The Gallery
All text and photographs copyright of Our Forgotten Children
South African Orphanages
www.ethembenischool.org
Ethembeni School for the physically disabled and visually impaired. Hillcrest, South Africa.
email; ethembeni@mweb.co.za
www.tradepage.co.za/nsb
KwaZulu-Natal Society for the Blind, Durban, South Africa
email; nsblind@africa.com
www.lilyofthevalley.org.za
Lily of the Valley Childrens Aids Orphanage, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa
email; noel.wright@mweb.co.za
Mavela Aids Orphanage, Zulu-Natal, South Africa
email: meskinpd@iafrica.com - Paddy Meskin, Chairperson
South Africa
It looks like every parent's dream. Little bundles of joy, in every corner of the room, gurgling with delight as they come to grips with the world for the first time.
Except that, not one of these babies has a mother. Not in the conventional sense. The real parents of these children in Kwa Zulu-Natal, South Africa, are all victims of HIV: either dead or too sick to care for their offspring. So the staff at the Mavela Home for Children - some of them elderly pensioners - must play substitute mothers, knowing that many of the kids have already inherited their parents' fate.
Nearly ninety per cent of the children born each year with HIV can be found in sub-Saharan Africa. KwaZulu-Natal is the South African region most affected by the AIDS pandemic. 36% of its adult population is now infected - a result of the government's long-standing refusal to authorize the use of AZT and other anti-viral drugs.
The Lily of the Valley Children's Village, also in KwaZulu-Natal, has exchanged a dormitory-style orphanage for a more intimate family environment. Each of its 21 homes boasts a 'family' of six children and a house mother. So while many of these toddlers are also HIV positive, they all have one person they can turn to - for simple love and affection.