Zimbabwe: Caring for Vulnerable Children
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Kudakwashe (r) and Brighton (l) Zinyemba are brothers, orphaned by AIDS, who live alone together in rural Zimbabwe. |
In Zimbabwe, a nine-year old boy living
with HIV knew to take his antiretroviral
treatment whenever he heard the country's
national anthem on the radio. The anthem
is played twice per day, at sunrise and
sunset—and this schedule coincided
with when Kudakwashe needed to take his
pills. When the radio had batteries that
worked, this system worked well for Kudakwashe.
When there was no money for batteries,
however, the boy ran the risk of either
taking his pills at the wrong time or
missing the dose entirely—which
was harmful to Kudakwashe's fragile health.
Kudakwashe was orphaned by AIDS and lives
alone with his eleven-year-old brother,
Brighton, in a rural village about 40
kilometers outside Zimbabwe's capital
city. Although their paternal grandmother
is alive, she has turned both boys out
of her home, in a situation that is not
uncommon among children that have been
orphaned by AIDS. Many extended family
members do not have the financial or
emotional resources to care for these
children—and this has caused the
number of child-headed households to
increase dramatically.
Seke Rural Home-Based Care (SRHBC) is
a Zimbabwean NGO supported by World Education's
Children First project. SRHBC has put
in place a program designed to provide
care and assistance to families in communities
hard hit by the AIDS virus. The organization
provides training and resources to village-based
caregivers, who are from the villages
they serve. A grant from Children First
has allowed the local NGO to provide
the boys with a caregiver, give them
school uniforms, and pay their school
fees, all of which allows the boys to
stay in school.
"People want to be looked after by
one of their own," said Veronica
Ngwerume-Kanyongo, Director of SRHBC.
Caregivers play a large and important
role in the villages where they work—they
provide respite for families caring for
a family member living with AIDS, they
remind people living with HIV or AIDS
when to take their medication, and they
provide special services to the orphaned
and/or HIV-positive children in the community.
Caregivers make sure the children take
their medica-tions on time, help ensure
the children's school fees get paid,
make sure children are going to and staying
in school, and link children with extra
services, such as summer camps, provided
by SRHBC.
Kudakwashe's warm relationship with his
SRBHC-trained caregiver is obvious. He
greets her with a smile and allows her
to stand next to him with her arm around
his shoulders. For a boy living with
HIV who has lost both parents to AIDS
and has been abandoned by his grandmother,
this level of trust in an adult is remarkable
and encouraging.
Indeed, with his caregiver's daily support,
Kudakwashe's health has stabilized and
he is able to stay in school. Thankfully,
he also no longer has to rely on a battery-powered
radio to stay healthy.
More about our project in Zimbabwe…
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