Kosi Bay – Paradise Lost
The district of Kosi Bay comprises the northern most edge of South Africa’s KwaZulu/Natal Province, bordering on to Mozambique to its north, and Swaziland to the east. It is an area of breathtaking natural beauty. The undulating coastal savanna is dotted with pockets of dense indigenous forest. A chain of crystal clear lakes is separated from the sea by the world’s highest vegetated sand dunes. The warm sub tropical ocean teems with dolphins and, during the spring, whales. Pristine beaches play host to marine turtles, that return to the same spot every year to lay eggs.
It is the traditional land of the Tonga’s – a gentle, smiling nation of ebony-skinned people. Their land extends all the way to the estuary of the Umbeluzi River, on which the city of Maputo (Mozambique’s capital) is situated. In fact, the border between South Africa and Mozambique is an entirely artificial creation of the colonial era. Until the late 1960’s, there were virtually no border controls.
Following the independence of Mozambique in 1974, the Apartheid state perceived a threat of ANC guerillas infiltrating the country from Mozambique through Kosi Bay. Border fences were erected, and the area was declared off limits to anybody who did not live there. For the next 20 years, Apartheid soldiers wreaked havoc in the rural villages. For the first time, the Tonga people were torn apart and separated by hostilities between the two countries.
During the 1980’s, the Apartheid state launched a full-scale attempt to destabilize Mozambique. It covertly sponsored a rebel group called Renamo. The result was the bloodiest conflict on the African continent. Hundreds of thousands in rural communities were massacred. Mozambique became the poorest country in the world. Tens of thousands of Tonga’s fled to Kosi Bay, to seek refuge with their kin. When the war ended, very few of them returned. They had, after all, established homes in Kosi Bay, and their children were at school there.From the early 1990’s onwards, the population faced a new threat. HIV/Aids spread rapidly through Southern Africa, with KwaZulu/Natal Province one of the worst hit places in the world. By 2007 (according to the annual “National HIV and Syphilis Prevalence Survey” published by the South African Department of Health), 39,8% of the population in the Kosi Bay district was HIV positive. Virtually an entire generation of young adults has died. The number of orphans increases exponentially from year to year. The 2007 Household Survey (published by Statistics South Africa) already lists the Kosi Bay area (officially known as the Umhlabuyalingana District Municipality) as the poorest district in the country. Because many of the poorest are of Mozambican descent, they cannot even access the meager, insufficient social assistance that the South African government offers to its own citizens. Because of gross financial mismanagement during the Thabo Mbeki era (under the watch of the notorious Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala Msimang, who advocated garlic, beetroot, lemons and olive oil as a cure for Aids) the public health system has collapsed. The government is unable to provide locals with even the most basic medicines, let alone ARV’s.
The Catholic Church’s Response – Bringing Good News to the Poor
The Catholic Church Mission is called Star of the Sea – situated between the town of Kosi Bay and the Mozambique border. There is a community of priests (Order of the Servites of Mary) and a convent of nuns (Daughters of Charity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus). Due to the hard work of the early Servites of Mary Missionaries, the church has a strong presence in the area, with a network of 15 out-stations, reaching the remotest and most marginalized communities.
The Church’s response to the humanitarian crisis has been swift. A support program for orphans was started three years ago. A network of 14 trained orphan caregivers provide services to the orphans in their communities, including psycho-social support, educational support (paying school fees, buying school uniforms), supplying orphans with nutritionally balanced food parcels, and providing them with proper shelter. Where possible (in the case of orphans who are not of Mozambican descent), the caregivers help them to access social grants from the government.
In November 2008, the church started an ARV treatment program, based at Star of the Sea Mission and funded by the US government’s PEPFAR. The program is staffed by two nurses, six counselors, a coordinator and a data capturer. Patients are visited at the various church out-stations. They are provided with voluntary counseling and testing, the full range of laboratory tests (CD4, Viral Load and Full Blood Count), TB screening, antiretroviral drugs, treatment for opportunistic infections, and nutritional supplements. The program has about 300 patients on treatment at present, with about 40 new patients being enrolled onto treatment each month.
Beyond the Gravel Road’s End – Two Personal Stories
The Kosi Bay area is greatly under-developed. The district has only two tar roads – both of them badly potholed. Often impassable sand tracks lead from the two tar roads through dense bush to the rural villages. Sicabazini and Mtikini are two such villages. Beyond these remote collections of thatch huts, foot paths lead even further into the bush. At the end of these foot paths, as far removed from “civilization” as one could go, you will find the orphans – living in shelters no better than those of animals, deprived of food, human contact and hope. Virtually the only human contact they have is with the caregivers from Star of the Sea.
Dumazile Ngwenya is 16. Her sister Tholakele is 9 years old. Their parents died four years ago of Aids-related conditions. They went to live with their aunt. She died in 2007, also of an Aids related condition. They now live in two rudimentary shelters in a small clearing deep in the forest, beyond the village of Sicabazini. Their geriatric, sickly grandfather lives with them. They have to take care of him. This makes 16 year old Dumazile the “de facto” head of the household. Neither of them has any education. Life is a daily drudge to collect firewood and water. They are fully dependant on the grocery parcels that the orphan caregivers bring them from Star of the Sea. Their shelter is exposed to rain, mosquitoes and snakes.
Just like Sicabazini, the village of Mtikini is a collection of thatch huts at the end of a sand track. Deeper into the forest live the orphans and the marginalized. One of them is Hloniphile Ngubane. She is 25 years old, and has a six month old baby called Minenhle. Both of her parents died of Aids related conditions. She is currently looking after her siblings: Sebenzile (16 years old), Nkosingiphile (14 years old) and Vukani (6 years old). She is unable to get an identity document, and therefore cannot seek employment or get social welfare benefits. All of them are illiterate, never having attended school. They sleep in a clearing in the forest, in a structure made of stones tied together with sticks – no doors or windows. Like the Ngwenya sisters, they are completely dependent on the assistance they get from the Star of the Sea orphan program.
The Needs – Serving the Poorest of the Poor
In Matthew 25 Jesus says “What so ever you do to the least of my brothers and Sisters, you have done to me”. For us to allow our brothers and sisters to live in such conditions is more than an offence against justice – it is nothing less than blasphemy against God.
The program has many needs:
Orphan caregivers work long hours and walk great distances, receiving no more than US$40 per month. They are usually poor themselves, and often use their own money to buy food or pay for transport for the orphans they serve. There is a need to pay them more.
Orphans face severe malnutrition. As elsewhere in the world, food prices in South Africa have increased dramatically n the recent past. Current funding is insufficient to provide them with their most basic needs.
As can be seen from the photo’s above, orphans have no shelter, and live in forest clearings exposed to the elements. More funding is needed to build basic shelters for them.
