013 kicks off.
Doing Good
What happens when ordinary people decide to pay it forward? Extraordinary change...
Estela de Carlotto hunts for Argentina's grandchildren 'stolen' decades ago
Estela de Carlotto heads the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, who seek to reunite children taken from their mothers during Argentina's military dictatorship with their real families.
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