June 15, 2009 issue
In shadow of AIDS, MCC-supported day care center is a place of life
MCC supports a center for children in South Africa who have lost a parent
By Amanda Thorsteinsson Mennonite Central CommitteeIn the South African language of Southern Sotho, Bophelong means “the place of life.”
Children play table games at Bophelong day care center in Thembisa township, South Africa. — Photo by Joanna Hiebert Bergen/MCC
It is a fitting name for a bright day care center full of smiling children in Thembisa township, near Johannesburg, South Africa. Many of the children at Bophelong have lost one or both parents to AIDS and are being cared for by either a grandmother or by siblings not much older than themselves.
Mennonite Central Committee is providing financial support to the day care center to ensure that the children have a loving, adult presence in their lives.
“The walls are full of posters, numbers, letters and pictures,” said Joanna Hiebert Bergen, MCC’s HIV/AIDS coordinator, who recently visited the center. “It is a day care center where children are given opportunity to learn, to grow and to thrive.”
Hiebert Bergen recently traveled to Ethiopia, Tanzania and South Africa to visit a variety of organizations that MCC supports in helping people affected by HIV and AIDS.
In many places, the effects are devastating. The disease often strikes people between the ages of 20 and 40. When parents are too sick to work, children often cannot afford to attend school and are left to beg or work in menial jobs.
In South Africa alone, 1.4 million children have lost at least one parent to AIDS. Organizations such as Bophelong play a key role in supporting them.
“These children would go hungry if not for the nutritious meals and snacks provided by the day care center,” Hiebert Bergen said.
MCC provides financial support or personnel to 69 organizations responding to HIV and AIDS in more than 25 countries around the world. These organizations provide care for adults and children with HIV and their families, teach communities how to prevent the disease and advocate for people affected by it.
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