News : HIV

Irish-funded health centre opened; Cambodian PM says thanks – 23 Jul 2010

A new TB/AIDS respite care centre was built in July in Poipet, Cambodia with funding from employees of ESB in Ireland. At a ceremony to open a new TB/AIDS health centre, Tearfund was presented with a gold medal and certificate of appreciation by the governor of Banteay Meanchey province on behalf of the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen. The recognition reflects the growing influence of Tearfund partners working in Cambodia to tackle poverty.

Poipet City, in north-west Cambodia, is an epicentre for HIV/AIDS due to its thriving sex trade and human trafficking industry. Tearfund’s local partner, Cambodian Hope Organisation has been supporting people living with HIV for many years. However they realized that the local hospital facilities were inadequate for people with HIV and tuberculosis (TB). TB was spreading to immune-compromised patients and causing a high death rate. The new facility allows the isolation and improved care of highly infectious patients.

David Crooks, Tearfund’s Country Representative for Cambodia, said the timing of the recognition was important: ‘This growing influence comes at a time when the government is tightening up its control of civil society and will hopefully demonstrate to the government the validity of civil society groups and the church.’

Would you like to see our work in Cambodia in Spring 2011? Deadline for application 30th August. Apply today.
Find out more about our work in Cambodia here.

• More about: Cambodia, HIV
• Share via:

Zimbabwe Appeal - Shadreck age 12 – 1 Jul 2010

Shadreck is just 12 years old, but caring for his sister and elderly grandmother. More than 1.8 million children in Zimbabwe are orphaned. We are making sure they are not forgotten.

Shadreck, age 12, and his sister Primrose, age 10, live in what seems an idyllic spot for children to grow up in.

From their home, there are far-reaching views for miles over the rolling countryside and forested hills. Wild flowers are in bloom, butterflies and birds are in the air and peace pervades this rural part of Zimbabwe.

But life for Shadreck and Primrose is anything but idyllic. Both their parents died from AIDS-related illnesses and the children are now among the poorest of the poor, facing a daily struggle for survival.

No regular income means a lack of food is their biggest problem. They often go hungry.

They live in a small thatched hut which has seen better days as the roof is coming apart and the walls are succumbing to the elements. Inside there is a hole in the ground where they have a fire to cook their food and the only piece of furniture is small table, crowded with plates and pans.

The children have a small patch of land where they have planted a maize crop but lack of rain in January means it is likely to fail, leaving them facing greater hunger.

Their hardship has been compounded by the theft of the few chickens they had.

Only Primrose goes to school. Shadreck had to give up attending in 2008 so he could work to provide for them both.

Shadreck said: ‘Yes, we feel hungry but there’s nothing we can do. If we have some mealy meal (a local type of porridge), in order for us to survive, we eat just once or twice a day. We have been living with hunger since our mother died.’

Although Shadreck is two years older than his sister, she is taller than him, evidence of how lack of food and a poor diet is stunting his growth.

While Primrose gets lunch at school, Shadreck goes without in the middle of his busy day.

The children get up at 6am. Shadreck works either his own or a neighbour’s land until 11am and then spends the rest of the day making two trips to fetch water in a 20kg bucket, walking a kilometre there and back over undulating countryside. After that he might walk up to four kilometres to find firewood.

‘I get very tired,’ he says in a quiet and understated voice. ‘I wish I could go back to school. I also wish I could get enough food and new clothing.’

Primrose rises at 6am too and walks two kilometres to school which starts at 6.45 and finishes at 3pm.

‘I feel pity for my brother. It’s also hard for me to see friends at school who have food when we don’t have enough’ Primrose says quietly.

Recently the children’s 85-year-old grandmother Sehli has been staying with them but she is in poor health. Mother-of-four Sehli has only one surviving son, who is blind, but does support her as best he can from his home in Bulawayo. With failing eyesight and the need for a stick to walk, Sehli relies on Shadreck and Primrose.

‘I have hope that God will protect us,’ says Sehli. ‘Yes the children are surviving but they need more food because they are always going short. Life was better when I was a youngster. I cannot work to help the children. Instead they are the ones working to look after me. It’s frustrating for me. I would like to be able to look after them.’

Both children attend the Agape Missions Pentecostal church, which meets at the local school. Despite their trials, their faith remains intact.

‘God is good and is going to bless us. He has been our protector,’ said Shadreck.

Tearfund’s local church partner, Zoe gives them porridge, mealy meal, sugar beans, cooking oil and maize supplies once a month. Primrose also gets help to pay her school fees.

We have also been able to provide them with some maize seeds. A local church volunteer Sellinah, supported by Tearfund, visits them regularly to offer support and train them in farming. She is teaching them how to dig and plant their own crops.

For years Zimbabwe has lived under the cloud of insecurity and political violence. Hyperinflation meant families did not know from one day to the next if they could put food on the table. A deadly cholera epidemic killed thousands and malnutrition became widespread. And at the same time HIV devastated the country. One child in four – over 1.8 million children – has lost one or both parents. For more information visit BBC to see their short film on Zimbabwe’s Forgotten Children.

You can help give children a hope and a future

In Zimbabwe, Tearfund works through local churches and partners like Zoe. Individual church volunteers mentor individual children and their families, giving them not a ‘hand-out’, but a ‘hand-up’. Your donation will help to fund this work, and provide thousands of vulnerable children and families with the chance of a brighter, self-sufficient future. Give today.

• €45 will provide agricultural training for five church volunteers. With this training they could then help 120 orphans to farm their own food, giving them the skills and opportunity to build an independent future.

• €81 will provide orphaned families with seven chickens – providing them with nutritious eggs and food and helping them on the way to self-sufficiency.

• €119 will provide an entire community of 30 families with seeds from which to plant up to eight different crops, allowing them to diversify their crops so they are less vulnerable if a particular crop fails.

• €598 will pay to hold workshops to envision and train 60 church leaders – helping them to play a leadership role in their community’s struggles to defeat poverty.

To make a gift today, please give online, call Christine at 01 8783200 or post a cheque to Tearfund Ireland, 5-7 Upper O’Connell St, Dublin 1.

Fundraising – Make a meal of it

Summer, the perfect time for a barbeque – to eat, have fun and raise vital funds for families living in poverty in Zimbabwe. To help you pull together a Make a meal of it event, we have resources for you to download.

Praying

‘Lift up your hands to him for the lives of your children, who faint from hunger’ Lamentations 2:19 (NIV)

Let the people of Zimbabwe know they haven’t been forgotten and encourage your church to pray today. To help you we have put together a short powerpoint presentation which you can download here.

• More about: Zimbabwe, Forgotten Children, HIV
• Share via: