Beautiful Gate

In South Africa, the Lower Crossroads care centre is a Beautiful Gate community-based centre for children infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS. It offers residential and crisis care, medical and community care, church and community involvement, family reunification facilitation, and training. It serves 42 children (residential) and more than 250 children through the medium of after-school programmes. Children who are in need of medical care and a place of safety receive residential care; a nursery school programme aims to ensure that the children are being motivated and stimulated holistically. The children are prepared for foster care placements or family reunification, where possible. The community care component of Lower Crossroads provides medical help, HIV/AIDS education, spiritual care, food, and psychosocial support through after-school care programmes and a sports programme. Training is provided at the care centre in the form of an annual 3-month-long HIV/AIDS school, as well as a 6-month-long Discipleship Training School.

In Zambia, the primary objective of Beautiful Gate is to provide care and support to children in need and to their families through 4 main programmes: (1) community school; (2) street outreach; (3) community outreach; and (4) a youth recreation/development centre. The organisation has established a community school for 280 orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), 6-12 years-of-age. It also works to match families with grants to start small businesses so that they can be self-sustaining. Beautiful Gate Zambia aims to help address juvenile delinquency in the community by encouraging young people to adopt a "worthy" lifestyle through motivational talks and annual camp meetings where they are able to exchange views with their peers on HIV/AIDS, alcohol/drug abuse, and career choices, and through a resource centre where young people can come to play games and access the library and internet. The street outreach programme gathers about 65 young people at a sports arena in the inner city of Kitwe twice a week for a time of prayer, sports, and games aiming to build relationships among street children so as to create mutual trust and confidence.

Beautiful Gate Lesotho provides residential and medical care to abandoned, HIV/AIDS affected OVC aged 0 – 5 years. It endeavours to see children in its care repatriated with family or adopted. It participates in networking with the government and other organisations to advocate for the rights of children and for the establishment of an effective adoption/foster care programme in Lesotho. The organisation has completed a building to increase to 60 the number of infants and children in their care. They have opened a pre-school and established a clinic to care for children on site and to serve children in the area. Beautiful Gate hosts a volunteer and staff training programme in early childhood development, which has included training in stimulation for 1-3 year-olds, infant massage therapy, and a play therapy programme.

Children, HIV/AIDS, Education.

Beautiful Gate's goal is to establish and support care centres for children in need through fund-raising, public relations, training, and staff development.

Situated between the larger townships of Gugulethu and Khayelitsha, South Africa, the communities of Crossroads and Philippi have grown out of an increasing influx of people seeking work in the Cape Town metropolis since the late 1970s. Unable to afford formal housing, the township was originally entirely informal (squatter shacks). However, formal houses are being built, as is the community infrastructure. In townships like Philippi, the people often open their own small businesses to overcome unemployment and poverty. However, many residents suffer from high unemployment, low income levels, and poor access to health care and educational opportunities.

In Zambia, the lack of education amongst OVC was seen as one of the urgent needs that Beautiful Gate Zambia identified in 2003. Instead of attending school, some children sifted through debris at rubbish dumps for food or toys. Beautiful Gate addresses this problem in the community by providing education to OVC, as well as empowering their families with knowledge and life skills. Social amenities or recreation facilities do not exist in most communities. Beautiful Gate addresses these needs of young people through its Resource Center, camp meetings, and street outreach programme.

In Lesotho in 2001, Beautiful opened its doors to 7 babies, providing safety and care for abandoned and HIV/AIDS-affected babies. In January 2008, the Lesotho-based board formed a separate organisation associated with Beautiful Gate International, its sponsor. Lesotho, according to the Beautiful Gate website, has a population of only 1.8 million people, a 30% rate of HIV/AIDS, and a population of whom 56% live on under US$2 a day. The epidemic proportions of poverty and HIV and AIDS, as stated here, has led to the abandonment of infants cared for at the Beautiful Gate Lesotho facility.