Bringing hope and joy
By Sue Johnson
At the beginning of 2005 I went to interview the families in KwaXimba, selected for the KwaXimba Aids Orphan Project supported by Habitat for Humanity South Africa.
Having lost both parents, Jiko was left to care for the family. Her home, a mud and wattle structure was in desperate need of repair as the walls were beginning to collapse around the children. Inside the structure, there was not a stick of furniture. The families clothes were strewn across wattle beams and a few blankets, stored under a box on the floor.
No child should have to live in conditions like this.
One month later, my prayers were answered and Habitat for Humanity with their first volunteers, broke ground on the first house to be built for orphans in KwaXimba. Jiko Mchunu and her family would be the first beneficiaries!
I will never forget the look on Jiko’s face the day we arrived to dig the foundations for her new home, shock, disbelief and finally tears as it suddenly dawned on her that people DO care, that she is NOT on her own and that with the support of the Habitat for Humanity programme in the area, the lives of not only her family, but many other families struggling to deal with the decimating effects of the Aids pandemic, will be made easier. KwaXimba, a community where family life has been torn apart and where there is no future and there is no hope as one by one, family members succumb to the ravages of the disease.
Today, the Mchunu family has once more, through the generosity and support of Habitat volunteers, regained their self respect and pride, living amongst their community.
Aids may have taken their parents, and poverty taken every ounce of hope for their future, but a group of Habitat volunteers gave of their time and resources so freely. They replaced despair with hope, tears with laughter and built a home for children in need.