At least 230 000 people in Swaziland in central Africa are in danger of starving to death this year, according to new statistics released by the United Nations agency Unicef.
Children as young as ten years now collect the meagre rations of maize, beans and cooking oil handed out by aid agencies. The task of collecting food is normally strictly reserved for heads of families.
But the youngsters have become the heads of their families since their parents have either died of HIV/Aids, or are extremely ill with the virus.
Two of them, a boy and a girl, who were willing to talk to members of the media, have been breadwinners for their siblings for the past two years. They have all dropped out of school and are ”full time parents”.
Mandla Sibiya, a 14-year-old boy has three sisters and a brother, all younger than him. He has the task of ensuring that they attend school, get dressed and eat one meal every day. But he admitted that it has not been easy.
His father died four years ago after suffering from constant coughing and blisters all over his body. He also lost a lot of weight after several bouts of diarrhoea and malaria, almost endemic in the area. The symptoms Mandla described border on tuberculosis and HIV/Aids-related ailments.
It all started when his mother gave birth to a child who died a few months after birth. His father got sick immediately afterwards and had to stop working at the nearby sugarcane estate. Soon after the death of his father, his mother developed similar symptoms and died 18 months later.
The boy dropped out of school and has been the family breadwinner ever since. Things got worse this year when people stopped giving him manual jobs on farms as there was nothing to do when all the crops dried up.
He then resorted to begging but there was no one to give them any food. Relatives refused to have anything to do with them because of the stigma associated with the way their parents died.
The 16-year-old girl has been the head of her family for the past five years. She too, has gone through the same ordeal as Mandla and each time she tries to narrate her story, big drops of tears well in her eyes.
Looking tired and malnourished, she has given up the lifestyle other teenagers lead to take care of her younger brother and sister.
Their mother was the first to die eight years ago and her father, who also worked at the nearby sugar estate passed away two years later after a long illness.
But in spite of having declared HIV/Aids a national disaster, the government of King Mswati III has not put in place any plans to take care of these young ”parents” and hundreds of other HIV/Aids orphans. – Sapa-DPA