Cotlands is a long-serving South African 'non-profit' agency that continues to meet the ever-changing needs of children impacted by HIV/AIDS in our country.

South Africa has been identified as the country with the greatest number of HIV/AIDS-infected people in the world. Recent reports reveal that more than five million South Africans are currently living with the impact of HIV/AIDS, while some of Cotlands’ programme focus areas (e.g. Cotlands' Hlabisa Home Base Care project) have estimated infection rates of more than 40% of the total population.

While this information is not new, the impact of these figures is becoming clearer to our communities, our government and the global community in which we live.

'AIDS orphans' (children orphaned by the HIV/AIDS related death of their parents), 'child-headed households' (homes managed by elder siblings often as young as 11) and similar terms are now commonplace in South Africa, yet support for these individuals is still lagging behind growing awareness of the challenges we face.

With headquarters in Johannesburg, South Africa, our responsibility has changed in response to the needs of our society and has increased in both the quality and quantity of services we provide.

In the early 90's, Cotlands identified the increasing need to care for children directly impacted by HIV/AIDS, including the development of a paediatric AIDS hospice, the first of its kind in South Africa (1996), offering specialised paediatric palliative care 24 hours a day.

At present, Cotlands is servicing five regions (Johannesburg South and Soweto, Hlabisa, East London, Helderberg and Lydenburg) impacting more than 2000 families either directly (home based care) or indirectly (outreach and counselling).

Expanding services include Home Based Care, community development and capacity-building services in the field of HIV/AIDS on a national basis.

In the past few years, Cotlands has been expanding its services to adapt to the ever-changing socio-economic fallout from HIV/AIDS in our country. Our need-driven evolution has included such innovations as:

With a staff complement of 160 full-time employees, including an administrative staff of 24 dedicated professionals, Cotlands is constantly adapting to the growing needs of our communities through the efficient allocation of scarce resources.

At present, Cotlands is seeking assistance with funding for the provision of care, counselling and training within our sphere of influence. We are also currently in the process of meeting the needs of the jobless sector through identifying appropriate poverty-alleviation opportunities for persons with minimal skills.

As the world has come to understand, unemployment and poverty are two of the most significant contributing factors to the rapid expansion of HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. Through the increased participation of donor partners, Cotlands intends to effectively manage and grow our services to meet existing and future challenges.