Monday, October 25, 2010

June 2005

In the woods 6/24/05
 
This morning Simphiwe and I went to visit two women who are living in the woods just outside of town in an abandoned structure.  They have 8 small children between the two of them and no means of support.  The women chop firewood illegally for whatever few pennies they can sell the wood for.  One of the women has 5 children and all of them are sick.  The oldest girl, about 5 or 6, is possibly HIV positive, with oozing sores all over her body.  She has not been tested but her father died 4 years ago. The youngest child is only months old and is still suckling. These women have nowhere to go and no hope for help.  When a woman’s husband dies, she is often forced to leave the homestead.  If she has no home to go back to, she resorts to living wherever she can (for several months they lived behind a gas station in the neighboring town) and often will be forced to trade sex for food and money to take care of the children.  Often times women will find another man for a while who beats them and sexually abuses their children.  It is common here.  I am in training next week but agree to show up a week from Monday to take the woman to the VCT to see if we can’t get the child who is very sick on ARV treatment as soon as possible, and perhaps get all the children and the mother tested at the same time.  My fear is that the mother will become sick at some point and die, leaving these tiny 5 children in the woods to care for themselves.  There are no homeless shelters for women here and I am wondering how we might go about setting one up.  

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