Imagine 65 children, all orphans,
living under one roof. Now imagine that 95% of those who are eligible for
school attend classes every single day and that all 65 of them are clothed,
fed, and cared for by only a few dedicated community members. This is
Emthunzini Wethemba, an orphanage in Mziligazi
Township that can’t even
afford to pay all of its employees. The chief administrator is retained on a
volunteer basis, and all of the employees care for the children as if they were
their own. This is the reality of Zimbabwe:
AIDS orphans have become Zimbabwe’s
children because too many of Zimbabwe’s
children have become AIDS orphans.
By 2009 more than 1 million children, or 71% of all the orphans
in Zimbabwe,
had been orphaned by AIDS. Several weeks ago, as I prepared to leave for a
brief visit to the United
States before returning to continue my work
with Grassroot Soccer in January 2012, I was searching for a deserving school
to collect supplies for. I had been planning to collect clothing from family
and friends as best I could when an old friend contacted me with a better
solution: Aiden Cudhea, my buddy from Thetford
Elementary school in Vermont, and his dad Cameron, would hold a clothing drive at Aiden’s school. I went in search of a recipient for
the clothing and donations in the weeks before my return to the U.S., and a
Zimbabwean acquaintance pointed me in the direction of Emthunzini Wethemba.
What I found is going to change the nature of my relationship with the city of Bulawayo, and I can’t wait to begin playing soccer with
the kids at the home and volunteering at the shelter on a weekly basis when I
return to Bulawayo
next week. Emthunzini Wethemba is a truly amazing place. I wanted to share my
glimpse into life at the shelter, and I will continue to post stories and
pictures as I volunteer there during the next 5 months.
The orphanage is located less than 2 km north of Bulawayo City
Center along Vic Falls
road. It sits adjacent to the Mpilo Hospital OI clinic where Ale and I have
spent a significant amount of time since our arrival in Bulawayo in August. The orphanage was founded
by the late reverend E. Ndoda in 1992 to care for 6 orphaned boys, and has
since expanded to house 65 orphans. The children who live at Emthunzini
Wethemba, which translates as “Shelter of Hope,” come to the home from Bulawayo’s social welfare department, from the streets of Bulawayo, or from the
Mpilo Hospital Opportunistic Infections clinic when the hospital learns that a
child has lost his or her parents or caregivers to AIDS. Therefore, many of the
65 children have spent time on the streets or are AIDS orphans, and 6 of them
are HIV-positive through vertical transmission. I had the opportunity to tour
Emthunzini Wethemba, visit with the children, and speak with Patience, the
volunteer caretaker of the shelter and its 65 young inhabitants, just before
Christmas. I was immediately inspired by the sense of hope and joy
amongst the children despite their circumstances, and by the dedication and
professionalism of the home’s staff and volunteers.
Despite the seemingly overwhelming odds stacked against AIDS orphans
and the crippling lack of resources in Zimbabwe,
Emthunzini Wethemba offers hope to the children of Bulawayo. The shelter’s mission is
refreshingly simple:
1)
To
restore youth to a state of physical, emotional, and spiritual well being
sufficient for them to return to a normal lifestyle, preferably within the
framework of their family or social structure.
2)
To
equip them with entrepreneurial skills and empower them with attitudes and
behaviors necessary for employment.
In pursuit of goal number one, the home employs a young
social worker named Patience on a volunteer basis. Patience graduated from the University of Zimbabwe with a degree in social work
and psychology. She recently returned to her hometown of Bulawayo to take over the reigns as chief
administrator at Emthunzini Wethemba. Patience sets the daily schedule at the
home and cares for the children in every way, from setting the daily menu to
chasing down the youngest boys attempting to shirk their daily bath. When I
arrived at the home at 8:30am on a Thursday morning, Patience explained with an
exasperated eye roll that the children were almost ready to greet me but it
would be a few minutes because the “big girls” were still finishing with their
morning baths and “getting ready.” Apparently teenagers will be teenagers no
matter what the time zone or latitude. I laughed and could immediately feel the
sense of normalcy and family that pervades the home despite its dilapidated
physical appearance and the tragic circumstances that land young people on its
doorstep.
It didn’t take long to discover that Patience is the
force behind the discipline and love which are so pivotal to helping the kids
regain their sense of normalcy, structure, and hope. As chief administrator,
Patience organizes schooling, meals, recreation, chores, and educational
enrichment for the children 24/7. All but a handful of the 65 children at
Emthunzini are currently attending school in the neighboring community of
Mziligazi. Patience tells me proudly that several children have also earned
scholarships to local private high schools thanks to their academic
performance. The handful of children not attending school consists of those who
are beyond schooling age and three who are mentally challenged. The home is
currently investigating options for these children, including vocational
training for the older children and special needs schools for the children with
disabilities. When I visited Emthunzini Wethemba on 15 December, the children
were on holiday from school, but Patience had set up a schedule which included
morning chores and two hours each of morning and afternoon study time because,
she explained, she wants the children to stay intellectually engaged even
during their school breaks. This, of course, leads us to goal number two:
equipping the children with skills to return to society as productive adults.
The children live in dorm-style buildings of concrete and
brick. I had the opportunity to visit both the girls’ and boys’ dormitories,
and despite the fact that the living spaces lack rugs, lamps and many of the
comforts we are accustomed to, their wooden bunk beds, brightly colored sheets,
and the stuffed animal tucked neatly by each pillow gave an aura of summer camp
which made me hopeful that the children are happy here. They certainly seem to
be, and the youngest kids loved posing for my camera and were proud to show off
the bedrooms they carefully maintain during morning chores. Patience showed me
through all the school’s facilities and we made our way to several fields of
crops behind the dormitory buildings. The children learn how to farm covo,
spinach, and other vegetables at Emthunzini Wethemba. They gather mangoes and bananas
from several trees on the property, and have duties to help cook at every meal
using the vegetables they have helped to raise.
Patience showed me a concrete building behind the
dormitories that is under renovation. She explained that the city laws
do not allow the shelter to retain children over 19 years of age. The 65 children
she had introduced me to that morning ranged in age from 5 to 23. The kids older than 19 have graduated from high school and by law they are adults and should be removed from the
orphanage. But with 80% unemployment plaguing the country, these young adults
with few marketable skills would be thrown back onto the streets of Bulawayo from whence many
of them came. Therefore, the shelter continues to provide for these older
orphans and gives them increased leadership and mentoring opportunities within
the home. Patience is currently working on a project to secure vocational
training for the older children at the home. These young adults would then teach
classes for the younger kids in order to earn their room and board at the
shelter, creating a sustainable model for vocational training and giving the
older children productive and fulfilling employment. Patience showed me
woodworking equipment and even a pottery wheel in a storage room at the
orphanage but explained that the shelter stopped offering classes for its
children several years ago when money dried up in the city and no one would
volunteer to teach the classes or teach for a modest allowance. Hopefully, now
that the economy has sputtered back to life and is growing slowly, Patience
will be able to find someone willing to train the older children so that they
can breathe new life into vocational classes at Emthunzini Wethemba.
Through donations from friends and family and the efforts
of Aiden and Cameron, I have arranged to bring many donated clothes back to Zimbabwe this
week to give to the children at Emthunzini Wethemba. My neighbors, the Brown
Family, collected and donated more than 20 pairs of gently used youth soccer cleats.
I also have more than $300 donated by my grandmother and aunt which I will use
to take Patience on a shopping trip to Fazak’s, the local department store,
upon my return to Zimbabwe.
Patience explained that the shelter needs everything from pots and pans to
curtains, sheets, light bulbs, toiletries, garden tools, utensils, paint
brushes, cough medicine, children’s underwear….the list goes on and on. We hope
to address a few of these needs.
Emthunzini is an inspiring place. The shelter employs many practices that we aspire to here in the U.S.: the
children learn to farm and grow much of their own food; they often bathe with
rainwater collected in a large drum behind the shelter; they live together with
few conflicts and maintain their own living spaces through rigorous daily
chores; they attend school and several have earned the opportunity to pursue
higher education; they live simply and ask for nothing. They do all of this
with far fewer resources than we enjoy here at home, and they are extremely
deserving. I am excited to have the opportunity to spend more time with them
and to learn from their example.
If you are interested in supporting the kids at
Emthunzini Wethemba, please contact me and let me know
(dereks@grassrootsoccer.org). You can make a donation to my intern fund online
at www.derekinafrica2011.blospot.com
and I will use any funds you earmark for the orphanage to help Patience
purchase supplies. I can then provide you with a list of exactly what we
purchased with your donation so you can see how you contributed! Patience also
explained to me that she is trying to set up a new relationship with donors
through a program called Friends of Emthunzini Wethemba. Donors may
register as a friend to the home for a monthly minimum subscription of $5. This
contribution of only $60 for the entire year will serve to raise funds for the
daily needs of the home (volunteer stipends, groceries, electric and water
bills) and generate income for long term projects such as the training of older
members of the Emthunzini family to stay on as vocational counselors and
mentors for younger children. I will continue to provide updates and pictures
as I deliver the first round of supplies to the orphanage and as our
relationship with Emthunzini Wethemba grows this year through soccer games and
volunteer work. Thank you for the continued support!
The youth cleats, donated by the Brown family of Hudson, MA, are ready for the journey to Bulawayo. Thank you!
