Day 4 - Final thoughts

It was another early start for our last day visiting programs in the field. We are both filled with mixed emotions; excited as it will be looking at community care projects, but really sad as we will be leaving and saying goodbye to the amazing Swaziland team.

The first stop today was a Neighbourhood Care Point (NCP) in Mbadlane. The NCP is located in a point within a community where orphaned and vulnerable children can receive psychosocial support, early childhood care, basic health services and nutrition. After hearing about the support systems in place we had both expected to see a concrete structure so were surprised to see a single room with mud walls. It’s amazing that they live, eat, cook and prepare food in this little room.

When we arrived we were fortunate to be able to see first hand the traditional community structures. In order to speak to the carers and children we needed to seek permission from the male elders, which involved a lot of hand shaking. They were very supportive of our visit and explained how the support of UNICEF and its partners had made a real difference to the 50 children that visited the NCP. They also highlighted the importance of the introduction of water to the community. The newly installed well was not only a fun toy to play with but also gave the children access to clean water and taught them about sanitation and hygiene.

The children were very friendly and included us all in their games, it was amazing to see tiny children patiently queuing to wash their hands. We were never that well behaved when we were young! One of the boys who attended the NCP was a 6 year old boy called Tiyabonga. Both Tiyabonga’s parents and grandparents died from HIV/AIDS related illness so he is now looked after by his only surviving relatives, his great grandparents. They are both in their late 70s which is over double the average life expectancy of 34. It is unimaginable to think that a child as young as 6 could be orphaned and left to care for himself, the only support coming from the NCP which he will visit once a day. It was heart breaking to hear the great grandparents saying that their greatest fear was dying and leaving him all alone, which really highlighted the importance of NCP and community support.

After this we travelled to another NCP. This time it was a concrete building with 3 rooms, one of which was being used as a classroom to teach English. Although the building was grander and more stable than the mud room of the previous NCP, this care point had no water or sanitation facilities so was still lacking.

We left the second NCP for the final visit of the trip, to a child headed household. Before arriving we had read about the children we would be visiting but it did not really prepare us for the experience of meeting them. Nonhlanhla is a 17 year old girl who cares for her 6 siblings and cousins. Nonhlanhla has been the sole carer since she was 13. The family live in the home that her parents built which consists of two separate one roomed huts, for sleeping and storing food. The house is very old and is covered in holes, when it rains the water soaks. On several occasions the house has been broken into by thugs who have come to steal their food.

They invited us into their home to talk to them, it was cramped in the single room and hard to believe that 7 of them shared this single mattress on the floor. Nonchlanchla was incredibly shy and hid herself away to the corner of the room. As she talked about the immense responsibility looking after these children we really got a sense of the burden she carries and of how much of her childhood she has missed out on. We also spoke to Sebenzile, Coolagannie and Galkoolo three of Nonchlanchla’s cousins that she cares for. They all attend school and muck in to help around the house. They did not seem down, and were getting on with their lives but they were just so young to lead their lives with no paren

Day 3 - Mother to Mother, babies and breastfeeding

Our day started an hour earlier, at 5.30am, all because of Romy's rubbish alarm setting skills. We recovered nicely though, and had our first appointment of the day with NERCHA, the National Emergency Response Council, on HIV/AIDS.

We met Dr Von Wissell, or as we like to call him, Derek, who highlighted the importance of promoting a social movement and changes in sexual behaviour alongside biomedical intervention, such as, circumcision.

We saw all these ideas in practice after travelling two hours to reach the "Mother to Mother" project in the remote Lubombo region. This project provides information and support for pregnant women living with HIV and works towards preventing mother to child transmission. It was really distressing seeing such a large group of HIV positive young women, but, astonishing to see their determination to prevent their children becoming positive.

Despite the language barrier, the speaker was really inspirational in empowering the women who were packed into the small concrete room. She was also supported by an enthusiastic toddler, who took centre stage by continually clapping and performing Michael Jackson's dance moves.

The next project showed us the clinical face of HIV as we went to a testing centre, which focused on early infant diagnosis. There we met a super hardworking nurse and her three team members who solely treated 2000 women every month. This was a really successful project in preventing mother to child transmission and offering support to positive mothers and babies. It was, however, unimaginable that the joyous event of having a child is continuously tainted by the fear of HIV.

We then travelled to a rural youth income generating project. It was amazing how a couple of pigs and a vegetable garden can make a real difference to a community.

We met some friendly children there who beat us at hopping games and showed us around where they live. It was the middle of the day and the children were not at school and Noni, our lovely UNICEF worker, guide and friend, queried as to why. The little boy answered saying that it was because, as an orphan he couldn't afford to buy shoes and had no family to support him in his education.

Although we have seen a lot of positive UNICEF and partner programmes that are making a difference, encounters like this really highlight that there is a long way to go if it is simply a pair of shoes standing in the way of a child's right to his education.

Romy and Rhiannon

For more information about the Swaziland trip, visit www.unicef.org.uk/youthvoice.

Day 2 – Singing, dancing and Polaroids

The 6.30am start was quite painful but then we remembered we were in Swaziland, yay and clambered onto our yellow bus prepared with sick bag and sun cream – the essentials. Life skills specialist Vumile showed us to the first school of the day where we met young people involved in the Livelihood Skills Club at the Hhhohho AME Primary School.

This was a project that taught the children profit generating skills, which involved everything from knitting to pickling. The project works with orphaned and vulnerable children and a lot of the produce is grown in their school garden. What shocked me the most was the fact that the school had no water supply so every time they needed water they had to walk down a big hill to the river and back up again. Later we passed the murky river and were told that it wasn’t safe to drink.

The second school we visited encouraged life skills through sports as we played innovative games such as a Swazi version of Bristish bulldog, where crocodiles had to catch people running across the swamp. These crocodiles represented challenges in life such as poverty or HIV/AIDS. The games seemed to be enjoyable for all but it was hard to see if the messages were really getting across to the children.

An excellent initiative that was running in the school was the introduction of peer educators. These young people were extremely clued up on the problems their country faced, from sugar daddies to using protection and learning life skills. They were very approachable and I could see how they would be excellent mentors for these children to turn to.

In the final school we visited, we saw a show that was the result of a drama project running in the school. The speeches the children gave were very powerful if not disturbing as we saw very small children talking about rape. It is a good idea using dance and song to talk about difficult issues as in the interviews they were incredibly shy and reluctant to speak. They did, however, love the Polaroid snaps we gave them and could not stop giggling and posing in their beautiful Swazi costumes.

After our fun day playing with children, we then had to put our serious heads on as we had a meeting with Save the Children. They were really inspirational people working alongside UNICEF. They had really good ideas about cash transfers directly to young people and talked about all the improvements being made but also stressed how much there is still to be done such as developing neighbourhood care points and getting more money into the country. We have been really proud today to be supporting UNICEF and the work they do but at the same time the problems can often seem overwhelming so we need to stay positive and keep campaigning.

Romy and Rhiannon

For more information about the Swaziland trip, visit www.unicef.org.uk/youthvoice.