About 200 destitute HIV positive mothers and 383 children in Gauteng will soon have a place to stay, thanks to the efforts of AIDS activist Gail Johnson.

Since her adopted son Nkosi died of AIDS last year, Johnson has been working flat-out to raise money to buy two properties to accommodate HIV positive women, their children and AIDS orphans.

Her efforts have paid off. The first property is a farm between Sebokeng and Orange Farm, which has already been bought with money from the US-based 4 Life organisation. The farm will accommodate 100 women and 200 children.

“The land is very fertile, and we will be growing vegetables in tunnels,” says Johnson.

The tunnels will provide food for those on the farm, as well as produce for sale. Empowerment training will also be offerred to teach the women and older children, including orphans who may not live on the farm. a range of skills including building, candle-making, quilting and pottery.

“We have already introduced the idea of the farm to the health clinics in the area. People are very, very excited and they say we will fill all the places the day we open, such is the demand,” says Johnson.

The second property, at Alan Manor near Soweto, is to be known as Nkosi’s Haven Village. This will provide a home for about 100 women and 183 children, with help from the Gauteng Department of Housing, which is to subsidise the building of cottages for the women and children as a pilot project.

“We take occupation of the Alan Manor property on 1 June, and it will take about 12 weeks to get the existing buildings renovated so people can start to move it,” says Johnson.

As at the 4 Life farm, empowerment training will also be run at the village.  

Meanwhile, donors have also funded the purchase of the house next door to Nkosi’s Haven in Johanneburg, which will be ready for occupation on 3 May. Twelve women and 26 children are living in Nkosi’s Haven at present.  

“We have recently started dance and art therapy for the children, because we find many of them are emotionally numb, especially the orphans,” says Johnson. “This is something I want to have at the farms too because nothing is being done to nurture their empty little souls.”

Failure is not something the energetic Johnson even contemplates as she acknowledges she needs to raise R9-million by the end of the year for the operating costs of both farms.

“We have to make it,” says Johnson, “so we can go to the next step, and take the idea to other parts of the country – especially the rural countryside.”