Socia-economic Context

Background to Local and National Social and economic conditions

 

South Africa and its neighbouring countries have the highest prevalence of people suffering from HIV/AIDS. South Africa has the biggest and most high-profile HIV epidemic in the world, with an estimated 7.7 million people living with HIV in 2018. The current HIV prevalence rate for all adults aged 15 to 49 in South Africa is 19.0%. Many children are left orphans due to the death of their parents from AIDS and other causes and the number of children infected with and affected by HIV is increasing. Over the past decade, approximately 5.2 million children in the country were orphaned, showing a 30 percent increase in orphans.

 

Throughout the country, there are millions of people living in informal settlements, including our area in the Western Cape. Informal settlements consist mainly of shacks that provide inadequate shelter. As a large percentage of informal settlement residents are unemployed, there is dire poverty in these settlements. South Africa also has the highest recorded incidence of rape in the world, as in 2017 and 2018, police-reported 110 rapes in South Africa every day.

 

Poverty, unwanted pregnancies and cultural taboos against abortion and adoption invariably lead to an inability by mothers to care for children.  Many children are also neglected and according to a study that the Medical Research Council conducted in 2018, approximately 3,500 children survive abandonment each year. The study found that for every abandoned child that was found alive, at least two had died. The government social services do not have the capacity to adequately address these challenges.