Jacquelyn Eisenberg-Nelson

YoungHeroes

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.