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Mrs Manda is a 45-year-old widow with full-blown AIDS. She has four children (aged 5, 7, 10 and 15). Enrolled in a peri-urban home-based care program now for three months, she is currently being treated for a painful outbreak of herpes zoster (shingles) on her face, neck and chest. Mrs Manda's 15-year-old daughter, Jenes, dropped out of school in grade 4, before her father died. Depending on how often she works, Jenes can earn 55,000 Kwacha (about US$13) a month as a maid or in a restaurant. When her mother is sick, she stays home from work to care for her, look after her younger siblings who are not in school, and cook the small amount of "mealie meal", beans and oil the family receives through the home-based care project. Chipulukusu Compound, Zambia 
Mrs Mbilima and her husband, who has been blind for six years, are caring for eight of their grandchildren and several great-grandchildren in a small three-room house in a village. All nine of the Mbilima's children died of AIDS and each left at least six children behind. The oldest grandchild living with the Mbilimas is 25 years old. She, herself, is a widow with four children, two of whom are dead. Of the surviving children, one daughter is disabled and the other is stunted. Another of the Mbilimas' granddaughters living with them is 16 and has a 2-year-old baby. The father of the child, who was married to another woman, paid the Mbilimas' granddaughter 5,000 Kwacha (little more than US$1) each time he had sex with her. He disappeared when he found out that she was pregnant. The other six children in the household are all undernourished, and none of the grandchildren or great-grandchildren is in school. Mrs Mbilima makes and sells chikanda (pounded potato and peanut snacks) for 100 Kwacha a piece, but this is far from enough to support her family, so they depend on the charity of neighbours and friends to survive. The Mbilimas recently acquired five guinea pigs, a few of which will be consumed, and they will try to breed more. The guinea pigs are kept in the corner of the room where Mr and Mrs Mbilima sleep on a floor mat with a few of their great-grandchildren. When it rains, the tin roof leaks and the family have to stand until the rain stops. Chipulukusu Compound, Zambia |
| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 September 2008 20:19 ) |