In April 2001 Kopanang Community Trust had its beginnings, driven by the need to support women in the area to provide a sustainable way forward through skills training and empowerment.

Sithandi'zingane Care Project for the children took off just over a year later. A plot of land was donated for a token amount by the First National Bank to begin the project. On the premises lay a house stripped bare--windows gone, doors missing, every scrap that could be used for someone else's shanty taken away. In the words of Mama Paulina, one of carers of the children of Sithand-'izingane, "Sister Sheila, we must have faith." In that faith the home was rebuilt and converted into a drop-in center for children under the age of 6 years affected and/or infected by HIV/AIDS, many of whom are orphans.

The garage has been converted into a work area/studio for the 48+ Kopanang women to engage in silk screening, embroidery design, African quilting and beadmaking. Here they also break open their stories of hardship and struggle and support one another in faith and love. The members now provide training to women in other provinces and in neighbouring Uganda. The project lives up to its ethos: when it receives a blessing it finds a way to pass on that blessing to others.

This year the Sithand'zingane new buildings were opened which included a fully-equipped kitchen (after working in terrible conditions in an aluminium hut for years), the orphan wing for the after-school care programme for 55 youngsters, and an administration block.

The feeding scheme now provides nutritious meals daily for 500 orphans at four sites in the two townships. Vegetables are harvested from the organic food-garden training programme being run by women and men from the townships.