Philippi Township Orphans (2005)
The following are my personal experiences.
Warning: This photo might be a huge departure from the usual photos you see in the propaganda press about Africans. The happy pose masks some amazingly sad stories of illness, death and depravation.
The orphans in this township are not institutionalized; instead, they are integrated into the community and are cared for by anyone who is able to help out when they can. However, health care workers stay in contact with the children and check up on them on their rounds in the township. A lovely lady, 68 years young, is effectively mum to 7 orphans, two of whom have HIV/AIDS with one on ARVs. A California friend of the American church group paid to have a house built for her and the children. I could not take a photo out of respect for the surrounding - how do I put this – extremely humble dwellings.
For two hours every Friday the children meet as a group at one location and spent time with a group of Americans who started and operate the programme.
On the Friday that I was there the following was what I observed. On arriving at the building, the children are given a peanut butter sandwich (I don’t remember if they were given a drink). They then worked on scriptures from both the English and local language Bibles, broke up into two large groups and worked on a skit “How to be a good leader” and “How to be a bad leader”. After performing their skits they discussed lessons learnt then came the fun time! Playing with balloons which we all blew up using a machine!
They then put the balloons away for the following week and left with a bag of food. Each of these bags cost US$6 and contain rice, dried milk, millet and locally eaten items, peanut butter, and other foods to sustain the children for one week.
I gave the organization enough money to purchase food parcels for 35 children. Two friends in the U.K. and the U.S.A. who knew of my trip to Cape Town contributed to this.
Four new orphans hesitatingly joined the programme while I was there.
Agnes: 68 years young and “mum” to 7 orphans