Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 4 September 2003
John Sparrow and Selma Bernardi in Chitungwiza, Zimbabwe
Thursday
14.00pm
Twins Agnes and Portia, 13, have just eaten lunch at the Seke North clinic. They were gleaning what they could from a waste container when the Red Cross found them. Stale food and rotting fruit and vegetables from a shopping centre make the dump site out back a magnet for barefoot, ragged and hungry children. The twins could be seen there every day.
Orphans, they lived with an uncle. He was not a bad man, just destitute, and unable put a meal on the table. When Red Cross home-based care volunteers from a post at the clinic heard their story, they stepped in.
Now, three days a week, the twins come for lunch at the clinic where a local NGO runs a feeding programme. A monthly Red Cross food parcel allows the uncle to cook at home the rest of the week.
The next step will be to get the children back to school. They were excluded last term because their uncle was unable to pay the fees.
"There are so many children like this," reports care volunteer Elizabeth Honyerwa. "More and more of them are on the streets," says her colleague, Elizabeth Shambamuto.
15.10pm
The Elizabeths are on their beat, and call in on client Betty Nyuaurondo, 38. A disturbed, volatile woman who is HIV positive, they found her picking up garbage on the street.
Betty hasn't yet recovered from the loss of her family. After her husband died, his relatives took her two sons and two daughters away. Whether she could care for the children may be in question but their forced removal hasn't helped her mental state.
She came home to her mother after that but something has gone wrong here, too. Mother has chased her out of the house and she lives in a filthy lean-to at the back. Even in a slum it would be a health hazard.
Betty hasn't a cent to her name. Her access to health care has been compromised to the extent that she doesn't have any. When she is sick, which is getting more frequent, the Elizabeths look around for a friendly nurse who isn't going to charge for the medication.
Mother offers the visitors some tea. Betty goes beserk. "You like my visitors, don't you?" she screams. "Why don't you like me?"
She collapses on the ground, sobbing. The Elizabeths calm her, counsel the mother, and then forgo the tea. Before they get to the end of the street, they hear a group of children chanting. Standing in front of Betty's yard, they are laughing and singing her name.
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