Muzoka's Children

Muzoka encompasses 37 villages, which combined have more than 1,000 orphans and that number increases everyday. Each time I go there I hear more stories of children who have been left by parents or grandparents who have died. Then there are the children who are HIV+ and as Lewis who works for us there says, ‘they are silently suffering and quietly dying’.

There is a little girl who has become my buddy, Munwato; she is 5 and HIV+. Her grandmother was caring for her after both parents died. One day she was carrying Munwato on her back when she was hit by a car and killed. Munwato somehow survived. I was sitting with her caretaker who asked me if she could show me the medicine that Munwato takes for HIV. She brought out a box about the size of 4 large shoe boxes and it was full of meds for the month. I was holding Munwato, who is a tiny little thing and imagining all of this going into her little body. It reminded me of the end of December, 2006. I was sitting on the edge of a hospital bed looking across at one of my longest and best friends and her four year old son. He had cancer and was getting a chemo treatment. I was watching as the nurse came in every fifteen minutes or so to load more meds into his IV. I remember looking at his little body and then at the machine. Then I looked at my friend who was sitting on the end of his bed across from me. With tears in her eyes, she said, ‘this has taught me that my children don’t belong to me, they are just entrusted to me’. And I thought, ‘you are my hero!’ This is why I am so passionate about little ones like Munwato. Who is she entrusted to now? Like so many others I have met, they are left to families who have an abundance of children to care for already and very little if any income.