Swaziland
Swaziland, a tiny country of just over 1 million people completely surrounded by South Africa and the world’s last remaining absolute monarchy, is a largely rural, underdeveloped region. Government control is strong in most areas of society. Poverty is severe, and food shortages are widespread. HIV-prevalance and life-expectancy in Swaziland are among the world’s worst.
In 2004 Hands at Work in Africa moved into the Kaphunga area, located in the heavily mountainous region in the center of the country near Manzini. Work began small but grew over the hills and into the valleys to impact hundreds of patients and children clustered in extremely isolated locations. Current expansion targets are the neglected communities in the northern region of Hhohho as well as the western region bordering South Africa.
She brings Love
“One day in November 2009, five brothers and sisters under the age of 12 huddled themselves in their stick and mud hut on a deserted hillside in rural Swaziland and watched their sick mother die. Their father had died in the same hut a year earlier, leaving the children to look after their sick mother for months before she passed away. They had not been attending school, had no school uniforms or books, and now they were alone without even a single day’s food.
After two weeks fending for their lives, the children were found by a neighbor eating mud on the bank of a river to keep their stomachs full. This man, named Khosi, was already caring for 8 people in his home on only his temporary income, yet, seeing how terrible the children’s state was, he says he knew he had to take the children in. “No one should live like animals,” he said. But he didn’t know how his family could provide the care and resources needed by such traumatised children.
Thankfully, a local group of Christian volunteers called Asondle Sive Bomake were working in the hills near Khosi’s home, caring for other children in similar situations. Khosi spoke with ASB. They assigned one care worker, Thulile, who lived nearby, to support the family. Relatives of the children living in another village were willing to care for the two youngest children.
Today Thulile is part of this oversized family. Through her, ASB provides them soap, blankets, books, and food. To Sandile (12), Mxolisi (10), and Lindelwa (8), she is like a mother. They say that when she visits, which is almost every day, she brings love.