Single Orphan

 I found a mother on a street with two children and her husband was died after an accident where he lost one leg. They was living in a house just outside Dar es Salaam and he had quite good job. But efter a time he started do get some infections in the leg and they didn’t had any insurance to cover the costs for the doctor. So the infection started to be real bad and then he get gangrene infection. He died from that and left his wife and two children without anything. He didn’t had any relatives to take care of his family and also her relatives turned the back to them. 

Mother with two children

So these two and his wife had to leave the house and start begging and living on the streets. It is very rare that a woman with children can find someone to take care of them or to find a man that are willing to get involved with a woman with children. So if they don’t own the house then they have to leave. Very often these women don’t have any job and to find a job for a woman with two children is almost impossible. If they still are alive you will find them on the streets in Dar es Salaam and begging, if they have power enough to do that, for surviving.

 There is a small town called Batoka in Zambia where I find a mother and her son, 12 years old, who lost his husband in AIDS. They live in the house he build up just outside the town and have some small place where they can grow maize. Both of them are only working with their own farming as much as possible. For the lady to find a job is totally out of question. They don’t have any regular income, and only get some kwacha (Zambian money) time to time. For one month they earned around 10.000 kwacha. In that time 2008 us$1 was 3850 kwacha. And she was also infected with HIV and has to see a doctor time to time. To go to Choma and back cost her 10.000 kwacha so it was almost impossible for to go there and get the ARV she need for the sickness. If the son is infected they don’t know because they haven’t got him tested. He is also the man in the house so he has to take care of his mother and all other necessary things that need to be done at the home. To go to the school was not possible for him because of the costs. And here it was no school open for anybody to join, like it can be in some small villages. He can when he will be 15 start to work in some mines, even if it is not allowed to work in that age to support himself and his mother, if he lives for that long. A lot of children never reach their 15 year birthday.

This was two stories about single orphans in the big city and a small town. I will continue to tell more about children in Africa, but it will be little more mixed about different situation for them.