UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS

August 1, 2007

Ngozi Neighborhood Care Point

Today I visited the Ngozi Neighborhood Care Point located in Hosea Inkhundla in southern Swaziland's Shiselweni region. The Ngozi Neighborhood Care Point is a place in the community where orphans and vulnerable children converge daily for a hot meal, basic care and psychological support. It has 56 children on its roll, most of whom have lost either one or both parents. Some of the children here go to school, thanks to the government's Education Grant for orphans and vulnerable children. These children however return daily to the care point for their meals and to play with their peers. Without parents and family members to cater for them, Ngozi's Neighborhood Care Point continues to be their home away from home.

Siphesihle Maziya is a grade one pupil of Ngozi Primary School. She is one of the lucky few who have transited through the Ngozi care point to a formal school. But Siphesihle does not feel that lucky.  At the tender age of seven her emaciated body, which bears the telling scars of disease and deprivation, has already known pain, hunger and sorrow. Siphesihle is HIV positive and a double orphan. When her parents died - one after the other - the grandmother took her and a younger sister, who is HIV negative, under her wing. But as fate would have it, the grandmother also died, leaving the children with an unemployed uncle, who until her demise, also depended on the mother for his daily bread.

Siphesihle was diagnosed HIV positive in late 2006 and has since been on ARV treatment. As the only clinic in her community does not provide ARV services, she collects her medication from Hlathikulu hospital, which is about a 100 km away from home. According to the Uncle, since the grandmother passed on, the monthly trek to Hlathikulu for medication and treatment has become few and far between because he does not have the wherewithal to cater for transportation and treatment cost.

Siphesihle's predicament, as with many children in Swaziland, is further compounded by the prevailing drought. Even when she has the medication, the treatment is compromised because the balanced diet required to enable the medicines to work efficiently is no longer assured. Ngozi Neighborhood Care Point is no longer able to provide two meals a day as it did previously, due to the growing number of people who have joined the ranks of the poor and needy as a result of the persistent drought.

The Siphesihles of Swaziland need help. While we strive to take care of our own, we really need all the help we can get.