To mark World Volunteer Day, The Northern Echo’s Jim Entwistle travels to South Africa to meet a woman working at the heart of a community beset by disease and poverty.

THE civilisation of the city gradually loosens its grip as you travel into the hills surrounding Pietermaritzburg.

As the suburbs slip into shanties, the mist thickens to the point where it is difficult to see what lies on either side of the road. Every now and then bare-footed figures appear out of the gloom, trudging along the pot-holed carriageway. Just visible are the tin roofs of thousands of ramshackle homes, makeshift bus shelters with people huddled inside, and brightly-coloured funeral marquees.

Working at the front line of this community, one blighted by poverty, HIV and Aids, Faniswa Maduna has a job which brings her little to no financial reward. “Life is tough,” she says. “But when you hear other people’s problems you learn they are suffering too and they need help.”

Her home is a beacon of hope for the people of the Snathing Tafuleni settlement. The gates bear the sign of the Thandanani Foundation, which supports orphans scattered across the district using a network of 140 volunteers. The volunteers are embedded in the most needy areas to identify where and what support is needed, whether it’s help with school fees, access to grants or food coupons. The success of the scheme has led to Christian Aid pledging £27,500 a year to support it.

Like those in her care, Faniswa was born into hardship. Her parents both died when she was in her teens and she became pregnant at 17.

But she managed to finish her education and then moved straight into volunteering.

“As long as I get time and people are coming to me I won’t stop helping,” she says. “Helping families never ends as I am always in contact with them. They become my friends as well.”

Faniswa is a vital part of her community. But as a consequence, she can’t just walk away from the job at the end of the day; she has 13 households to look after. People regularly turnup on her doorstep. She takes desperate calls and letters pleading for help. “One time there was a young girl who wrote me a letter saying ‘I wish you could be my real angel’,” she says.

“She needed money for a school trip, but I had nothing to give her.” Shuffling uncomfortably in her seat, she adds: “In the end I managed to find the money to pay for the trip.”

Faniswa also has a teaching job at the local school. It gives her the opportunity to identify children in need of support. Her dedication to her role is contagious, even her 13-year-old son has brought cases to attention from his school.

Faniswa takes us to meet Ntombifuthi and Phumzile, orphaned sisters whom she has been working with for four years. She leads us down well-trodden pathways between the breezeblock homes that are scattered randomly on this desolate hillside. Everywhere is thick, red mud.

Ntombifuthi greets us in the doorway of her home. Inside there is a bed, a table, chairs and a portable cooking stove. The 18-year-old perches on the bed. “Most of my friends live with their parents or guardians,” she says.

“They feel sorry for me as I don’t have any adults around and they think I am a loose child.”

When their parents died 12 years ago, the girls were looked after by their grandmother.

But when she, too, died in 2003, they were left completely alone. They now live in neighbouring houses vacated by deceased relatives.

Faniswa has helped the girls get grants and life-skills training.

They can also rely on the support of 77-yearold Gogo, which means grandmother in Zulu, who lives in the neighbourhood. When they were growing up Gogo shared her £46 a month pension with them.

Not everyone is as supportive. Thandanani discovered that an aunt was claiming the sisters’ grants and keeping the money for herself.

She took them to court and made them lie to the judge so she would continue getting the monthly payments.

Thandanani was successful in winning the grant back, and the girls now receive payments of about £45 a month each.

Later, Faniswa says the death of the girls’ parents is not something that is talked about.

She doesn’t need to know. “The families I work with don’t tell me if their parents died of HIV, they don’t tell anyone because of the stigma.”

Without Faniswa, the fragile fabric of her community would crumble. Orphans would be left to fend for themselves. HIV would go unchecked. Vulnerable people would disappear from the radar of the aid agencies.

“That’s why I volunteer,” Faniswa says. “Not because of money, but because of love.”

■ By making a donation to Christian Aid this Christmas you could help HIV orphans in South Africa. £20 buys a food parcel that feeds four children for a month. To make a donation visit christianaid.org.uk/christmas or call 0808-000-6006 or send a donation to Christian Aid, Freepost, London SE1 7YY.