Neighbours pool resources for OVC

Swazi community members and organisations are combining resources to set up a growing network of care centres for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). The centres, called Neighbourhood Care Points (NCPs), cater to the nutritional, educational and emotional needs of the country's growing OVC population at 320 NCPs scattered throughout its four regions. "When we told them [the OVC] that we were volunteers and we might have to leave and close the centre, the children began to weep and they told us they would have no place else to go," said Phepsile Dlamini, a teacher at the Malkerns care point, 35 km southeast of the capital, Mbabane. NCPs have sprung up spontaneously in church halls and private residences, attracting the attention of the Deputy Prime Minister's office and international bodies, such as the World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Children's Fund, UNICEF, which provide support. "These are places in a community where neighbours come together to make a place where orphans and vulnerable children can learn, socialise, be fed and feel safe," said Pelucy Ntambirweki, UNICEF's project officer for NCP development. With funding from the European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO), the government hopes to double the number of NCPs by the end of next year to 750, serving 20,000 needy children, each within walking distance of their attendees' homes. The Malkerns centre's 65 students are aged from 5 to 14 and include orphans, school dropouts, children considered vulnerable to hunger, emotional neglect or at risk of abuse, and children living in households headed by grandmothers. The children arrive at eight in the morning and are divided into two groups according to age. After a short prayer service in the small Anglican Church Hall made available for their use, one group studies with two volunteer teachers, while the other plays in a dirt alley between mud and stick residences. The dirt floor of the church hall is covered with straw and smells like a barn. Chickens fly through the wooden slats of the glassless windows and are tossed out by the teachers. "When they are at home and see the other children going to school, they feel left out and lonely. The care points let them play together, and at least they learn to write their names," Dlamini told IRIN. At eleven in the morning, Gladys Ginindza, the cook who substitutes as a teacher when one of them is absent, ladles corn-soya blend provided by the WFP out of a large three-legged pot simmering over an open fire. The hungry children line up with the plastic dishes they bring along with them. "This may be the only meal some of these children receive today. During school breaks we ask them to come here as usual, to make sure everyone is fed at least once a day," Ginindza said. "Our goal is a vegetable garden for every NCP. Caregivers are encouraged to replicate the gardens at their own homes. The children get food, and tending the gardens teaches agricultural skills to the students," said UNICEF's Ntambirweki. "There is a marked difference between the rural and urban centers," commented Bahle Xaba, the government's care point programme consultant. "The children at the rural centers are better off." Although the Malkerns centre is located in the pineapple-growing district, the area's rural appearance is deceiving. The nearby canning plant, one of Swaziland's largest factories, and the rest of the land is owned by commercial farmers. Few Swazis have permanent homesteads there as most of them are migrant labourers and at risk of contracting HIV - many children at the Malkerns NCP have lost their parents to AIDS. "The community people contribute nothing. The centre is kept going by civic-minded groups like the Rotary Club and the Moya Centre," said Xaba. "One of our problems we face is a lack of consistency in attendance. If a child does not come, we have to seek that child out to see if there is an emergency where they stay. Some children have only one set of clothes - if it is wash day, they can't come to school naked, so they stay home," Dlamini said. Residents on communal Swazi National Land have a stronger sense of ownership towards their rural NCPs than the migrant workers whose children attend the Malkerns centre, said Xaba. "In rural areas the people contribute everything: the chief provides the land for the volunteers to grow crops for the children; people contribute milk, eggs, fruits and vegetables, and even clothing," she said. "Children who have lost their parents and drop out of school come to the care points and they realise they are not alone; they see other children like them. It is the first awakening that cuts into the shyness and leads to normal social intercourse," said Amanda Nxumalo, a care point volunteer in Mliba village in central Swaziland. Talking to the children, a visitor is struck by the theme that preoccupies all their thoughts: food. When asked what her favourite animal is, Sipiwe, a brightly smiling child who lost both parents to AIDS and now lives with her grandmother, replied, "I like chickens. I can keep a chicken, and I can eat it." Sihle is a 13-year-old boy who heads a household comprising his orphaned brothers and sisters. He has never been to school, but after attending the NCP he could say, "I can write my name." When asked, he pondered what he would do if he suddenly had a million dollars. "I would buy food," he said seriously. "I would save the money, so when I ran out of food I could buy more food."