About Topsy

About Topsy

The fact that there are so many orphaned children in South Africa is largely due to HIV and AIDS. A great many more children are vulnerable to the risk of losing their parents, and to all the difficulties that face people affected by HIV and AIDS. These children often suffer from extreme poverty, malnourishment and lack of education. They may be shunned by their families and communities as a whole, and many have HIV and AIDS themselves. 

The crisis of HIV and AIDS represents both an emergency requiring immediate remedial action, and a long-term development issue for the world – not least for South Africa where it reflects deep-rooted problems of poverty, underdevelopment, and the low status of women. In South Africa, over 18 percent of people between the ages of 15 and 49 are estimated to be living with HIV or AIDS. Women – especially younger women – are disproportionately affected, while children are a particularly vulnerable group, with high rates of mother-to-child transmission. 

The Topsy Foundation was founded in 2000 in South Africa. It is a highly successful and effective non-profit-making organisation (NPO) and registered charity, that has been recognised by leading authorities and endorsed by UNICEF. It operates in a desperately poor rural area encompassing five rural communities in an area southeast of the city of Johannesburg, where the provinces of Mpumalanga, Free State and Gauteng come together. Topsy’s central project site, called the Topsy Sanctuary, is at Grootvlei, in Mpumalanga. The other communities in which Topsy operates are Siyathemba, Nthoroane, Qalabotjha and Cornelia.

Topsy provides much needed relief services to individuals and families affected by HIV, AIDS and extreme poverty in these communities, through medical and social welfare programmes, with a focus on attending to the basic needs of children and the families that care for them.  Topsy’s primary objectives are

• to offer relief, care and medical and support services to people living with HIV and AIDS, and to families affected by HIV and AIDS, in rural communities;
• to provide for the needs and personal development of orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV and AIDS; and
• to alleviate poverty and empower rural women through skills training and job creation

Topsy Foundation UK was founded in 2006 with the purpose of developing support in the UK for the charity’s work in South Africa. It is entirely dependent on the charitable donations from trusts and foundations, corporate sponsorship and other funding and gifts in kind provided by its individual supporters.

Every donation made to Topsy, whether, large or small, is put to good use. 

• £5 can pay for one monthly visit by our trained fieldworker to offer seeds, tools and training to one household (four people) to help them develop their own vegetable garden. 
• £50 will cover the cost of our trained fieldworker services to two children on our Orphaned & Vulnerable Children project. 
• £500 will provide anti-retroviral Treatment to one HIV+ patient for a year.
• £5,000 will support the salaries of two fieldworkers, delivering our home-based care, for a year.

Topsy is accredited by the United Kingdom Fundraising Standards Board, and each year publishes an Annual report, including audited accounts for the year, which show how Topsy has used the money it receives.

While even a small one-off donation can truly help meet the basic needs of a child in terrible circumstances, what Topsy needs above all, to help maintain its work in a planned way, is regular, generous financial support. To find out more about the many ways supporters can help, as well as about the tax relief that is available on UK private donations, see How you can help Topsy.