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Siyayinqoba Beat It! 2005 Episode 10 –

Orphans

In this episode of Siyayinqoba Beat It! we visited the Shabalala family in Bronkhortspruit, Mpumalanga, to find out about the day-to-day struggles and needs of child-headed households. We also found out about the Sizanani Village and Isibindi Project that assist in giving or facilitating social, personal and psychological support to children orphaned by HIV and AIDS.

Jason Wessenaar: Hello and welcome to the Siyayinqoba Beat It! Support Group. My name is Jason. In the Siyayinqoba Support Group, we are all living positively with HIV. Every week, we get together to discuss issues that affect our lives with HIV, from getting a life insurance to disclosing to our partners. Siyayinqoba is your guide to better living with HIV. If you’re living with HIV or have partner, a friend or a family member living with HIV, this programme is for you. This week we are talking about new developments affecting over one million children in South Africa who have been orphaned by AIDS. Orphans are a vulnerable group and it is all our responsibility to help but what shall we do? Government and NGOs are working together to find a new approach to caring for orphans. The idea is to keep families together, letting older brothers and sisters look after the younger ones instead of breaking them up by sending children to orphanages or to stay with relatives. For this to work, we need to provide support to orphans. The new Children’s Act brings the age of maturity down from 21 to 18. Now, this means that elder brothers and sisters can become legal guardians of their younger siblings, keeping the family together. We welcome Pumeza Runeyi from Khayelitsha who is here to share her experiences with us. But first, the Siyayinqoba team visits Bronkhorstspruit in Mpumalanga where we met the Tshabalala’s, let’s take a look.

Providing better care to orphaned children

Bronkhorstspruit, Gauteng

Voice-over: Esikhathini esedlule, izingane eziyintandane zazithunyelwa ukuthi ziyohlala nezihlobo. Esikhathini samanje kwezenhlakalo eziningi lokhu akusenzeki ngoba eminye imindeni yengeziwe, ibhekene nokutholekela kwemisebenzi kanti kungenzeka sekukhona umuntu one-HIV okumemele bamnakekele. Abanye abantu baqhaphaza ukuze bafinyelele imali yesabelo. Ukugcina imindeni lapho ingane iyinhloko endawonye. Indlela yokuphendula eyakhayo ubhekana nalezintselela. {isiXhosa}[In the past, orphaned children were sent to stay with relatives. Today, in many cases, this is not an option as some extended families are dealing with unemployment and may already have to care for someone with HIV. Some people exploit children for access to grant money. Keeping child-headed families together is a creative response to these challenges.]

Tshabalala children: Besihlala nomama wagula, ekuguleni kwakhe egcina asishiyile ngo-January. Sahlala sodwa. {isiXhosa} [We stayed with our mother until she became ill. She was very sick and then she died in January. It led to us living on our own as children.]

Elisabeth Schilling (St Joseph’s Care & Support Trust): Sizanani means: We help each other, and obviously we’ve responded to the AIDS crisis. We felt that it was needed to, kind of, show the mercy and the love of God to those people in need, those people afflicted by HIV/AIDS, to break any judgemental attitude. And as a programme group, the patients died and as they died, we were looking at the orphan problem. In our orphan programme, we now have over 600 orphans, four feeding schemes, I think it’s seven townships and we also do psychological support for the orphans, helping them after school, counselling and sexual education.

Tshabalala children: i-Sizanani isisize ngokuthi les’khathi umama’am agula, uyewathatha i-treatment khona, bamnika amapilisi. Ukuthi vele bekungekho umuntu osebenzayo, basidilivela ama-food parcel. Ja basinceda nje eyinweni eziningi ne-school uniform yabantwana, nange-Christmas babathengele ukudla, babathengele iimpahla ze-Christmas. …umama sekahambile basibhalisela i-grant. Sirholelwa ngomunye umama. Usithengela ukudla okuhlala inyanga yonke. Nabantwana izinto bazidingayo uyabathengela. Uma ungumuntu fanele uzithembe, uzithande, ungabheki ukuthi omunye umuntu wenzani and uthini, uzibheke wena. Kubalulekile ukubambisana njengomndeni. {Isixhosa} [Sizanani helped us a lot because when my mother was sick, she was collecting treatment from them. Nobody was working so they delivered food parcels. They helped us with a lot of things such as school uniforms, food and clothing for Christmas. After my mother died, they helped us apply for a grant. There’s a woman that gets the grant for us and then she buys us food that lasts the whole month. She also buys anything the children might need. As a person you must trust and love yourself. You must not worry about what people might say, trust in yourself. It’s important to help and understand each other as a family.]

Support group

Jason Wessenaar: You have experience of your brothers and sisters being split up, do you want to tell us about that but also do you want to tell us about what you would have liked to have seen happening.

Pumeza Runeyi: Mna kweyam i-experience oo-brother bam abahlali kum bahlala kumhakhulu wam. Sometimes omnye ayohlala kumakazi, omnye ayohlala nomhakhulu. Kum lonto ayonto i-right, andiyithandi lendlela yenzeka ngayo because lo uhlala kumhakhulu ufumana izinto ezi-more kumhakhulu then lo uhlala kumakazi akamameli soloko esesitratweni. Kanti xa besinohlala kunye besizawukwazi into yoba masikhulisane. Bayayazi ababantu bahlala nabo ayingobazali babo and once umntu abethwe ubaleka aze kusisi wakhe. So if besinohlala sonke, but ke kunzima into yoba masihlale sonke because asinayo into enosi-support okwangoku. Funeka behleli kwezindawo bakuzo ukuze bazofumana indlela yokuya es’kolweni. {isiXhosa} [My experience is that I don’t stay with my brothers because they live with my grandmother. At times, some stay with my aunt and some with grandmother. I don’t like the way things are because the one who stays with my grandmother is spoilt, the one who stays with my aunt is rebellious, he’s always on the streets. If we all stayed together, we would help each other grow because they know that the people they stay with are not their parents. And when they are spanked they come to me as their sister. We would like to stay together but we don’t have any support. That’s why we have been split so that some of us can afford to go to school.]

Jason Wessenaar: Do you guys think that child-headed homes are a way to go these days having seen that insert?

Primrose Mathabatha: I don’t think it’s a good idea because when children live on their own they can develop bad manners. They will lack guidance and that won’t help them be better people in the future.

Pumeza Runeyi: Mna ndicinga into yoba i-right olutshintsho lukhoyo ngoku because xa abantwana bekwazi ukuzihlala bodwa bayakwazi ukukhulisana. Xa besiwe komnye umntu, lomntu unendlela e-wrong yobaphatha okanye nabo babone uba lomntu utshintshile bangakwazi ukuziphatha besenza izinto ezi-funny bebengazenzi. So ndicing’ba lendlela benze ngayo i-right because bahleli kakuhle nangoku. {IsiXhosa} [I think it’s a good idea because when children stay on their own they can help each other grow. When they live with someone else that person might raise them in the wrong way or the children may also develop bad morals from these people. I think child-headed households are the right thing because the family in the insert is doing fine.]

Lihle Dlamini: Mina guys I also think it’s a very good idea ukuthi iingane zikhule zindawo nye that children grow up in one place] and it will also bring them closer because bayazi ukuthi [they know that] they are working towards a common goal ukuthi bonke baphile kahle [that they should all live comfortably] in a family. And also they tend ukuthi ba-discusse ama-issues [to discuss issues] in order for them ukuthi uma bekhula [as they grow] they become very independent and they grow ukuthi babe very mature at a very early age. And also siyabona ukuthi bayakwazi ukuthi bathole ama-food parcels [we can see that they get food parcels] and they can survive and also bayakwazi ukuthi kulemali abakwazi ukuthi bayithole, babhajethele ukudla, for i-rent, for i-electricity and for ama-school fees as well. [they are able to budget for food, rent, electricity and school fees.] I think that’s a very good idea. {isiZulu} I also think it’s a good idea for children to stay together because it will bring them closer because they are all working towards a common goal, which is to have good life as a family. They are able to discuss issues so when they’ve grown up they become very independent and mature at an early age. They get food parcels so that they can survive. From the money they get, they are able to budget for food, rent and electricity, as well as pay their school fees. I think it’s a very good idea.

Jason Wessenaar: Is it important whether they are 10 and they are left alone or they are 16 and they are left on their own or one is 24 and they are left on their own?

Primrose Mathabatha: It puts the children in a situation where the older one has a burden of looking after her younger siblings. She must look after herself as an individual and also look after her siblings. Maybe she won’t be mature enough to look after the other children. If an adult is present in the family, it does help.

Jason Wessenaar: The problem is that when children are taken to different families they are separated and grow up with other people. And then the other problem was that the people that take the children in sometimes abuse them or abuse the money that they get to take care of those children and at the same time, these very people have their own problems. They either have problems like HIV in the house or alcoholism or unemployment in the house and these are some of the contributing factors to them abusing the money.

Vuyani Jacobs: Since i-AIDS iyi-challenge kwimpilo esiyiphilayo, xa bene-space abantwana ukwenza i-decision zabo babene-support system, bakwazi ufumana ngokomthetho i-grants, ufumana ukudla, bakwazi ukwenza izigqibo zokuya es’kolweni nakanjani, i-morals zabo sube bekwazi ukuziphatha. Xa zingekho eza-support services ii-morals zabo ziba challenged. {isiXhosa} Since AIDS is a challenge to the lives we lead, I think when children have the space to make their own decisions and have the support system that gives them information about grants, food parcels and enables them to make decisions about the importance of schooling, they will be able to uphold their morals. Without those support services, their morals will be challenged; the morals of engaging in unsafe sex, engaging in alcohol abuse or drug abuse stems out of the failure of the system, to help them, getting themselves as human beings in dignity.

Lihle Dlamini: If abantwana behleli ndawonye [the children are staying on their own,] there must be someone to mentor or guide them, as we saw on the insert. They are guided in what they have to do. They have family meetings and discuss issues. I think that’s the best way to do it, guys.

Jason Wessenaar: We talk more about how we can support orphans after the break.

Jason Wessenaar: Welcome back to the Siyayinqoba support group – the programme for everyone infected and affected by HIV.

Ricardo Moses: Pumeza don’t you think social services must have more campaigns by making people aware of these types of grants and that they can take kids and be parents to those kids?

Pumeza Runeyi: Ndicinga ibalulekile kakhulu lonto leyo , bendikhe ndazama ukuyivelela lonto leyo kuba Ndisebenza nabantu abatsha ixesha elininzi. So yenye ye-campaigns esijonge ubana ngaba singayenza because kubantu abatsha endihamba nabo, i-most yabo abanabazali, abanye ukhona umzali but akhonto ayifumanayo emzalini. Besikhe sazama ukuqonda ngee-grants esikhe sizifumane, sayifumana i-workshop about i-different grants ezikhoyo nendlela ezi-operate ngayo. {isiXhosa} [I think it’s very important and I’ve tried to see it through because I work with the youth a lot and it’s one of the campaigns we are working towards because most of the youth I know don’t have parents. Some have parents but have nothing because their parents are very sick. We had to find out about grants that are accessible. We had a workshop about the different grants and how they operate.]

Jason Wessenaar: Ungathini kwbanye abantu in the same, kwimeko okuyo? {isiXhosa} What would you say to people who are in the same situation as you?

Pumeza Runeyi: Mna ndithi kubalulekile uba nihlale nindawo nye niyi-family because lento yoba nohlulwe, niye nohlulwe nyani, sometimes ni-end up nisohlukana kakhulu ningazani kengoku izinto ezininzi ningakwazi ukuzenza. So u-sister wam wamka yena wayohlala kulotata’akhe, after umama’am eswelekile nayo kwathiwa uswelekile, ibiyinto ka-2003 but mna ndizoyi-find out ngo-2005. {isiXhosa} [I think it’s important to stay together as a family. Being separated is not nice because you are far away from one another. You don’t know about one another and you can’t do things together. My sister went to live with her father after my mother died, then I found out that my sister died. It happened in 2003 but I only found out in 2005.]

Lihle Dlamini: Pumeza, zikhona iindawo in your area maybe ezikwazi ukuthi zinitshele ama-rights of you as children or ama-orphans {isiZulu} [Are there places in your area that teach people about the rights] of orphans or taking care of other siblings when your parent has passed on?

Pumeza Runeyi: Ukuba khona oku zona zikhona but aziwenzi umsebenzi wawo because baninzi abantwana aba-suffering. {isiXhosa} [We do have them but they are not doing their work because there are a lot of children suffering.]

Vuyani Jacobs: Should we then come up with a campaign or Zola Skweyiya comes up with a campaign that can actually address the issue of vulnerable children, who actually are being exploited by families. And then come up and say; let us publicly say that children have the legal option of managing their own families, getting grants on behalf of the rest of the siblings, in that way creating a normal family.

Primrose Mathabatha: I do understand what Vuyani is saying but mostly in society we have problems where the older child within the family is the one who gets the grants on behalf of the siblings and may be the very same person who abuses the grant. What do we do in that situation?

Jason Wessenaar: We need to voice it out when we see a situation where people are getting money, they are getting the grants but the money is not getting to where it’s supposed to be getting to.

Vuyani Jacobs: My family has played a very big role, especially my elder sisters, in actually moulding me and creating morals with me and I take it that will be the same experience for any child, that your elder sister or brother takes up the responsibility. Because now I feel responsible because I’ve got a younger brother so I feel like an old man, to look after him. Without him I think I wouldn’t have anything to lead but you become a leader when you have children or people to lead. So I do believe when you say that you as a child could have done it better or would do it better in terms of taking care of your own family.

Jason Wessenaar: We’re going to a break, when we return we talk with Zeni Thumbadoo from the Isibindi project in KwaZulu Natal.

Jason Wessenaar: Welcome back to the Siyayinqoba Beat It! support group – the programme for everyone infected and affected with HIV. The Department of Social Development is training community workers in each health district to drive the support services to orphans. To see how this works, the Beat It! team visited the Isibindi Project. Let’s take a look at the work they are doing.

Providing better care to orphaned children

Port Shepstone

Zeni Thumbadoo (National Association for Child Care Workers): I’m Zeni Thumbadoo. I’m the Deputy Director of the NACCW which is the National Association for Child and youth Care Workers. And I take responsibility for managing a project called Isibindi: Creating Circles of Care. KwaZulu Natal has the highest number of children who are orphaned by HIV/AIDS and the largest number of orphans who are living in poverty in South Africa. I think it’s a critical response to child-headed households and vulnerable families in communities. I think the children are not protected, their rights are violated and not actually protected and so this project provides an opportunity for trained child and youth care workers in the community to assist families with the difficult circumstances that they are in.

Sibongile Gule: Ngisebenzela Isibindi Project, mina. [I work for the Isibindi Project. I’m involved with families as a project manager and I provide support to the child and youth care worker. U-Shinge family wa-referwa ngumakhelwana uyi-child and youth care worker u-Nobahle. [The Shinge family was referred to Nobahle by a neighbour, who’s a child and youth care supporter.] uNobahle nguyena osebenza kakhulu daily ne-family. [Nobahle works with the family on a daily basis.] {isiZulu}

Bettina Shinge: Ngingu-Bettina Shinge, la ekhaya ngingumkhulu wabo labantwana. Kuqala kwashona ubaba wabo, kwaze kwashona umama wabo. Oodokotela ke basho ukuthi bashone ngamagama amathathu, i-HIV. Ngangixakekile kodwa manje ngizizwa sengingasaxakekile. Iingane ziyadla futhi ziyafunda, ngizikhokhele es’kolweni. Akusekho nkinga la ekhaya. [I’m Bettina Shinge and I’m grandmother to these children. Their father passed away and then their mother followed. The doctor said the cause was the three-letter word, HIV. At first, I was struggling but now things are different. The children have food and they go to school because I’ve paid their fees. We don’t have any problems.]

Noma Shinge: Igama lam ngingu-Noma wakwa-Shinge. Es’khathini kungekabikho imali ye-grant kwakubheda ngoba sasingayikhokhi imali yesikole, sifunda ngekweleti. Kodwa sesiyitholile sakhokha. Sifunda kahle es’kolweni ngoba futhi siyawuphatha nomphako. [My name is Noma Shinge. Before we received the grant, things were very difficult because we didn’t have money for school fees. When we got our grant, we paid the school fees. We are doing well at school and we also carry a lunch box.]

Zeni Thumbadoo: Once the grant is received, the child and youth care workers work with the families on budgeting so that they are able to manage that money and we would only leave the family if it is assessed that they are able to cope now with their grant and with the other issues that are significant for them. Access to antiretrovirals would be critical to support the families that we service. For example, if the mothers or the father or the people in the home had access to antiretrovirals, they’d live longer.

Support Group

Jason Wessenaar: Welcome back to the Siyayinqoba Beat It! Support Group. We also welcome Zeni Thumbadoo, the Director of the Isibindi Project. Zeni, is your project linked at all with the Department of Social Development, how can people in the community get involved in the project?

Zeni Thumbadoo: Ok, our project is based in a policy that comes from the Department of Social Development. Previously in welfare services, it was only social workers who provided services but now with the establishment of the ward for child and youth care workers, child and youth care workers are being regulated and we are in a process as National Association for Child Care Workers are developing child and youth care workers from the community for the community who would be able to provide the kind of service that you saw in the video.

Vuyani Jacobs: That’s quite a very good intervention and actually very successful but how is it? Is it only regional, national, is it aiming to be national and if so, what is the method towards it?

Zeni Thumbadoo: We have, at the moment, approximately ten projects at different levels across the country and we’ll, by the end of the year, have 25 Isibindi Projects in different provinces.

Lihle Dlamini: In most cases you find that the process that is being done in that Social Development, especially by social workers when the parents have passed away, a person is trying to foster the children, the waiting period is too long for that person to foster the children. What happens in the mean time? And often you will find the children that are left behind don’t even have birth certificates, what happens in situations like that?

Zeni Thumbadoo: The child and youth care workers work very closely with Home Affairs to ensure that the documentation is secured. And in the interim, from the application of the grant till it comes through, the child and youth care worker would make sure that children have access to food parcels whether it’s from the Department which does provide food parcels in most provinces or from faith-based organisations and other resources that provide food parcels in the interim till the grant comes back. In the video that you saw, this grandmother received a back pay of R20 000 because it took so long for the grant to come through. From the time that the child care worker was involved with that family, food parcels were accessed but when that large amount of money came through, there was a process of budgeting. You might have noticed that there was new furniture at home, there was a TV and a video machine as well. Those things were not in that home before that.

Jason Wessenaar: Is the child’s decision or choice being considered?

Zeni Thumbadoo: If a family meeting has been held and decisions are taken that are critical for the family in that family meeting, and if it is properly documented in a report, this can be lodged with a social worker in the department of Social Development and this is what is called a parenting plan. This is articulated as a legal document in the new Children’s Bill and also in the Children’s Bill it is articulated that children’s perspectives and children’s decisions on issues that affect them need to be considered.

Vuyani Jacobs: Now grandmothers cannot really be grandmothers, they cannot rest and have fun. They have to be mother of mothers of their children, children’s children. They have to go from being grandmothers to become mothers again and they can’t enjoy being old. Now children cannot enjoy being children because they have to be old. So it means that the antiretroviral drugs are of necessity, they should be massively distributed, don’t you agree with me on that one?

Zeni Thumbadoo: I agree with you that if parents in our families had access to antiretrovirals, what it would mean is that they would live longer and if they lived longer, we would not have a child orphan at the age of 10, maybe at 15 or 17. And if you can see the capacity in the young person to cope at an older age, is much different to if they were 10. And so we support the roll out of antiretrovirals and it is in the project and we are making every effort to partner with organisations like Chomp and others, in order for us to mentor and roll out antiretrovirals with the families that we work with.

Jason Wessenaar: Thanks to Zeni, Pumeza, the support group and the viewers at home. We hope you have enjoyed the show and are feeling the Siyayinqoba Spirit, that together we can beat it. We value your questions and comments so please contact us on the numbers below. Join us again next week on the Siyayinqoba Beat It! Support Group. Till then stay healthy and stay positive.

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