AIDS orphanage revives Swazi ghost town
SWAZILAND: Lost in the mountains of Swaziland, Bulembu became a ghost
town when the local asbestos mine closed, cutting off its lifeblood.
But now the town is coming back, centred on an orphanage taking in
children whose parents have often died of AIDS.
"The babies are abandoned, maybe put in a plastic bag on the side of
the road, maybe in the pit latrines," said Zanele Maseko, head of the
nursery for the smallest orphans.
"What the police told us, they found a baby who was buried alive. She
is a big girl now." Swaziland has the world's highest rate of HIV
infection, with at least one in four adults carrying the virus. A
crushing financial crisis has left the tiny monarchy struggling to pay
for medicines and for orphans' education.
About 120,000 children have been orphaned in this landlocked nation
in southern Africa, comprising more than 10 percent of the total
population.
Those startling statistics inspired Canadian entrepreneur Volker
Wagner to buy the entire town of Bulembu in 2006, five years after it
was abandoned, and entrust it to a Canadian evangelical ministry which
actually runs the place.
They have created a private community, a sort of "Christian kolkhoz",
which is developing around the orphanage that now houses 303 children,
aged from two weeks to 21 years.
"At present financial projections, we believe that Bulembu can be
sustainable by 2020 with 1,000 children in our care," said Andrew Le
Roux, executive director Bulembu Ministries Swaziland, which manages the
project for Wagner.
"But this is a minimum, and as we strive to grow the businesses, this
number will increase. We believe 2,000 is the maximum number of children
that the infrastructure can sustain."
The idea is to make Bulembu completely self-sufficient. Its leaders,
mainly white South Africans, aim to train Swazis to take over the
project.
Bulembu currently sells wood, milk, bread, honey, mineral water and
souvenirs to outsiders. Those businesses employ several hundred people
and the revenues fund 45 percent of the town's operations. The rest
comes from private donations, mainly collected in Canada, which also
fund new investments.
A museum is in the works, along with a guesthouse for visitors and
benefactors who come from around the world to volunteer.
The old mining staff quarters have been fixed up to house the
children, their caregivers, and the employees. AFP |