It is early morning. The air is damp and there is a pungent smell of smoke in the air. I can see the male boarders huddled around a fire outside their dormitory, which is about 100 metres from our house. There is the distinct shrill call of a cuckoo somewhere close by and the muted sounds of the hostel children busying themselves further away. Early mornings and late afternoons are my favourite times of the day here at St Philip’s - relatively peaceful in contrast to the hustle and bustle of people coming and going during the day.

I have so much I want to tell you about the children, the Cabrini community, the mission and Swaziland. I will start with news about the Cabrini community.

THE CABRINI COMMUNITY
As reported in the last newsletter, the Cabrini Sisters Anna Maria and Speranza left Swaziland at the end of January. We hope that they are keeping well and enjoying their new lives in Brazil & New York respectively. Cabrini Mission Corps volunteer Heather Anderson returned to New York in February after being with us for 6 months. In mid April Sr. Diane Dalle Molle, a Cabrini sister, arrived from New York to be with us on a long-term basis. On June 9th Cabrini Lay Missionary, Aurora, arrived from New York. She is involved with mission finances.

THE CHILDREN
Presently we have 98 children – 78 residing in the hostel for children (32 boys and 46 girls) and 20 of the older children staying in the Senior boarding houses (7 girls and 13 boys). At present it is nearing the end of term and they are busy writing exams. Next week we will drop them off on the roadside and they will spend the three week vacation at the homesteads of their relatives. Unfortunately, this presents a problem for some, as there are seven children who are being abused by relatives. I am meeting with a Save the Children Child Protection officer tomorrow to discuss this issue.

Health
The children are all generally well and happy – I recently checked their growth increments and all except one are thriving. This child is being treated for tuberculosis and is receiving a special high protein diet to improve weight gain. We have the occasional outbreak of scabies, mumps, chickenpox etc. The children continue to receive a multivitamin supplement daily and have a well-balanced diet. We are fortunate that one of the new staff previously worked in a restaurant in South Africa and has a flair and added knowledge of food preparation.

Daily Routine
I cannot remember telling you about the children’s daily routine previously and thought you might be interested to know what they do each day, so here are the details:

5:30 am: The church bells are rung at this time and all the hostel children rise, wash, help with making a fire to cook thin porridge for breakfast, clean their dishes, do housework (we have a roster for sweeping, cleaning, making beds), dress in their school uniforms, clean their teeth and brush their hair, then have a final inspection by morning staff before leaving for school at around 8am.

11:00 am The government provides a meal of beans or rice with gravy, which they line up for at school and eat in the school grounds.

2:30 pm Arrive back at hostel from school – change out of uniform into casual clothes, have snack, which includes a drink of hot black tea (if day is cold) or fruit cordial in warmer weather with a Swazi sandwich (two slices of bread each cut around 5cm or two inches in thickness) with fillings of jam or peanut butter.

3:00 pm Wash school socks, polish school shoes.

3:30 to 5:00 pm Study time in dining hall with tutor staff.

5:00 to 5:30 pm Shower time. Fetching of washing from lines. Sorting of laundry.

5:30 pm Mealtime. Children must all wash their plates and cups after eating and stack them neatly. Teeth are brushed at this time.

6:30 to 7:30 pm Study time with tutors.

7:30 pm Preparation for bed. Distribution of medicines, multivitamins, toilet time, final cleaning of dormitory bathrooms by rostered children.

7:45 to 8:00 pm Prayers, Henk and I try to be there at least at this time to say goodnight to all children individually – it is a good chance to pick up if a child is not well (although the staff are good at telling us about sick children). We also try to participate in the study time, where possible.

8:00 pm With children all tucked in bed, we have a routine (which the children join in) of saying “Are you ready? 1-2-3 – Time to sleep! See you tomorrow!” At this stage, lights are turned off.

The House Mother works from 4:00 pm to 8:00 am and sleeps in the children’s dormitory. Two Day Staff (cleaners and cooks) are rostered on each day and start at 6:30 am and 7:00 am and work until 3:30 pm/ 4:00 pm. The tutors commence their study preparation at 1:00 pm and work until 7:30 pm.

Diet
At present we have lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, spinach (silver beet), beetroot, cabbage, green string beans and pawpaw growing in our community garden and the children are enjoying these. However, they are quite fussy about how they are prepared. After discussion with the staff and observation I can see that cabbage is best served as coleslaw (shredded and mixed with grated carrot and mayonnaise), beetroot is enjoyed when boiled, then grated and mixed with mayonnaise, lettuce is well accepted if chopped with tomatoes and served with a little salt only, carrots are only liked when grated raw (as in coleslaw) or eaten whole, straight from the garden. If chopped and added to a stew the children pick the cooked pieces out and discard them! However, the green string beans are favourites when cooked in a stew.

Discipline
Although it is the traditional Swazi way to beat children with a switch for misbehaviour, we have introduced a policy in the hostel of no corporal punishment. The staff is encouraged to use other means to discipline, such as withdrawing special treats, or physical work (for example, cleaning the toilets for a week).

Activities / Discussion Groups
In June we commenced these groups. The children were divided into 8 groups according to age – 4 boys & 4 girls groups, and a Swazi leader for each group was appointed from the community. The idea was to meet on Saturday afternoons to discuss life issues. The main aim is to facilitate discussion of issues of concern to the children and to promote their moral, social, and spiritual development. As they learn to trust their leader more it is hoped that they will open up and be able to talk about problems they are experiencing.

Celebrations
As I have mentioned previously, the children just love celebrations and parties and there have been a few since I last wrote. The Feast of the Sacred Heart was celebrated in late June with a big party. The most recent celebration was in early July, when I returned from leave in Melbourne and we had guests from Australia staying for a weekend to see the hostel program. The children performed an amazing concert of singing and dancing, followed by a feast of chicken, rice, beetroot and coleslaw salad and sweets.

A weekend ago, a group of the children were invited to perform at a fund-raising day held at a venue close by. They were very excited at the prospect of performing in front of an audience and rehearsed for two weeks before. They gave a terrific performance on the day and I was very proud of them all. The experience was a great boost to their self-esteem.

EDUCATION

Tutoring
Since writing to you in March, we have extended the development of our tutoring program so that we now have seven young Swazis (five women and two men) working with the children after school from Monday to Friday, 3:30 to 5:00 pm and 6:30 to 7:30 pm. They rotate across grade levels and focus on those children who are struggling and have special needs. They also assist children with homework as required. The children have just completed term-end tests and I look forward to receiving their reports. The pre-school children and those in Grade 1 have activities in the dormitories & the older children study in the dining hall. In the Senior Boarding House the children are under the control of the Swazi Servite Sisters and we have limited input into the way the children are handled. At present the Senior boarders’ study time leaves much to be desired – the girls must study in silence, (no discussion is allowed), and the boy boarders have limited supervision and so seem to spend a lot of time playing. Because academic standards are falling in these 20 older children moved from the hostel to the boarding houses in 2002/3 we are planning on having them study with the other hostel children next term.

Prize Giving

You may remember me mentioning a mini prize giving ceremony we had last year for those children who had done well in their tests or had improved in their work. We have decided to have another one of these to encourage all children to study hard. The prizes will be as before, a smart cap, fancy pen or pencil, and will take place in front of all the children and hostel staff.

Save the Children

This is a non-government funded international organization whose vision is based on the Rights of the Child. They see one of their main roles as advocates for children and lobby the government at policy level in creating child friendly policies. The organization consists of welfare officers and specially trained police officers who deal with child abuse issues. Although Swaziland was one of the countries which ratified the United Nations Rights of the Child Charter in 1995, child abuse remains a big problem here. For so long children have been seen as sources of labour, been beaten for misbehaviour (or for nothing in particular) or used for sexual gratification, and it is most heartening to see changes occurring.

The Save the Children team met with the hostel staff and discussed issues including children’s rights, child protection, HIV/AIDS, legal issues, orphan discrimination, types of abuse and how we can tell when this is occurring. It was an interactive session with the staff participating and asking many questions.

Earlier this week the Save the Children team met with the entire group of hostel children. I particularly wanted to have them meet with the children before they break for holidays. This was another terrific session in which the children were engrossed in the storytelling (about a young girl who was being sexually abused by a relative) and games played with emphasis on “good” & “bad” touching, and singing out “Good Touch!” or “Bad Touch!”, depending on how they felt. Interestingly, being touched on the face was considered “bad’ by most children. The two police constables from the mission joined in the session and told the children that they could talk to them at any time about any problems they were experiencing.

For the first time these holidays we have decided not to send eight children to their homesteads because of written and verbal accounts of abuse and past evidence of severe abuse. One 13 year old girl was being beaten severely and sexually abused and has made one attempt at suicide, and others told of being tied up in chains at night, being made to stay out all night looking for lost animals (although the children are afraid of the dark), or having to work like slaves from dawn to dusk ploughing or weeding fields or tending cattle. We will be involving the Save our Children officers and the police with the alleged perpetrators of this abuse. Child abusers in Swaziland now may receive a long prison sentence. We feel very strongly that we have a duty to care for these vulnerable children and their safety is our main concern.

NEW HOSTEL

At present we are in the process of screening applicants for the new hostel that is nearing completion.

HIV/AIDS

Gradually this illness is becoming more talked about and people are coming forward for blood tests more frequently. Anti retro-viral (ARV) drugs are now available in the country and are slowly being taken. But there is still much ignorance, denial, treatment by traditional witch doctors and general confusion in the community, with many Swazis admitting that they are too frightened to check their status. Added reasons for this apprehension could be having to face the stigma (if found to be HIV positive) or social discrimination (for example, a woman may be thrown out of her homestead and cut off from her children and family). However, people are aware of the few who have taken up the challenge of ARVs and can see that they are becoming stronger, so hopefully things will change over time. Meanwhile we try and help the families who are disintegrating with counseling, support of orphaned children, etc.

NEIGHBOURHOOD CARE POINTS (NCPs)

These are places being set up by the government to provide food, basic education, counseling and general support to vulnerable children who have lost parents or who have been abandoned. The aim is to try and keep the children with their relatives where possible and not to have to institutionalize them. This program will support our Education Sponsorship program, to which some of you contribute.

WEATHER

There was some rain earlier in the year, but it came too late for the farmers to plough and plant. When I flew back to Swaziland, it was a joy to see the rivers running, the country green, and animals looking fatter again. Hopefully, the rains will come again in September before the hot summer. There have been some very cold days through the winter period. The Swazis suffer from the cold, especially the old people, who often do not have adequate warm clothing, or blankets to keep warm at night. With added problems like flimsy huts with leaking rooves, these elderly Swazis have a miserable time through the colder months.

There is no heating or hot water in the boarding houses or the children’s hostel. All the children were given 2 blankets for their beds and have been fetching extra firewood to heat containers of water to take the chill off their bathing water. Some children were managing to skip wash time (because the water was so cold) and were becoming very grubby as a consequence! We hope to install a solar hot water system to take the chill off the water next year.

Thank you so much for all the donations of money, clothing, stationary, toys, sewing machines etc. It gives me such a warm feeling to know that there are so many caring and generous people out there.

At present there is a crate full of goods in Melbourne about to be shipped to us for the children. This will include 22 wool bales of used clothes packed by a team of volunteers in Australia – a huge effort which is much appreciated.

USEFUL ITEMS

The following items are always needed:

Good quality second-hand clothing for children 4 to 15 years old – especially black school shoes, sports shoes, sandals, navy tracksuits (for school), black and white socks (for school), underwear, caps

Sports equipment –soccer, tennis and basket balls, jump ropes (especially the long ones)

Toiletries – soap, toothbrushes, face cloths

Stationery – pens, pencils, rubbers, pencil sharpeners, pencil cases

Games – playing cards

Art work items – stickers, crayons, coloured pencils, construction paper, sketch pads, and school bags