Welfare system crumbling under AIDS orphan weight

The estimated 18 percent of South African children who are AIDS orphans are placing enormous pressure on the child welfare system. Sioux Hedden, a project manager with Woza Moya, an AIDS orphan NGO in KwaZulu-Natal province, said her organisation was feeling the effects of the "completely overloaded" system. Some social workers were dealing with caseloads of around 400 foster children when they should be handling a maximum of 50 cases, and grant applications could take as long as two years to be processed before caregivers could receive any money. Hedden told the UN news service PlusNews: "We have a list of a minimum of a hundred kids waiting for their applications to be processed. In addition to the fact that people have to stand in queues for hours and days, they are not treated well, don't get procedures explained properly and are dismissed."