AFRICANEWS

Zimbabwe

Hope for AIDS orphans

Children

Children orphaned by AIDS are given �a new lease on life� through an innovative programme that teaches them life skills, employment strategies, and helps them to cope with their loss.

At the tender age of 17, Nokuthula Siziba*, who lives in Mpopoma, one of Bulawayo's oldest high-density suburbs, is already the head of a household.

Nokuthula's parents died in 1998 of AIDS-related illnesses, leaving her to look after her two young brothers. Relatives could not take them in because they had problems of their own.

The young family's neighbours noticed how hard the teenager had to struggle to provide for her brothers. They took her to a church-run institution called Masiye Camp, and from that point, Nokuthula's story became one of hope.

In December of last year, Nokuthula, whose father was a tailor in the informal sector, attended a 10-day Teenage Parenting and Household Management course at Masiye Camp. She then followed up that programme with an intensive dressmaking course at a city college.

"When I returned home after the dressmaking course, I took out my father's old sewing machine and started sewing clothes and school uniforms," she says. "Fortunately, I had not disposed of the sewing machine and the material (cloth) my father had left."

Nokuthula sells the items she makes in the rural areas, which means that she is able to pay school fees for her brothers and provide at least one meal every day for the three of them. With the returns from the sale, she buys Amacimbi (dried Mopane worms), a delicacy in most homes, for resale in the city.

Established in 1998 by the Salvation Army Church, Masiye Camp, situated 60 kilometres south west of the city inside scenic Matopo National Park, offers reprieve and renewed hope to HIV/AIDS orphans such as Nokuthula. Its location offers an ideal environment for one who wants to deal with bereavement in the family.

Masiye Camp (Masiye, Ndebele for �let's go forward�) is funded by UNICEF and a number of non-government organizations based in Germany. It admits about 360 orphans per year (80 children per period, four times a year) on 10-day life skills training camps with particular emphasis on psychological support.

These programmes are provided by psychologists, who offer bereavement support and organise group therapy for the orphans. Apart from seeking to make the orphans self-sufficient through training, the centre also runs an outreach programme that includes home visits, Christian values teaching, counseling, and recreational activities.

Ncazelo Ncube, Masiye Camp's child psychological officer, says children who attend the camps are either brought in by home-based care organisations or neighbours, as was the case with Nokuthula. After the 10-day camps, older children are selected to undergo longer skills training courses in needlework, food processing, and carpentry and welding.

"We deal with three age groups: six to 11-year-olds, 11 to15, and 15 to 20-year-olds who we take for Teenage Parenting and Household Management training," says Ncube, adding that the 15 to 20-year-old age group is mature and is usually entangled with the burden of looking after younger family members after their parents die. "We identify their capabilities through these camps, and interaction with others removes some form of pressure resulting from the loss of parents.�

Special programmes geared to the first two younger age groups discuss death and how the children can cope with the absence of parents. The programme also offers the children recreational activities such as mountain climbing, canoeing, and cycling, says Ncube.

The Teenage Parenting and Household Management course teaches orphans basic skills such as gardening, sewing, home and personal hygiene, and general housekeeping so that they can look after themselves and their families, says Ncube.

"A lot of children lose their parents when they are ill-equipped to deal with day-to-day issues of looking after themselves and others," says Ncube. "What we teach are the kind of responsibilities expected of parents.

"You don't just have to give orphans money and clothes. But, by offering life skills, we have managed to tackle both psychological and financial problems such households may have."

Says Nokuthula, "The sharing with the others through the course has given me a new lease on life. It makes me proud now that I am able to look after my brothers.�

Ncube says that some of the orphans attending the 10-day camps may have been abused by guardians. Masiye Camp places such children in foster homes and monitors their progress. Recently, the institution started training volunteer youth leaders from Bulawayo's schools, tertiary colleges, and the National University of Science and Technology (NUST) to assist in providing psychological help to the orphans.

"These youth leaders meet with AIDS orphans every day in their classes and they should be equipped to offer psychological help,� says Jabulani Siwela, Masiye Camp's field officer. �If we fail to address the orphans' socialisation problems we are bound to have a defunct society."

He adds, "In our outreach programmes we also cover day-to-day issues such as HIV/AIDS, drugs, prostitution, and crime. Ideally, the whole concept is to build relationships and facilitate positive change in their lives at the same time making them self-sufficient."

Eighteen-year-old Mduduzi Sonto* learned to play the guitar at the camp and is hoping to use this trade to resume his schooling. "I want to get myself back to school," he says.

Unlike other orphans, Sipho Ndiweni* has completed secondary school despite having to drop out while doing Form Five. "Masiye is my home away from home. With the skills I have gained I am assured of a way forward while I seek for a better job," he says.

Masiye Camp was started after one small boy visited the Salvation Army Church in Bulawayo city, seeking food and a place for the night. To date, the camp has helped close to 1,200 children through its life skills camps.

"Funds and infrastructure permitting, we would love to increase our camp duration to between 12 to14 days, because 10 days is hardly enough to do all we want to do with the orphans," says Stefan Germann-Ndiweni, Masiye Camp's team leader.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that there are more than 500,000 orphans in Zimbabwe, while life expectancy is expected to drop from the current 44 years to 29 years by 2010 due to the AIDS scourge. The National AIDS Council also says that more than 1.6 million people are estimated to be HIV positive.

*The names have been changed

| CONTENTS | AFRICANEWS HOMEPAGE |

AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 21255, Nairobi, Kenya
tel: +254.2.576175 (voice) Fax:- +254.2.577892 (fax-modem)
AFRICANEWS on line is by Koinonia Media Centre