CINDI (Children in Distress) PDF Print E-mail

Contact person: Ms Yvonne Spain
Tel: 033 345 7994
Fax: 033 345 7272
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.cindi.org.za
Address: 47 Temple Street, Pietermaritzburg, 3201.

CINDI is a consortium of over 100 NPOs, government departments and individuals working together to help children affected and infected by HIV and AIDS in KwaZulu-Natal. The main capacity-building functions of CINDI are:

  •  To develop, train and mentor its member organisations.
  •  To identify and address the needs of its members through different ‘working groups’.
  •  To provide resources and information to its members and interested parties.
  •  To act as a funding channel. Since the end of 2002 the CINDI Funding Panel has distributed over R5 million to eleven CINDI Members on behalf of international donors.


Working Groups

CINDI brings together working groups in response to members’ requests for action on a particular issue. They disband as soon as they have served their purpose, or they are taken over by other NPOs working in the field. For instance the Home Base Care Consortium working group was disbanded on the production of an isiZulu Home Based Care Training Manual and the training function became the responsibility of the Msunduzi Hospice.

Examples of current working groups

  • The ‘Children Helping Children’ working group encourages primary schools to participate in a wide variety of programmes that raise awareness of HIV and AIDS, eradicate prejudice and provide practical help to children affected by the disease.
  • Umsoco - The Nutrition Training Project. A nutrition-training officer is based at LifeLine and visits NPOs, support groups and home-based care providers to give training in nutrition. The training course is based on the CINDI Nutrition Guidelines, which are available in English and isiZulu.
  • African Roots. This working group aims to co-ordinate the various food gardening initiatives in Durban as well as promote the cultivation and use of edible wild plants. The project has produced posters of healing plants and healthy vegetables that are widely distributed to schools, clinics and libraries.

An excellent 22-page booklet entitled Living and Eating Well has been produced by the CINDI Nutrition Working Group.

Click here to download this booklet