More than one million children orphaned by HIV and AIDS in South Africa face a struggle for food, shelter, water and money. Oxfam is helping to lessen their burden through food, care and support programs.

Nokhutula Dlamini, aged 23, now looks after her four siblings following the death of their parents from HIV and AIDS.
Photo: Matthew Willman/OxfamAUS

"I am an orphan today, tomorrow and forever. I am left alone without a grandmother and a mother, taken by you, killer disease."

These haunting words, written by a six-year-old child, resonate through the lives of many children orphaned by HIV and AIDS in South Africa. It is estimated there are about 1.5 million orphans in South Africa - a number which is expected to top five million by 2015.

HIV and AIDS has left many of these children in a persistent shadow of despair. Those with sick family members usually take on the role of primary caregiver. If their parents have died, they are either cared for by grandparents or other relatives, or are left to fend for themselves.

Struggling to cope with the grief of losing loved ones, they also have to juggle the demands and stresses of school, family and work, shouldering the responsibilities of adults while their childhood slips by.

With little money coming in and food parcels usually running out, many children have to go to bed hungry. Some are forced to leave school to go to work to earn money or to care for younger brothers and sisters, which means they not only miss out on an education, but also on food at school-based feeding schemes. Others simply cannot pay for school fees and uniforms and many don't have birth certificates, making access to government grants and services difficult.

Lulama*, aged 18, lost her mother, two uncles and an auntie in the space of six months, all from AIDS related illnesses. With her grandmother in hospital, Lulama is now head of her household, caring for her three younger siblings, as well as her sister's son, while trying to complete Grade 10 at Georgetown High School.

"As I am the older sister, I do all household duties like cleaning the house and cooking," Lulama says. "I am used to it because I do it everyday. Once I'm finished with all my work I go and play with my friends.

"We only have a pension from our grandmother. There is no other source of income or any food. We need money to buy food, to renovate our house and also for schooling."

As part of the Joint Oxfam HIV and AIDS Program, we work with local partners in South Africa to help orphans and their families access government grants, food, education and other welfare services.

We have also recently begun a new food and support program for orphans and other vulnerable children in the UMkhanyakude district, in KwaZulu-Natal province which will provide food parcels, school support services, improved access to government grants, stronger social services and work skills training.

This work will lead to increased access to food, care and support for orphans, as well as higher nutrition levels, better general health and a greater chance of realising their dreams of a brighter future.

"When I grow up I want to be a lawyer," says Nomusa*, a Grade 11 student at Silver Heights School whose mother died of an AIDS-related illness in 2003, "so that I can help poor families like mine."

Story written by Oxfam Australia's South Africa Program Officer Charlotte Sterrett and Editor Maureen
Bathgate.

* Pseudonyms have been used to protect the children's identities.

To find out more about our work in South Africa visit www.oxfam.org.au/world/africa/south_africa