KaPhunga, located in the heart of Swaziland

KaPhunga community profile

The KaPhunga community represents a group of settlements resting on a plateau 3,000 ft above sea level in the heart of Swaziland. Dissected by deep, v-shaped river valleys, KaPhunga is 70 kms from the nearest small city Manzini. There are clay roads radiating out along the ridges of the plateau with rough footpaths directly between settlements consisting of scattered homesteads of small clusters of round houses with thatched roofs.

Life is difficult in this community. Comfortable family groups keep chickens, a few cattle - for ploughing, transport and manure - and have a few cultivated fields, often terraced. There are outcrops of large rounded rocks everywhere. Water is mainly collected from rainwater catchments from a roof or carried from a stream. None of KaPhunga's food, plant or animal production is consistent enough in yield or quality to be saleable to the outside world and so create a dependable income.

KaPhunga is reeling from the devastating toll of HIV and AIDS. Countless deaths in the regions have left many child headed households. Numerous orphan children and youth are HIV positive. There are schools but many children have to walk long distances to attend, carrying a piece of firewood - their contribution to the cooking of a school meal. Children are not permitted to attend school without a uniform and therefore lack of finance for school uniforms is a constant battle.

If anti-retroviral drugs are to be taken they must be taken with food. There may be land available to the orphaned families but they can't produce food without help: tools, seed, and fertiliser. With funding for this community, volunteers would be able to provide emergency food parcels to these child headed households along with training and materials to enable the children to grow their own food.

There are many adult patients suffering from AIDS related illnesses in KaPhunga as well as the usual ailments of any poor community. Illnesses for which we in North America would easily get treatment, go untreated, leading to chronic illness or hastened death. Even now there are many lying in their homes - scattered and remote - suffering and hungry without anyone knowing and seeking help for them. The 30 volunteers working in this community are becoming well known and messages are often passed to them about someone found to be in need. Even one of the volunteers had been found ill with no food in her home. She too is HIV positive.

The needs in the community

  • Increased home based care training for new volunteers
  • Backyard garden training for child headed households
  • Emergency food support
  • School supplies and uniforms for children
  • Income generating activities
  • HIV/AIDS education

What we are doing

  • Providing home based care
  • Supplying seeds and tools for growing and harvesting maize (see sidebar for pictures of the first crop of maize as well as the children from a child headed household who are the beneficiaries of this crop)
  • Providing cooking pots, washing bowls and 20 ltr containers to 60 child headed households
  • Providing chickens, feed and needed supplies for a community owned poultry farm