New hope for Aids orphans
2004-02-04 11:03
Special Report
Government's commitment to test 15 million people for HIV/Aids in a bid to reduce infections by 50% by 2011 has been welcomed by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA.
James Hall
Mbabane - Swaziland has launched a major education initiative to assist children who have lost parents to the Aids pandemic that is believed to have infected 39% of adults in the tiny kingdom.
Swaziland's government said on Tuesday it will start paying the tuition fees of all Aids orphans, many of whom would not be able to attend school otherwise.
School principals have been instructed to admit the children without further question.
To date, Swaziland authorities have only paid teachers' salaries, with schools depending on tuition fees to cover their other expenses.
The Aids pandemic is spreading unchecked in the small landlocked kingdom of one million people, with the US estimating that almost 39% of Swazi adults are infected with the human immunodeficiency virus that causes Aids. This is up from four percent a decade ago.
Mixed reaction
The government's announcement has elicited a mixed reaction: shock on the part of school principals, applause from education analysts - and media scepticism about whether authorities have the money to pay for this initiative.
"We are taking a census of children who have lost both parents to Aids, but the National Emergency Response Committee on HIV/Aids has projected that by 2010 there will be 120 000 orphans in Swaziland. Because of Aids, there may be fewer than 900 000 people in the country by then," says Colleen Tsabedze, a social worker in the southern Shiselweni Region.
At present, Swaziland is facing record budget deficits and a shrinking tax revenue base. With a 40% unemployment rate in the formal sector and 80% of the population living as peasant farmers on communal land, taxpayers are few and far between.
The Swaziland National Association of Teachers, whose members include school principals, has meanwhile remained silent on the new initiative.
Principals complaining
Individual principals, however, have complained bitterly that without immediate government support, bankruptcy looms for any school that heeds the directive.
Education Minister Constance Simelane has been criticised for announcing the new policy the day before the opening of schools nationwide, long after most places in classes had been filled. And, there are fears that some families might try to pass their children off as orphans to obtain government scholarships, because a vetting process where orphans are identified by community workers is still being set up to counter possible fraud.
Yet, a straw poll of public opinion suggests the directive also enjoys some support - even amongst members of the public who will end up footing the bill.
"After rent and food, school fees are the biggest item on our family budget, I think even before clothes. It is hard. I would welcome government assistance. But my children have a parent, and the orphans have no one," says Thab'sile Fakudze, a single mother in central town of Manzini.
Social welfare groups also insist that the government's action is a step in the right direction.
- African Eye