|
Regina Mokgokong – Director of Tateni
Written by Joanna Henry, Stephen Lewis Foundation I have never met a woman with a greater gift for tackling the enormity of situation by paying attention to the smallest details. Nowhere is this more evident than her work with children and teens orphaned by HIV and AIDS. Most of these children come under the care of Tateni when their ill parents start receiving home-based nursing care. According to Regina, “Tateni always treats the whole family, not just the one person who is sick.” Tateni currently cares for over 300 children and teens orphaned by HIV and AIDS and their programs provide for both the practical as well as psycho-social needs of vulnerable children including taking photographs of the children and making albums – so they have a record of their childhood. Regina tracks down photos of the children’s parent if any exist, mainly finding them through salvaging old ID cards. As she explains “Many children lose their parents when they are so young and will grow without remembering the face of their mother – just imagine it.” Birthday parties are thrown for orphaned children, complete with cake, birthday cards and photos “so these children can feel just like normal children with parents who love them.” Regina gets old mirrors donated to Tateni and distributes them to home with orphaned children and teens “so they can see themselves for the first time, they can know ‘oh, this is what I look like, aren’t I smart?’ or ‘I have big ears’ or ‘look at that nose’ and they can know who they are.” All of these activities operate from the same principal – that a sense of self and identity is one of the greatest assets a child and young adult can have when negotiating their way through life, and is the very thing least likely to develop in a child with no parents. Add to this the increased financial insecurity inherited by most orphaned children and you have a potent recipe for extreme vulnerability. To borrow an explanation from Nkulie, a teen-ager at Tateni: “Young boys often end up in gangs because they are trying to make money to feed toddlers at home. Young girls have to get a ‘sugar daddy’ so they can eat – how can you go to school with an empty stomach?” (Nkulie gets a hot meal from Tateni’s drop-in centre for teens – sometimes her only meal of the day and she credits this resource for keeping her from “having to get a boyfriend”). This is why Tateni’s programs are such a brilliant combination of meeting practical needs like food as well as tables and lights where children can do homework at the centre (since most homes are not equipped with either) along with the less obvious needs of motherless child. Regina operates from a simple philosophy that every child has a dream and if they can see a way forward to achieving that dream “they will be wearing blinders to all these distractions, pressures and troubles, because they will be looking ahead into their future.” She tells the story of Julian – a boy that arrived at Tateni suddenly one day looking the “worse for wear”. When she asked him about his father he answered in an offhanded way “dead.” When asked about his mother – “dead”. According to Regina “we knew we had to help that boy so we started asking him about his goals, what did he want? He answered ‘to be a swimmer in Germany.’ We didn’t understand why, but that was what was in his heart and in his head and we knew we would do everything to make this happen. ”Currently Julian is under the care of Tateni and is getting swimming lessons. According to Regina “We don’t have to understand, but somehow, some way, that boy will swim in Germany one day. That’s what focuses him. That’s what keeps him alive.” Regina doesn’t get bogged down in the enormity of the task at hand and I am pretty sure she is not overly occupied with the tally of HIV/AIDS orphans across the continent. She is intent however on empowering every one of the children and young people that cross her path. She rolls up her sleeves and gets the work done. Jackson Kaguri
founder and Executive Director of Nyaka AIDS Foundation. Nyaka is just one of many grassroots organizations across Africa doing groundbreaking work in orphan care and education. SLF has supported Nyaka since 2004, making them one of our longest-standing partners in the struggle against the AIDS pandemic. Nyaka has built and runs two primary schools in remote, rural southwestern Uganda: the Nyaka AIDS Orphans School in Kanungu District and the Kutamba AIDS Orphans School in Rukungiri District. The schools offer free education to the poorest children in their communities – all of whom are orphans, and most of whom are cared for by grandmothers. Nyaka has introduced a series of community services and programmes – including farming, library services, health visits, water and sanitation, housing, and nutritional counselling and support – in the knowledge that children cannot thrive in a community that is struggling. FH: What is the background to Nyaka? Why did you start it? JK: I was born into a family of five children in rural Uganda. We were born to parents who never had a job, but who were determined to send us to school. They had to pay tuition and buy uniforms, pencils, books. So they sold chickens and goats and cows – and eventually part of our land. The five of us graduated, and I went to university in Uganda and then to Columbia University. In 1996, while I was at Columbia, my brother died of HIV/AIDS and I became guardian to his three children. That was the turning point. Parents send their children to school to get an education, have a good life, break the cycle of poverty and privation. But parents also send their children to school so they can come home and take care of them as they get older. With the death of my brother – and millions of working people like him – so many children have been left to grandparents, who no longer have chickens to sell to educate and support their grandchildren. That is how it all begins. I started Nyaka to look after those children who didn’t have an uncle left behind to care for them. FH: What are some of the unique aspects of educating children who have been orphaned? JK: You are dealing with children who have experienced trauma. Imagine the five year old whose dad dies in her hands. And her mum dies two days later, also in her hands. And she has siblings and they now live alone. They walk an average of seven miles from school to an empty house. They have to find food and sleep in the darkness. The challenges are enormous. I spoke earlier about my childhood – yes, we had to walk a long time to get home from school, but we knew that mum was going to be home. Over two million children in Uganda come home to a house with no mum or dad. These kids are walking to nothing. Or their grandmother at home might be so sick that they still feel the burden of taking care of another sick person who might die, like their parents died. Trauma and nightmares are the biggest challenges for these children. FH: And what are some of the features you have in place for helping them work through that? JK: We take a holistic approach. We could just teach them reading, science, math and social studies and be done. But they have unique challenges and so we had to come up with unique methods. We look at their feelings. We look at all the obstacles facing them. Our area of Uganda is so fertile, and we can grow food. So we started a gardening programme, which has resulted in children eating two meals a day at school. And we have started a health care programme, unique and revolutionary in a Ugandan school. We have two nurses at Nyaka and one at Kutamba who are charged with treating children in school, but also do home-based care visits to reach grandmothers or other guardians. So kids who might miss school due to illness are able to attend all year round. If they have sore feet, they get them bandaged and can still walk to school. And the girl who would otherwise stay home because her grandmother is sick now comes to class. To help with the grief and trauma, we use music, art and drama as therapy. Children sing and use arts, music, poems, writing, play and acting. They are able to cope by expressing what they are dealing with. They write memory books with their grandmothers and learn what their mum and dad liked. These are some of the unique ways we work. And we continue to learn every day. FH: What are some of the impediments to education that are specific to girls? JK: You have a huge issue when a girl hits puberty. As soon as her period begins, there’s no more schooling. Women and girls use plant leaves as sanitary products, and a girl is not going to walk 10 miles and get to school leaking and with all the discomfort of it. So the girl drops out of school as soon as puberty begins. Nyaka provides sanitary products to all girls, and so that problem is solved for our students, but we need to extend this service to all schools. We have also constructed a clean water project for the entire village. This solves the problem of illnesses caused by unclean water, and it also saves all the time girls used to spend fetching water. They used to spend two hours in the morning fetching water and then walk 10 miles to school. Now, girls come to school early! FH: You are hoping to open a secondary school in Nyaka village. What are some of the challenges that your students face when they move to secondary school in the public system? JK: The children at Nyaka have been cared for and supported. Their teachers love them, they are fed two times a day, they are encouraged to do their best, their opinions are heard, they are empowered to do more and learn more. When they go away to secondary school, and nobody cares for them and loves them, they just sit in class and do their work. They go to their new teachers and say “grandma is sick and I need this” or “I can’t afford my fees because of that” and no one is listening. The care is cut right out. They are not prepared for the loneliness. We believe if there is a secondary school in their community, and it is run by our organization, they will take the same values they learn in primary school into the secondary school level. FH: Where do you hope to see Nyaka in 10 years? JK: Our motto for Nyaka’s 10th anniversary was “Celebrating the past, and soaring into the future.” Some of our first students are now graduating from secondary school. We want to see more children get into the workforce, more children taking on responsibility and becoming global citizens. We also want to see the children starting to speak for themselves. We want them to tell their own stories. Kenneth Mugayehwenkyi
Rising from the Ashes of a Lost Generation It’s stunning how quickly a once-sturdy community can spiral downward into isolation and misery in the wake of a natural disaster. Equally stunning is the reverse spiral: how a community can begin to climb back out of the depths, slowly and step by step, starting with a wisp of encouragement. HIV/AIDS stormed through Uganda and swept away an entire generation of young adults: a whole cohort of productive workers, parents, teachers and family supports. Left behind, like shipwreck survivors in the remote southern hills of Uganda, were a tidal-wreck of old women and orphaned children, in hundreds of tiny villages that were left to crumble in the torrential seasonal rains. When Kenneth Mugayehwenkyi came home to these hills after studying at Nova Scotia’s Coady International Institute and earning his MA in public health in the United States, he went to visit one of those grandmothers. Encouraged by his wife, he had been sending money to this hometown grandma who was raising two preschool grandchildren. Now that Kenneth saw her living conditions—a half-destroyed mud shack, a half-collapsed grass roof open to the rains and a rickety latrine that had been washed away in floods —the utter misery of her impoverishment struck him forcibly. He began to visit her, and then another of her friends. Soon he had a roster of a dozen grandmothers, most of them grieving, hopeless, overwhelmed and dragging themselves through their difficult days, often with the aid of home brew liquor. Kenneth encouraged the women to come together for group “fellowship” meetings. Then, observing their starvation and fragile health, he arranged to provide food for their get-togethers. It was the little plastic bowls they quietly brought with them that alerted Kenneth to the next step he had to take, the step that would change all their lives. The grannies’ bowls, he learned, were intended to take home part of their meal to their hungry grandchildren. Kenneth knew he had to rescue not just these grandmothers, but their whole tattered families, from the wreckage of the AIDS epidemic. No other aid organization was working in the area. (In one typical family, the grandmother and four orphans drank boiled water for breakfast, came home at noon to eat some potatoes, and then returned at night to eat any greens left unsold in the market). It was then Kenneth turned to the Stephen Lewis Foundation, which he learned about from Coady Institute friends, to help fund the grandmother project. One of his first initiatives was to create a kind of “medicare” for the grannies. Many of them were ill from malaria or the complaints of old age but, as Kenneth discovered when he visited them at home, they had no money for doctors or medicine. Kenneth and his charity, Reach One Touch One Ministries (ROTOM), arranged to prepay at the local clinic for inclusive health care for the grannies, who now each carry a ROTOM health card that ensures their care. With each discovery of an unmet need, ROTOM found a way to create new programmes. By now, 500 grandmothers are participating in growing food and raising goats; the women who once felt defeated now exult in their productivity and proudly share their surplus. A portion of their seeds is saved each season for the seed bank, to protect local crops; the grannies tithe themselves for part of their crop to sustain a food bank. It’s not only food that is shared. Experience, comfort and know-how benefit the giver as much as the recipient. Evlyne, aged 76, raising five preschool grandchildren as well as a teenager, has rallied from her grief-stricken isolation and eagerly confides how much she has learned from the other grannies, and how much she passes on to others, about how to be patient with her little charges. Twenty of the poorest of the poor have moved into handsome little two-bedroom brick houses built by ROTOM, complete with rainwater tanks for clean water, shower stalls and Eco-san latrines. The children are healthier, and, because ROTOM is ensuring their school fees are paid and vocational training is available, are swiftly climbing out of despair. Remarkably, the grandmothers, encouraged by ROTOM, have begun to reverse centuries-old cultural habits and are encouraging their granddaughters as well as grandsons to attend school; they are electing women to the ROTOM governing committees and they are supporting health and sex education to protect the young girls from exploitation. Cleanliness, purpose, energy and good health are being rebuilt, day by day, in the ROTOM-aided villages. For these 500 households, three meals a day, education, clean water and productive work have become the new norm. “Small community organizations are the majority in Uganda,” reflects Kenneth. “Without them, there would be a crisis beyond imagining. It would be mass numbers of people dying. People would be more vulnerable to the messages of rebel groups …We’d be another Congo.” With the modest resources provided by NGOs, these many local grassroots groups weave a nation-wide network of support, creativity and determination that can turn the tide of AIDS in Africa. It can be done. You start, like Kenneth, with a small plastic bowl and a wellspring of African ingenuity, and you learn that it can be done. |
PEFO: A Window of Hope
Posted on: July 28, 2009 by Stephen Lewis Foundation On Monday morning, we made our way to PEFO’s new offices on the outskirts of Jinja. Justine introduced the staff and told us more about PEFO’s extensive programming for local grandmothers and the children in their care. PEFO currently supports more than 200 grandmothers, providing support to granny groups, food from community gardens, pigs and other income-generating supports, as well as school fees (including secondary school fees, in some cases), uniforms, supplies, and meals for more than 100 children. Many of the grandmothers live in very difficult conditions — one grandmother we visited had a house leaning sharply to one side, with holes in the mud walls and little protection from the elements. In these cases, Justine argues, housing is a health issue. Many grandmothers have fallen ill because their homes collect stagnant water and breed mosquitoes, or their medication is ruined by flooding, or the few clothes and bedding that they possess are moldy from the dampness. Recently, the Foundation purchased a brick-making machines for PEFO, so that the organization can create its own bricks and build houses for the grandmothers who are most in need of adequate shelter. The machine serves two purposes – not only does it provide a quick and inexpensive way to obtain building materials, but it also serves as a vocational training program for older children, helping them to learn a trade and giving them the skills to earn a living. I asked Justine how they decide which grandmothers receive new houses, given the vast needs of the community. The grannies meet and decide who among them has the greatest need – since it is a collective decision, there is little jealousy when one grandmother receives a new home. We visited the brick-making machine and saw the rock being crushed into dust and re-packed as sturdy earth bricks – it was quite amazing to see. The machine can produce up to 3,000 bricks a day at full capacity. Justine hopes that in addition to providing much-needed housing for the grannies, it will also serve as a way to generate income for the organization. A bit further down the road, we walked through PEFO’s massive organic gardens. They’ve been growing spinach, onions, chives and other vegetables to help feed the community and generate some income. They’ve been helping grandmothers set up their own kitchen gardens and have even come up with an ingenious way to grow vegetables in a large feed-bag. PEFO makes their own organic pesticides (using hot chilies, among other things!) and creates their own compost and fertilizer for the gardens. PEFO’s farm school is another form of vocational training – they train youth from the community on appropriate technologies and farming techniques, and give them an opportunity to apprentice on the organization’s farm. They’ve been experimenting with innovative irrigation techniques, using water from their own 100-foot well to water the soil. While at the farm, Aissatou tried her hand at filling a bucket of water from the well — it took a few more people to help lift it! As we moved from site to site, we were amazed at all of the things that PEFO is doing to raise money for the organization and provide sustainable sources of food and income for the communities they serve. Their piggery, which now has upwards of 100 pigs, has been a major source of income for the grannies. After much experimenting, PEFO now raises piglets until they are grown, and gives them to grandmothers in the community to breed. The grandmothers sell the piglets to earn an income on the side, and retain their initial pig for breeding. PEFO has recently acquired a cow and hopes to develop another source of income through raising cattle. We went to the home of Jaliya, one of the grannies supported by PEFO. When the group of Canadian grandmothers visited PEFO last year, they helped to build a new house for Jaliya, to replace the dilapidated shack she had been living in before. Justin told us that Jaliya’s home has become a kind of meeting place for the community – she is now regarded as a ‘rich woman’ because she has such sturdy lodgings. It was wonderful to see the beaming smile on her face as she showed us through the rooms of her home. It is clear that in Jaliya’s life, PEFO has made an enormous difference. We moved on to Tolophina’s house. PEFO’s builders are constructing a new home for her next to her run-down mud shack – it is set to be completed later this week. Idah, Aissatou and James tried their hand at construction, adding a layer of bricks onto the top wall. It is hard to overstate how the new house will improve Tolophina’s living conditions, particularly as she cares for several grandchildren under the age of five. With Tolophina and Jaliya in tow, we headed to a large meeting of grandmothers and young people. The grannies gave us a joyous welcome, and we danced in a large group. The grannies thought my dancing was hilarious – which, I’m sure, it was. They wrapped scarves around our waists and demonstrated the impressive hip gyrations endemic to Uganda. We watched as young people from PEFO’s Windows of Hope program performed. Windows of Hope is an after-school programme geared towards helping children and youth to build their self-esteem, leadership skills and form a sense of community through music and drama. It was exciting to see such a confident group of bright young boys and girls singing their hearts out. They performed a number of songs, including several about how AIDS has affected their lives. PEFO has also started a brass band with local youth, and the musicians (mainly boys about 17-19) showed off their skills by playing both the Ugandan national anthem and O Canada. We were all impressed. One by one, the groups of grandmothers got up to sing and dance and to tell their stories. When they asked the grannies to demonstrate (by show of hands) whose grandchildren received school fees from PEFO, all of them raised their hands and cheered. It was remarkable to think of the impact that this organization has had in just a few short years. At the end of the grannies’ testimonies, they all lined up and presented us (Stephen and Aissatou) with a series of gifts. I remember hearing Halifax granny Kathy Reid speak about how she had been given a gift of four eggs while in Uganda, and how she had never given or received a gift so precious in her life. Her story resonated deeply with me as we accepted gifts of eggs, mangoes, papayas, beans, pineapple from each grandmother — these simple but heartfelt gifts were extremely moving. It’s hard to imagine having so little and giving so generously of what you have. It was a humbling experience. For me, PEFO is a perfect example of what Turning the Tide is all about – real changes in the quality of life for communities affected by the pandemic. Their ingenuity and their commitment to bettering the lives of children and grandmothers affected by AIDS is truly something to behold Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)
Background on the Campaign The atrocities being perpetrated against women and girls in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are nothing less than a femicide – the systematic destruction of the Congolese female population. Since 1996, sexual violence against women and girls in the Eastern DRC has been used as a weapon of war to torture, humiliate and destroy not only women and girls, but entire families and whole communities. Panzi In 1999 Panzi General Referral Hospital at Bukavu was established by Dr. Denis Mukwege as a maternity hospital; however, in response to the atrocities taking place in the surrounding conflict-ridden countries, it was soon transformed to accommodate those women physically damaged by war-related rape and other severe forms of sexual violence. If needed, patients are provided with pediatric attention, access to internal medicine, surgery, OBGYN analysis, psychological care, economic assistance, and legal support. With holistic care offered free-of-charge, Panzi Hospital is the only referral hospital in North and South Kivu that meets the demand of services for these victims. Providing accommodations, food, and psychological support in ways ranging from music therapy to crisis counseling to game therapy (for children), Panzi is, beyond a doubt, a haven for 3,500 survivors a year. With their Transit House, Panzi is able to offer social and economic assistance to 500 patients annually, through vocational training, giving and monitoring of micro-credit, as well as informal education and literacy classes. Expected as early as 2009, Panzi Hospital wishes to provide legal assistance to all hospitalized women, finally allowing them to file a suit against their aggressors in the legal system and to reclaim land, homes, possessions, and justice. Psychological Therapy A team of psychologists and five welfare workers are involved in the psychological aspects of therapy in order to better succeed in their integration into society. Screening of the patient is done by a welfare worker or social assistant. Based on the severity of their trauma (classified as mild, moderate or severe) and coping skills they may then be referred to the psychologist. Therapy incorporates dealing with prevention, education of their illness, moral support, problem resolution and decision making. Counseling is also provided for patients infected with HIV. Their progress is monitored during treatment and once ready welfare workers help them during reintroduction. Attempts are made to assess the patient's receiving party upon reentry into their community. Approximately 52% of patients presenting to our center, 36% of which is classified as mild, 14% moderate, and 2% severe trauma. Socio-Economic Assistance The socio-economic assistance is provided so as to empower the survivor. She is taught to becoming self sustaining. The shame they experienced often from having been raped in public must be overcome. The best way to accomplish this is for the women to be productive within her community. Technical training in different professions is provided including training in:
To date 1273 women have been trained in the above fields. City of Joy A goal of the STOP RAPING OUR GREATEST RESOURCE: Power To The Women And Girls Of The DRC campaign is to provide necessary resources and support for women to rebuild and transform their lives. A centerpiece of the campaign is to support community reintegration for survivors of rape, specifically those who face extreme challenges in returning home due to community rejection and trauma. V-Day and UNICEF in partnership with Panzi Foundation have built a special facility for the survivors of sexual violence. Conceived, created and developed by the women on the ground, the City of Joy in Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo supports women survivors of sexual violence to heal and provide them with opportunities to develop their leadership through innovative programming. Through its groundbreaking model, the City of Joy provides up to 180 women a year with an opportunity to benefit from: group therapy; storytelling; dance; theater; self-defense; comprehensive sexuality education (covering HIV/AIDS, family planning); ecology and horticulture; and economic empowerment. The City of Joy provides women a place to heal emotionally as they rebuild their lives, turn their pain to power, and return back into their communities to lead. Personal stories Mwamaroyi [Mwah-mah-ROY-ee] is a 46-year-old mother of 6 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. “If I were given the floor to tell other people in the world about myself and the women in Congo, I would first say that the women live in peace. The second is that I would tell the people that all this violence, which is done to women, is a consequence of two countries’ misunderstanding. If they cooperated then the wars would end, and women would be safe from rape and violence. The third thing I would tell them is that Congolese women are neglected because no one talks about the rape and violence we have suffered through. The wars have very negatively affected my life. I was living peacefully in my home with my husband and my children and now, because of war, he is gone. I live alone with the children, trying to carry the burden myself, and provide for my children’s education, food, and health. So all this I do alone, and I am weaker because of the rapes. I leave this to God and people of good will. I rely on an organization that sometimes gives me some money to support my children. My children are succeeding. One of them is about to take the national examination. Another has acquired skills in woodwork and completed his studies. Another has studied mechanics, and he is looking for work. We also harvest beans, potatoes, and cassava, and sell them at the market. So we get by. This is how we survive. I also work to sensitize other survivors of rape. I educate them and tell them they should not feel guilty, that the guilty ones are the men who rape. I tell the survivors it is not their fault. I would like to ask, would it be possible to offer workshops that will empower women, and give them the tools to speak up? My greatest hope is one day to see women in Congo stand up and cry out about what has happened to us, and to be advocates for our cause. If the women in Congo can stand up and say that we are at peace, it will bring me joy. If I were given the floor, I would speak up and tell people that rape and violence have had terrible consequences. Please, it is time for the violence to stop.” |