OTTAWA, Canada: Back in southern Africa for just about a month, SOS Children's Villages Canada Field Programmes Officer, Emmay Mah, can give personal testament to the fact that local projects and committed individuals can make small but crucial gains in the overwhelming challenges posed by the HIV/AIDS pandemic.
Ms. Mah returned to Southern Africa in October 2004 with a mandate to work with SOS Children's Villages local staff to further develop capacity to deliver innovative and effective programming for children and families affected by HIV/AIDS. In the past decade, SOS Children's Villages has set up various programmes in response to the pandemic devastating the African continent. Most of these are based in the worst-hit sub-Saharan region.
Ms. Mah recently returned from a visit to the SOS Children's Village outside Mbabane, Swaziland, where she had worked as an Intern for the organization just over a year ago. Nestled in the green Sidwashini Valley about 6 km from Mbabane's city centre, SOS Children's Village Mbabane is comprised of 10 family houses, an SOS Kindergarten, youth houses, a primary and secondary school and the SOS Clinic Ms. Mah noted several new developments had taken place since she was last in the area. "The most significant changes I observed were actually in the work that SOS Children's Villages Swaziland has been doing with the local communities around the Village", she commented. "The family strengthening program, which works with vulnerable families in the community, many of whom are affected by HIV/AIDS, had made a lot of progress with its various projects to support these families", she explained.
One of these projects is the community food garden created to help families meet their nutritional needs and generate income from the sale of produce. Another new initiative under the program is a literacy project which will provide local children who don't have the opportunity to attend regular school with basic literary skills. "Many of these children are affected by HIV/AIDS and have parents who are ill, deceased, or simply too impoverished to meet their children's needs", she said.
Education in Swaziland places a huge burden on poor families to come up with the money to cover school fees and uniforms. The SOS program's aim is to eventually integrate these children into regular school where possible, with financial support from SOS Children's Villages. The program, originally based at the SOS Mbabane Village, has now expanded into several new locations within the communities that the program will serve.
"My most memorable moment of the trip was when we visited a literacy class being run by a woman from the community who received no outside help", said Ms. Mah. "Thantazile, saw there was an overwhelming need for such a service and took it upon herself to teach basic literacy skills free-of -charge in her own home, to sixty children. In order to have enough space for the classes, she also had to rent the building next to her home", she explained.
The space where Thantazile had been teaching is very small, with all of the children crammed into dark, dank rooms where they sat on the floor. Swaziland's heavy rains make it impossible to hold classes out-of-doors. Recognizing the importance of Thantazile's work, SOS has now employed her as a Literacy Facilitator at one of the new locations it its literacy program, thereby easing her financial burden and providing a better learning space for the children who attend her classes.
"Seeing the children trying to learn under those conditions, really tugged at my heartstrings", said Ms. Mah. "Thantazile also cares for six orphans who she has taken into her home. It's truly amazing how much these people have to give", she commented.
According to the UNAIDS 2004 Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic, an estimated 25 million people are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa. Prevalence continues to rise in Swaziland where the rate has climbed to more than 35% of its population. In the worst affected countries of eastern and southern Africa, if current infection rates continue with no large-scale treatment programmes, up to 60% of today's 15-year-olds will not reach there 60th birthday. In Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, average life expectancy is predicted to drop below 35.
In 2004, SOS Children's Villages ran HIV/AIDS programmes in fifteen countries in sub-Saharan Africa, giving support to more than 14,000 people in 32 locations. That total will climb to 57 by the end of 2005. Under the programmes, HIV tests are administered while specially trained local staff give pre and post test counselling. Some SOS Social Centres also provide anti-retroviral drugs at little or no cost to affected individuals.
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