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Reminiscences |
| Pen Pictures and Reflections
from Volunteers |
| Helena Antonio Tembe
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| Jafet Jafet parents have both died. He was living with his uncle, who is married with two young daughters. Jafet ran away from his uncle’s home (said to be because of the poor conditions at the home) and presented himself at the local convent saying he was an orphan and he wanted them to take him in. The nuns had no facilities to take Jafet in, so they took him to a man who is a Catechist in the Catholic church. This man took Jafet in and he lived with his family for a few days. The man sought out help from Social Action and Imagine. He knew that the boy had an uncle. Imagine went to visit the uncle and his family (together with a Social Action representative). He was happy to take Jafet back. Imagine decided that if the family were supported with food for all of them, plus clothing for Jafet, their situation would be improved and, hopefully Jafet would not run away again. Jafet agreed with this and he is now back with his uncle’s family. The situation is being monitored. Jafet seems to be happy to-date (it is good to note that Jafet subsequently visited the IMAGINE offices with a bag of fruit as his way of saying “Thank you” for the help). Imagine has also been able to employ Jafet’s uncle, Samuel, in its building programme, so the family now has an income.
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Piedade Jonas
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| Volunteer Reflections IMAGINE has a number of volunteers who help in various projects. This help can be in the form of administrative support, logistical planning or accompanying the various project teams on family visits / interviews. We asked two volunteers to write a short note of some of their reflections to the work they were observing and to the conditions some families / children have to live in here in Catembe. We thought their comments would be of general interest – and quote a number of them below. Filomena I had only met Filomena once, a week ago, but when the phone call came I felt devastated and then angry. Filomena had died. Filomena was a little nine-year old girl. She had a pretty face and her hair was braided all over her head in the traditional style. This little girl was at the start of her life, she had everything to live for. She had a loving family, they were extremely poor, but things were just about to get better for them because her father had just been offered a job, working for Imagine. I visited Filomena last week in response to a request for help from the family. She was very ill they said, and they could not afford to take her to the hospital. It was only too plain to see that this child was suffering and probably had been for a long time. She sat with a vacant stare as she waited for the next bout of coughing to rack her small body. She sat holding an old tin to spit into. I looked around the room. This family were ‘lucky’ because they live in a block-built house, not like most people who still live in reed houses. There were few signs of possessions. They have a table and chairs and a shelving unit. What I was looking for was signs of food. I could only see one small loaf of bread and two lemons. There were no cupboards for food to be stored away in. This was all they had in the house at that time. Filomena’s grandmother was sitting with her when I visited, while her mother tried to get on with some chores, but the whole family were tired because they were being kept awake at night by Filomena’s hacking cough. We knew Filomena was in the advanced stages of TB, but we also had to try to help her. We took her to the hospital with her mother. She was admitted. Even this isn’t as simple as it sounds. In Mozambique, often, when a child is admitted to hospital, a parent has to stay to look after the child. Filomena’s mother, of course, wanted to be at her daughter’s bedside, but this had knock-on effects. There is a young baby in this family, still being breast-fed. The baby couldn’t go to the hospital, Filomena couldn’t go without her mother, so what to do? The only solution was for Imagine to supply the family with baby milk and food so it will continue to thrive. A solution, but not ideal. After a few days in hospital, Filomena was sent home. They said they couldn’t do any more for her. The family were distraught and again asked for help. The following morning we arranged for Filomena to be taken to the Mother Teresa sisters where she would get loving care and attention. Sadly and inevitably, it was too late, she only spent a few days with them because this morning she died. Such a waste! In the western world TB is under control. We can be vaccinated against it. Here, in Mozambique, TB is still a major killer. We hear this on the news and it doesn’t really mean very much. As I looked into the sad but beautiful eyes of this nine year old girl it was certainly brought home to me. It wasn’t her fault that she was born in one of the poorest countries in the world. It wasn’t her fault that she contracted a killer disease. It isn’t our fault either, but maybe the western world has to take some collective blame for not doing more to help the poor countries to eradicate these illnesses. Perhaps if Filomena had had access to treatment in the early stages of the disease she could have grown up into a beautiful young lady. I don’t know what would have become of her. What I do know is that a young life has been wasted. It makes me angry, it makes me sad. I only met Filomena once and I’ll never forget her. How must her family feel? I can’t begin to imagine. |
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| Cristina
Laurenco Matusse - Incassane
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| A “Street
Boy’s” Family We are often asked why young boys often prefer to live on the street instead of at home. The reasons are many and varied, but recently I came across a typical case. During our morning activities with some street boys, we were asked to visit one of their families living just outside of the town centre. You need a 4 by 4 to get to this family's home. The sand road had many potholes filled with thick mud and water. We left the car at a garage workshop about 200 meters away. The family had a corrugated iron house with 3 small rooms, which they share with other families. It is the Granny's and the two children's home. Their family name is Tomas. The girl is 13 and the boy is 10. Their clothes were not much better than rags and of course no school uniform although both children were said to be attending school. Yesterday, Friday, they did not eat any food, though today it looked as if they had some rice and a little spinach on top. There are 2 more families living with them with two babies and a young girl about 4. These families pay rent of 150,000 Meticias a month. They are also meant to provide food. In the room where they sleep there is a nice looking carved chest, a long low sideboard which is broken, a bottom of a sprung bed - just metal, and a now cracked / chipped concrete floor. There was a young mum inside one of the rooms doing some cooking, though it looked as if cooking was generally done outside in the small triangular yard. The washing hanging on the line looked just like rags. There was a very tiny low thin bench to sit on otherwise the use of plastic drums seemed to be the only "furniture". Sometimes a little food is passed over the fence from the neighbours. The house itself is small but was standing very upright and for what it was, looked safe. One or two of the surrounding houses are unfinished block houses with different makeshift tops. I suppose we would call this area a slum but you could see things were trying to be improved. Everybody lived very close, the paths were narrow, sandy, potholes filled with water and mud. The granny looked not well and when we were leaving she began to talk at great length. We left a little money and a couple of tins of beans and the children came back to the car and were given the remaining sandwiches we had. The boy needed his hands attended to having what looked like white puss elongated blisters near the skin surface. The girl's legs had various small bumps. A check up at the hospital for all three would be a good idea as well as being de wormed. The babies had colds, looked dirty but the other children's granny was very loving to them. I have learnt that food is very important, in so many ways. |
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