Support Children Orphaned by Aids in South Africa

“One of the biggest challenges facing child caregivers in the Bushbuckridge region is obtaining valid identity documents for them.  It sounds like a minor issue, but it’s not.  Very often, the absence of an ID can mean that a child ends up in poverty, having to be cared for by a charity.”

Pontso Natoi is the project leader of Saw Vana, a charity based in the area and supported by the Starfish Foundation.  She and her team care for about five hundred children.  She explains the problem, “To access the government’s childcare grant of R350 per month, a child needs to have a valid ID, but there are strict rules about this.  We need the mother’s identity document and often this is not available.”

A case in point is Elvira, who came to South Africa as a refugee from Mozambique many years ago.  Swa Vana’s in-house social worker, Mary-Jane Sibuyi, explains.  “This is a very sad case.  Elvira fled Mozambique and arrived here destitute from Mozambique with her mother.  Since then she has had three children whose father has disappeared.  The eldest son is nineteen but intellectually disabled.  He goes to a special school.  The other two children, aged twelve and nine, are at a regular school.  Because Elvira is not a South African citizen, her children are unable to get ID’s, even though they were born here.  We even have clinic cards to prove their birthplace.  There is no income in the family and they rely totally on Swa Vana.  We pay for the oldest boy’s special needs education and provide the other children with school uniforms, a daily post-school meal and assistance with homework.  Swa Vana is effectively the family’s lifeline.”

We go to the family home in the remote region of Bushbuckridge, close to the Paul Kruger Gate of the Kruger National Park.  The road is wide and dusty and the simple dwelling sits on a large patch of sand behind a basic fence made out of branches and wire.  There is an outside toilet protected by a few sheets of corrugated iron.  There is no running water and residents have to walk a long way with buckets to a communal tap.  Occasionally a water tanker arrives, courtesy of the local council.

The children are at school, but Elvira and Maria are at home.  The women stand outside and speak for a while.  Their faces tell the story of a continual struggle to survive, to feed the family, to cope with the son’s disability.  There is no quality of life here, no light in their eyes.  No real hope.

Mary-Jane talks about the future.  “We won’t give up.  Swa Vana has excellent links with the Department of Social Development and we expect to eventually get the identity documents for the children and after that the child and disability grants.  That will put them onto their feet financially.  We will never stop supporting the children, but we will then be able to spend money on another needy family.”

It is a cycle that the Swa Vana women have been through many times.  “Without us, these people would be suffering even more and without Starfish, we would not be able to help them,” says Pontso.

We say goodbye to Elvira and Maria.  Their gratefulness is obvious.  It’s that gratefulness that keeps the Swa Vana people going.  That and the smiles on the faces of the dozens of children getting their daily meal back in Swa Vana’s Huntington centre.