Founded in 1989, Thandanani Children's Foundation is a registered non-profit organisation that facilitates community based care and support for orphans and other vulnerable children in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands (South Africa).

Thandanani's vision is, that communities provide safe and nurturing environments for orphans and other vulnerable children (particularly those affected and infected by HIV/Aids) within their communities of origin.

Our mission is to build the capacity of the Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg) and Richmond communities in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa to respond to the basic material, physical, cognitive and emotional needs of their orphans and vulnerable children (OVC).

We do this by:

• Training volunteers on various issues related to the provision of home based care and support to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC's)
• Allocating a community volunteer to care for and support each household
• Monitoring and supporting our volunteer teams as they provide care and support to each household
• Providing support for those households identified as being in dire need of emergency assistance
• Providing access to professional welfare services and counselling
• Facilitating access to fee remissions, social grants and other forms of government support
• Providing access to therapeutic programs and groups
• Supporting and developing community based Early Learning Centre's
• Facilitating the establishment of community based food gardens/kitchens
• Facilitating the establishment of volunteer driven income-generating projects
• Facilitating the establishment of savings groups

With a staff of 20 and a team of 122 volunteers, Thandanani currently supports over 1934 children in 684 households across 16 historically disadvantaged communities.

We also support 8 Early Learning Centre's within these communities and are currently facilitating the establishment of community based food gardens, food kitchens and income generating projects.