Young Heroes

Über uns

Young Heroes is non-profit organization founded in 2006 and based in Mbabane, the capital city of Swaziland. It has the mission to financially support HIV orphans and their families through electronic donations and other fund raising initiatives. Online donations are made once sponsors have chosen children or families they would like to donate to. The donors and the recipient are kept in contact and updates on the child’s progress are sent to the sponsors.

Swaziland has the highest HIV infection rate in the world with nearly 125 000 HIV/AIDs orphans and almost 15 000 child-headed households. The organization is an initiative of the Swaziland National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDs. Having lost at least one parent to the epidemic, Swazi children are expected to pick up the slack and raise themselves and their siblings hopefully with the help of their extended relatives but this is sadly rarely the case. More commonly an elderly Grandmother will be the only “grown-up” actively involved in the children’s upbringing. According to UNICEF over 60 000 children have lost both their parents to HIV/AIDS, with 120 000 having lost at least one.
Young Heroes has grown as an organization since its inception due to a multitude of factors, one of which being the increase in trust of electronic fund transfers. Thus Young Heroes links sponsors and orphans, relaying monthly stipend directly to specific families of orphans for food, clothing and other necessities.

In addition to online donations the organization takes several other initiatives to raise funds for their cause. These events usually occur in Swaziland and have successfully raised large amounts of money. In the past the “Swazi Challenge” which is a cycling challenge from Swaziland’s opposing borders was a great success. Moreover, the annual Bushfire festival is a cultural music festival held in the Kingdom every May and has become more and more popular attracting international audiences. Young Heroes has always been in collaboration with the organizers of Bushfire who take a humanitarian outlook on their organization of the festival, with all the proceeds of the festival tickets being donated to Young Heroes.
Moreover, Young Heroes goes further in attempting to relieve suffering caused by the HIV epidemic in Swaziland. The organization runs an HIV testing and care program for children affected directly or indirectly by the disease. Young Heroes has formed a partnership with Baylor College of Medicine’s Center of Excellence and Population Services International (PSI) to offer an initiative which focuses on HIV/AIDs education, testing of Children, on-going monthly medical care and support groups for HIV positive children. In order to run support group camps for HIV positive children twice a year Young Heroes has also formed a partnership with Newmans’s Own Foundation’s Hole in the Wall Camps.

Finally, education in Swaziland is relatively expensive in relation to the average income of a family. Thus Young Heroes have formed a scholarship program which is said to have helped at least 60 orphans with their secondary school fees in 2011 alone.