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Jenifer 8 and her brother William 10 have faced the other side of life after losing both parents to HIV/AIDS related sickness. They used to live in a township called Chiromoni in the city of Blantyre when their father used to work for the government. In 2003 they lost their father and this led to the family moving to Mulanje as this was where their mother came from. The mother was expecting another child then. With the introduction of Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission of HIV measures, she was diagnosed with the HIV that causes AIDS. This did not go well with her that she refused to be put on Anti Rital Virals ARVs, let alone refused to follow the procedures so that she could give birth to an HIV free baby. While at the village she gave birth to a baby girl unfortunately the baby was infected with the virus. This was the entry point of so many diseases in both the mother and baby’s lives. A few weeks later they both died, and were buried on the same day.

Since the death of their parents, life has been so hard for the two kids who are being taken care of by their grandmother 61 years old. The grandmother does some piece works for example digging in other people’s gardens, when she is supposed to be preparing her field. Still more, this is not enough to take care of needs of the children as she gets less than a dollar in this type of work.

“You know it’s hard to take care of kids that were once living in town, I don’t have a proper place for them to sleep, no food to give them”

she said. The house in which they live in is a two roomed house, the kids sleep in one room and the granny in the other room. Both rooms do leak, and this attracts a lot of mosquitoes. Currently, Jenifer has developed sores all over her body due to the insects’ bite she thinks she gets when she is sleeping in that house. “You can see, my whole back is covered with such itchy sores, even in my hands I think these are from some insects which bite us when sleeping”.

For their upkeep, Jenifer and William help their granny with piece works. When William comes back from school, he goes fishing, “sometimes I catch two or three small which we cook , I wish I was able to catch a lot of fish for sale so that I could help granny with the money I would be getting” William said. However, most of the times, he goes with no fish and also most of the times they go with no food because finding relish is a problem.

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Another issue, which they worry about, is privacy. They do not have a bathroom; as a result they bath behind the house. It is an open space where they only use at night so that people should not see them. The condition if the toilet is also pathetic as it doesn’t have a roof, being just a hole made on a ground and is subject to rains all the times is very dangerous as it can collapse anytime and cause accident.

William would like to become an ADMARC depot seller (a government subsidiary which sells commodities for example maize), he says he knows how it feels like to sleep on an empty stomach and he would like to help those who depend on ADMARC to buy their food. Jenifer wants to become a nurse.

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This family is looking forward to getting a Habitat house “when I heard that my grandchildren have been chosen to benefit from the abwenzi program I was very happy, and I knew the souls of their departed parents are looking down on them. I have welcomed the idea, as you can see how much sand we have already brought to the site in just a few days, because my grandchildren know what it means to live in a good house, they are willingly participating in bringing sand here every day when they are back from school” said the granny. At least am sure that come June this year we will be under a roof and that my grandchildren will not be affected by the winds.

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Welcome to the first issue of NOVOC newsletter. As informed and effective advocates, local and international non-governmental organizations, CBOs, FBOs and individuals have had a role in shaping the work of Network of Organizations for Vulnerable and Orphaned Children in Malawi. Participation by NGOs, both local and international is crucial not only at the project level but also at the policy level. Village organizations and other community-based groups, academic institutions, and foundations are also integral to NOVOC’s efforts.

This quarterly newsletter aims to build on this foundation with information, news, and views from the sub-network members and its NGO partners. We look forward to receiving your suggestions for future issues. Let us know the kinds of questions about NOVOC’s work you need answered. For our part, we would be very interested in hearing about your efforts to protect the orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) at the country level, including best practices and lessons learned.

If you are reading a paper copy of this newsletter and have internet access, please visit NOVOC’s home page at www.novocmalawi.org. There you will find a wide range of information about the NOVOC and its projects.

C Q Nyirenda
National Coordinator

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Peter Mkate 13 is an orphan living in Nsanjama village. His mother died when he was 5 years old and has been living with his grandmother since then. The grandmother has no source of income and does piece works to get money for food. Apart from Peter, she also takes care of a little girl, Siyireni, whose parents are still alive but very poor to take care of her.

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This family does not have a house and live in a relative’s small house which is also used as a kraal for goats. It very pathetic to note that the goats have a bigger room and safer than where the people sleep. It is a two roomed house. Life in such a house is unbearable as the room in which goats sleep is always wet and full of dung. Being a room with no windows, it doesn’t produce a good smell and very unhealthy to people’s lives.

“We usually get sick because of the condition of the place we sleep in. Sometimes we can’t even sleep as get bitten by little insects which are normally found on goats”

explained Peter.

Body rush is one of the problems he mentioned that attack them, apart from malaria, cough and diarrhea. The family does not have a toilet and uses the neighbors, which about 500m away from their house. This poses as a risk to them in terms of hygiene, because at night they usually use their garden to relieve themselves.

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A normal day for Peter starts at 5am, he wakes up and goes to the garden with his grandmother. After an hour he comes back to take a bath and rashes to school. He does not have breakfast in the morning because his grandmother cannot afford to give them that first meal of the day. He comes back at 12:00 noon and sometimes is lucky to find lunch already prepared when they have money. After lunch he goes to play with friends and comes back to sleep at 6:30pm. An evening meal depends on the availability of food as well, most of the times when they have taken lunch they normally sleep without eating dinner s that they can serve money for tomorrow. Peter has two pairs of clothes, which one he wears at home and the other one he wears at school. “I did a piece of work, where I managed to get $0.80 which I used to buy a short and a T-shirt, apart from those clothes, the other one is what I am wearing now. I hardly wash them because I don’t get money for a tablet of soap. When I do any piece work I get less than a dollar and it’s not practical for me to use it for such luxuries yet we have no food at home.” Explained little Peter.

Generally the condition of the house is inhabitable, the roof is not well thatched that when it rains the floor gets wet and when this happens, they wake up and stand still until the rain stops. Even when the rain has stopped the room is very wet and the little pieces of clothes which they use as beddings get wet as well. The family has one blanket which Peter uses, grandmother and Siyileni use clothes as a mat to sleep on and cover themselves with a wrapper around which they received during political campaign.

Peter is very thankful to habitat for Humanity for identifying him as one of the beneficiaries of such a good gesture. Even though the house has not yet been completed, Peter looks forward to living in such a beautiful house with his grandmother and cousin. He usually plays around the area where the house is being constructed just to admire a house which soon will be his. When he grows up he would like to become a banker and live a good life not like the one he is leading at the moment.

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Limbani Chinangwa 11 years old is a double orphan living in Nlapa village. He is a last born in a family of 6 children. Both his parents died when he was quite young. He has been living with his elder brother Litha aged 16. Litha did not go far with school because he lacked parental support and resources to keep him in school. Taking care of Limbani was not easy looking at the fact that he also is physically challenged. He was born lame and finds it hard to walk as he uses upper part of her feet when walking; his legs are twisted. His condition also affected his brain he does not function like a normal child of his age.

These children were living in a bad house, their house did not have windows and the roof was not properly thatched. Due to heavy rains, the house is leaking a lot that it is not fit for dwelling anymore, as a result, Limbani is being kept at his aunt’s place as the other boys have gone to town to look for employment. Further to this, the aunt’s house is too small to accommodate her family and Limbani as well. The Habitat house has been built next to the aunt’s house with an aim of making sure that Limbani still stays close to the aunt who is now taking care of him as his brothers all fled to town.

Limbani will be living in the new house with two of his cousins and their aunt cannot move into the new house. They have goats which also sleep in the same house with them, “there are a lot of thieves in this area, I am afraid if I abandon my house and move in this new house I will lose my goats to thieves. My husband is a watchman and only comes to the house in the morning” explained Tereza. However, there has been a provision that one of the cousins who is 17 years old will be taking care of Limbani while living in that house.

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Limbani cannot go to school because of his situation, “when friends are going to school he cries a lot and sometimes follows them until when I rush to get him back” explained Tereza. The challenge that is there for Limbani to live a normal life like other kids of his age is mobility. If only he had a wheelchair, he would have been going to school with friends despite the fact that he is a child with special needs and would do well if sent to such a school. Even though Limbani does not really understand what I happening but he has an idea and this could be seen from his face that he is happy to have a decent house “aunt says this is my house, she says I will be sleeping in this with my cousins. They say it is my house”. Using unhygienically pit latrine was another challenge as Limbani cannot wear shoes, regardless how bad the toilet was he still used it in that condition. Since the toilet was not roofed, it meant being wet during rainy season and also as it was used by three families it attracted disease and poor Limbani just had to step on the mess the others had done to the toilet.

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The iron sheet roofed house does not only provide shelter to Limbani and his relatives but also brings water closer to the house during rainy season as Ellen lamented

“We are very thankful to habitat imagine, I should have been going to draw water from the bore hole with this rains and mud but here I am, I have just put pales on the edges of the house and we are catching rainy water. Making life easier for us”.