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City of Hope - Orphans

A Video CD by TEMAK, now available for US$13 (inclusive of shipping costs).

Running time: 25 minutes

THE PREDICAMENTS OF AIDS ORPHANS & THEIR CAREGIVERS

By Godfrey M. Kimega

As seen in the documentary CD available from TEMAK. Filmed in the town of Kisumu, Kenya, in August 2004.

Its origins shrouded in controversy, the virus responsible for HIV/Aids has escaped annihilation by modern medicine. It changes itself so often that each new “wonder drug” is rendered useless immediately it hits the stores. HIV/Aids drugs are only effective against the strains they were designed for – and not new mutations of the virus.

The spread of HIV/Aids has had so much impact globally, that several medical terms have entered daily usage. The term “HIV/Aids” itself is a case in point. “Infected” persons are those living with the virus, while the “affected” are healthy persons whose lives have been touched by the suffering and death of an infected person known to them, especially within the family.

Among the most affected groups in society are children. In Kenya alone, close to a million children have had their parents taken away from them by the HIV/Aids scourge. Because the virus spreads through the most intimate of activities, a man or woman who gets infected inevitably passes the virus to the spouse. Ultimately, both parents die. It’s in this way that the HIV/Aids orphan phenomenon has continued to grow, though figures on orphans remain sketchy at best. Children are largely voiceless and powerless, making it difficult to gauge the exact numbers of those left as orphans.

Children orphaned by HIV/Aids are left to relatives who, traditionally, are supposed to care for them as their own children. However, poverty and Westernization have broken down the old extended family systems. Relatives are of little help as they struggle raising their own families, much less somebody else’s children. Other orphan children end up under the care of grandparents too old to work for a living. Some other orphans, lacking relatives to care for them, remain in their parents’ home with the eldest child assuming the role of head of the household. Orphans extremely unfortunate will fend for themselves in the streets. School loses importance in the daily struggle to get something to eat with many orphans dropping out. This compromises their chances of social advancement.

For the orphans, adjusting to life with guardians and foster parents is tough due to the changes involved. They may be forced to adapt from city life to rural life, or to move to a less affluent environment. Orphans who become heads of households face a tough life unsupported by the care and love of an adult. This is in spite of the trauma of losing both parents within a short time. Their sense of grief is not alleviated as the relatives supposed raise them are too busy earning a living and, of course, tending to the emotional needs of their own children.

HIV/Aids orphans require emotional support to better tackle feelings of guilt, stigma and societal exclusion they face after their parents succumb to AIDS. Severe economic hardship results in a lack of access to adequate nutrition and healthcare. Malnutrition and illness ensue with life-threatening consequences. This is attributable to the fact that children, being orphaned, find themselves in a situation they were neither prepared for nor equipped to deal with.

Societies facing the challenge of bringing up children who have lost their parents to HIV/Aids are waking up to their collective responsibilities. Of course, the availability of financial resources in poverty-stricken districts is always a hindering factor but, slowly, there is a realization that something ought to be done. The realization is borne out of the fear of inadvertently creating a “lost generation” in future made up of individuals who never experienced parental love and who, essentially, are illiterate thus unable to function in modern world. Such individuals are likely to end up as social miscreants.

At the community level, individuals and groups are making efforts aimed at chipping away at the AIDS orphans menace. Individuals adopt one or two orphans into their families while various local organizations are helping care for dozens of orphans at a time, arranging foster care for as many of the orphans as possible. Foreigners have helped sponsor numerous children to schools across the country. Religious bodies have played a role in catering to the spiritual and psychological needs of HIV/Aids orphans. Slowly, these efforts will add up to make a huge impact.

Among organizations working for HIV/Aids orphans is the Teenage Mothers & Girls Association of Kenya (TEMAK). TEMAK is an organization working to rescue, rehabilitate and provide vocational training to girls and young women. TEMAK’s programmes focus on helping solve the problems of HIV/AIDS infected children, their parents who are often single teenage girls, orphans, the poor and the destitute of the community.

TEMAK understands the problems that orphans face, explaining the organization’s concern with their well-being. At TEMAK’s centre in Kisumu, there’s an informal school for orphans from the community. Here, they are provided with writing materials to learn subjects like arithmetic, English and Kiswahili. Since the children are mostly unable to get their needs satisfied by caregivers, TEMAK offers a meal for lunch during school days as well as school uniforms. The non-formal school is meant to prepare the children for admission into regular public schools.

Even high school students have benefited from TEMAK’s assistance to orphans as Eunice Awino testifies:
“My parents died and I was unable to continue my education as there was no one to pay school fees for me. I stayed at home for 3 months before TEMAK came to my assistance.”

At TEMAK, the orphans are given life skills that help them deal with stigma arising from their parents’ deaths from AIDS. The organization identifies foster parents in the community where children are placed. Medical care is also provided to the orphans at a clinic within TEMAK’s centre.

Through singing, drama and poems, the orphans have their self confidence restored. Hope is given and smiles brought to their faces. Exposure to various skills, such as craft making, gives the orphaned children immediate income and an opportunity to earn income in future.

Visiting and consoling orphans and caregivers is TEMAK’s priority. Providing food, clothing and other necessities is done during the visits. Meanwhile, caregivers are trained in child care while TEMAK mobilizes community support through existing structures. Community Health Workers visit and train caregivers in nutrition, health and infection control while medical outreach into the rural areas targets more orphans and caregivers.

The increase in numbers of orphans occasioned by deaths from AIDS has spawned more problems that impacting negatively on the rights and development of the child. Child labor has increased as orphans fending for themselves drop out of school to join the labor market. Here, there’s widespread mistreatment of the desperate children in the form of physical, emotional and sexual abuse. This goes against the fact that all children – orphans included – need tender care and special protection to enable them realize their goals. They have rights too.

Girls are vulnerable to falling into prostitution, with its lures of quick money. However prostitution can lead to drug addiction and teen pregnancy. Other girls opt to get married at an early age with the hope that a husband will provide for them. As it turns out, marriage is too complicated for the young, inexperienced orphans.

Its time to make our communities a better, friendlier place for children who have lost their parents to AIDS. Lets join hands to make the world more conducive to their upbringing. TEMAK intends to design and commission a complex to do just that – provide hope to the lives of the AIDS orphans in Kisumu. On completion the complex will house ten vocational training workshops, eight primary school classrooms with a kindergarten, half-way home and a dormitory for girls. There will be a clinic, a counseling centre and a Chapel to provide direction on the Christian way.

The complex shall be called the “CITY OF HOPE”.

You can also buy Arts & Crafts items made by those whose lives TEMAK is striving to transform. Your purchase will give:-

• Orphans an education,
• Child prostitutes hope,
• Young AIDS widows economic empowerment,
• HIV positive adolescent girls and children a better, healthier life,
• Street girls a better home

Visit our online crafts shop launched in October 2004 - http://www.afrikapamoja.org.

We have affiliate retail shops around the world as well as five of ours in Kisumu, Kenya. Visit a shop near you to check out the arts and crafts made here in Kenya.

We appeal to all of you to join us in making orphans feel loved. Request a copy of the Video CD today.

PRICE: US$13 (inclusive of shipping/handling)

The Video is also available as a VHS tape.

Running time: Approximately 25 minutes.

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