Miami Herald - May 13, 2007
Andrea Robinson, arobinson@MiamiHerald.com

"She won't let me go," said Hutson, chuckling. She is a family medicine and community health physician with the University of Miami.

Hutson is part of a South Florida group that donated more than $10,000 to help expand a home for orphans and other at-risk children in Nyanga Township, one of Cape Town's poorest neighborhoods.

The group, coordinated by a motivational outfit called Supreme Esteem, recently traveled to southern Africa for workshops on forgiveness -- and to encourage the workers and children at the Emasithandane Children's Project.

"It is our goal to not only leave South Africa as changed individuals, but also to leave South Africa a better place because we've been there," said Jacqueline Haze'l, a Miami-Dade educator and founder of Supreme Esteem.

The AIDS pandemic has taken a particularly heavy toll in South Africa. Nearly 20 percent of adults, about 5.6 million people, are infected with HIV, according to figures from the United Nations. A 2004 United Nations report estimated that there are 1.1 million orphans.

Epidemiologists say HIV makes people more susceptible to tuberculosis, which adds to the death toll and taxes an already stressed health care system.

Former President Nelson Mandela called attention to the crisis after losing one of his sons to the virus in 2005. The world community took notice, attracting help from individuals and various non-governmental organizations.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu recommended Haze'l assist the orphanage, which has provided shelter for the children in Nyanga township for more than 10 years.

"Mama" Zelphina Maposela, the founder of the home, began her work in 1994 when she took four children whose parents, dying of AIDS or tuberculosis, could not care for them any longer.

Administrators say some of their children are affected by HIV, but not all.

When the South Floridians visited, Maposela had at least 25 children, from 18 months to 18 years old. They live in her three-room home. The children sleep on mattresses scattered throughout the house, three to a mattress.

Photographer Damian Schumann, 25, a white South Afrikaaner who volunteers at the orphanage, set up a photo exhibit of patients in nearby Khayelitsha township. He hopes the images will cut through the stigma of those diseases so residents will get tested and treated.

"Many of the people have had tuberculosis seven or eight times, and don't know how they get it," Schumann said. "They're scared to be tested, scared to be seen at the clinics."

Mama and the children invited us to the neighborhood community center across the street for a brief program and reception of juices and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Mama, a chubby woman with a bright toothless smile and cheerful demeanor, greeted us with a handshake and a kiss. The children at first looked on quizzically. Once in our seats, we smiled, and they slowly smiled back. Some of them waved.

In the audience sat a trio of white females. One of them was Janina Morrison, a fourth-year medical intern at the University of California, San Francisco, who is doing research in South Africa on tuberculosis.

Morrison wasn't fazed, but the native adult workers were. They knew Americans were making a donation, but they expected white Americans.

One woman spoke glowingly in Xhosa -- her native tongue -- about the center and its work, unaware the visitors didn't understand a word. A colleague apologized and translated her speech.

"She didn't realize you're not us. We look like one," he said.

The children clearly understood the check presentation ceremony, as evidenced by their high-fives and giggles.

The emcee for the event, a guy named David, later confided that he was "overjoyed and proud to see us."

The Americans paired up with at least one child, learned each other's names and created name tags. The younger children clung desperately to my travel companions, refusing to budge.

Enamored with the children, Haze'l and the others plan to establish closer ties. She and orphanage administrators currently are seeking monetary donations to hire and train care givers, social workers and counselors to work with the children and assist Maposela. Some in the group, like Hutson, offered to provide monthly stipends to care for a child.

"I believe in Mama Maposela. She opened her arms and said I'll do it," Haze'l said. "She's been doing this for a number of years. What greater love can you have for your fellow man. That is phenomenal."

To donate to Mama Maposela and the Emasithandane Children's Project, visit www.childrenofsouthafrica.org.
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