SWAZILAND - SEPTEMBER 2007
Over the past six years, volunteers from the ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) have delivered emergency help to victims of earthquakes, floods, hurricanes and volcanoes in dozens of countries.
But a recent mission to Swaziland has seen the charity tackling a new kind of disaster – a tragedy where children living in one of the world’s poorest countries are the innocent victims.
Swaziland now has the highest rate of AIDS/HIV infection in the world and so many adults have died that huge numbers of children have been left orphaned and struggling to make ends meet in an already poverty-stricken country.
A tragic situation
The Kingdom of Swaziland faces a huge challenge in preventing and controlling an HIV and AIDS epidemic growing at an alarming rate.
The first AIDS case was officially reported in 1986 and the number of cases has since increased every year.
An estimated 40% of the Swaziland population is now infected with AIDS/HIV.
The demand for health services is now surpassing the country’s ability to provide health care and average life expectancy in the South African kingdom has declined from 55 in the 1980s to just 39 today.
With so many adults dying, huge numbers of children have been orphaned.
As of 2004, the number of orphans was estimated at 69,000 children. This number is projected to increase to 120,000 by 2010.
Their situation is worsened by extreme poverty – exacerbated by the loss of a large chunk of the working population.
In response to this crisis, the Kingdom of Swaziland has set up the National Emergency Response Council on HIV/AIDS (NERCHA) to coordinate and facilitate the country’s response.
NERCHA has developed a range of programmes aimed at tackling the crisis and works with a range of partners including UNICEF, the World Health Organisation, USAID, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and AUSAID. For more information see www.nercha.org.sz
Delivering new hope for families in need
Working in partnership with NERCHA and the Rotary Club of Mbabane, a consignment of 140 ShelterBoxes arrived in Swaziland at the end of August 2007.
One member of the ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) delivering the aid was Raul Fernandez, a plumber from Falmouth. He asked NERCHA which areas of Swaziland were worst affected and got a grim answer: “As far as HIV is concerned, it’s anywhere you look. It’s so widespread that everyone has lost a family member: a huge chunk of the population has been wiped out and even if AIDS was eradicated tomorrow, there would still be thousands of orphans in desperate need of help.”
Following advice from the Red Cross, the ShelterBox team concentrated efforts on two areas: around the town of Piggs Peak where a fire had left a number of families homeless and the drought-hit Low Veldt.
Raul said that in many families the only members surviving were young children and ‘grandparents’: “They’re living in old huts that are falling down and they don’t have the strength, skills or materials to repair them. There’s no protection from snakes and there may be 10 people in a shack no bigger than a garden shed.”
Fellow volunteer Larry Agee, a financial planner from Lake Charles in Louisiana, added: “These people are living on the edge of survival - every day. The huts, if you can call them that, are made of sticks and if they’re lucky rocks or mud stuck in the sticks. There’s no electricity or running water and the kitchen is just an open fire outside with a few old cans for pots.”
It is estimated that there are around 15,000 families in Swaziland where children are the head of the family. Raul said: “We went to one hut where both parents had just passed away and it was heartbreaking.”
In other cases, old couples have taken on the role of ‘grandparents’ and may be looking after more than a dozen young children, although the adoptees – who are not always related – come last in terms of getting food and a place to sleep.
Raul said that to get water the children, sometimes as young as five, face a hike of several miles to scoop out water that has seeped into holes dug in a dry riverbed – holes that cows and donkeys also drink out of and defecate by. “Some kids were using donkeys to tow rough sledges with a water container on because they didn’t have the strength to carry the full containers themselves.”
Working with NERCHA and local leaders, the team distributed the aid to homesteads around Piggs Peak and two towns in the Low Veldt. Raul said: “It was non-stop. We unloaded the container into the depot then straight away loaded everything into the trucks then hit the road. Getting it out there was a real buzz.”
He added that the reaction from the people they were helping was wonderful. “The people were just so helpful and gracious, they were so polite. Once we’d handed a box to one family they would then help their neighbours rather than ask for more for themselves.”
As well as 140 boxes containing practical equipment like tents, stoves and water purification tablets, the ShelterBox team also delivered hundreds of packs containing basic school equipment and various toys including footballs. “The footballs were like gold dust!” said Raul.
But he added: “The situation in Swaziland was an eye-opener. It made you realise that just a water container and a few purification tablets might be enough to keep them going – little things are so important when you’re that close to the edge.”
Larry added: “Our boxes were received by the community and homesteads as if they had won the lottery. Many cried the whole time we put up the tents and wood burning stoves, while the cooking pots, blankets and other items were much-needed equipment that will help keep these people alive.”
While he was there, Larry was given the Swazi name ‘Sipho’, which means gift. He said: “Swaziland is a slow moving disaster. It doesn’t make the headlines, but it is killing people daily.”
