Southern Africa faces an increasing orphan crisis due to the HIV and AIDS pandemic. Literally thousands of children become parentless every day, some facing desperate life situations.

Jewels of Hope originated in 2004 as a single support group to 11 children from child-headed households that made jewellery to support themselves. Ideas and systems developed within this group became a model which has been extended, through partnerships, to other locations in Southern Africa. Currently Jewels of Hope ministers to orphans and vulnerable children in KwaZulu-Natal and Free State provinces, South Africa.

Jewels of Hope aims to mobilise and equip local people to care for and disciple orphans in their community. We seek to be part of the solution by becoming a voice for the voiceless, meeting them at their point of need and bringing them hope for the future.

Jewels of Hope provides tools to families, churches and organisations (our partners) to provide a means for personal growth and income generation for child-headed households and vulnerable children. These tools are accessible by the children without them missing school.

The care and development of the children remains with our partners, and Jewels of Hope serves by:
• Designing marketable jewellery
• Finding and buying raw materials and preparing bead kits
• Managing skills for the production process
• Opening access to markets
• Facilitating training of adult leaders in our partner organisations
• Providing discipleship materials

Jewels of Hope implements its vision through Connect Groups, which consist of five children, between the ages of 11 and 19 years, assisted by an adult who not only acts as a jewellery trainer but also as a mentor and support for the life situations and hardships that the children may face.

The Connect Group meets once a week with their trainer, around a table, where they enjoy a nutritious
meal together and experience a family environment.
Weekly, in their Connect Groups, children are taught the art and skill of jewellery-making to:
• access care, discipleship and personal development, which nurtures a sense of belonging and develops their self-esteem
• learn business and life skills while making a total of 5 jewellery items per week in their spare time
• generate a monthly income to purchase food for their table, school supplies and basic essentials

The children’s jewellery is sold all over the world by individual marketers selling jewellery at schools, churches, places of work and amongst friends and family.

Problem

We believe that our model is sustainable, in that an initial investment of ZAR14,180 will get one group of 5 children (from 11 – 16 years of age) and 1 adult trainer going in the jewellery-making and discipleship programme. Apart from the additional costs of attending 3 training events per year, this amount will ensure that the group becomes sustainable within the first 8 months, assuming they have an active marketing strategy.