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Singing for their supper

Soaring HIV and AIDS rates across Africa are forcing many community organisations to change the way they work. Editor Maureen Bathgate visited a Mozambican group which has successfully integrated HIV services into its agriculture programs.

Every day, the fields around Chongoene, a small village in the fertile Limpopo Valley of Mozambique, are filled with singing, as volunteers from Oxfam Australia's local partner Arepacho, tend to their crops.

As they go about their work, their voices naturally fall into harmony, the words translating from their native Tsonga dialect as: "We are members of Arepacho. We are working together for food security. We are supporting people with HIV and AIDS."

Arepacho began in 2000 as purely an agricultural organisation. However, as the impact of HIV and AIDS spread throughout the local area, the group expanded its work to include a range of HIV and AIDS services such as home-based care, counselling, treatment access and support for orphans and vulnerable children. During the past year, they have been integrating their HIV and AIDS activities with their agricultural work in an effort to make the community more resilient against HIV and AIDS by having better access to nutritious food.

This year the group's 285 members, who are mostly women, are growing seven hectares of potatoes, five hectares of maize, three hectares of beans, plus other vegetables such as tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cabbages, onion and lettuce.

Once the produce is harvested, it is divided equally, with one part being sold to raise funds for the organisation to become self-sustainable, one part being given to Arepacho members to eat or sell and the rest being distributed to people living with HIV, orphans and other vulnerable families. Their most recent harvest produced 17.5 tonnes of potatoes and 26 tonnes of maize, which they used to provide nutritional support to 966 orphans and families affected by HIV and AIDS.

Samuel Chirindze, aged 44, lives on a small property just outside of Chongoene, with his wife Sandra, aged 23. He was diagnosed with HIV in 2005 after one of Arepacho's caregivers visited their home and advised him to have a HIV test.

With no family close by and their two children both dying within the past three years, the couple's weekly visits from caregiver Veronica and the food, care and treatment support they receive from Arepacho have been their lifeline.

"I don't know that I would survive without Arepacho," Samuel says.

"We receive food, vegetables, beans and rice from Arepacho. Every Wednesday Veronica comes to visit us to pray, provide counselling and domestic care. Sometimes I get money from Arepacho so I can take the bus to the hospital and get my treatment. They are also providing support with bills and medicines and that makes me feel stronger."

Arepacho's strength lies in the teamwork and camaraderie of its members, who treat each other as equals, allow every member to speak and always consider each others' ideas. Just ask Alda Uamusse, a divorced mother of two boys who has been a member of Arepacho for five years.

"Being a part of Arepacho brings me in touch with other people. We exchange experiences and share information and advice," Alda says.

"Thanks to Arepacho I am an educated person, I am empowered, I discuss important issues with others, people listen to me and I help other families in need.

"Arepacho has also helped me with material needs. As a member, I can benefit from vegetables that the group grows. Also, I have a [home] garden that doesn't produce; but through Arepacho, I have learned quite a lot of things, like seeding potatoes and using fertiliser, which I now use in my own garden.

"Now, I am praying for a good harvest."

• Oxfam News June 2007
• Table of contents
• Executive Director
• The rice revolution
• Working in a war zone
• Where has all the water gone
• Indigenous Australia in the spotlight
• Singing for their supper
• Too scared to go home
• A global force for change