The children are meeting in Cape Town for three days as part of The National Children’s Forum on HIV/AIDS.

Today (Friday), several children aged between seven and 18 years who have been nominated by the group, will meet 70 representatives from relevant national government departments, ministries and parliamentary committees to speak about the impact of HIV/AIDS on their lives and to draft proposals to address problem areas.

The Forum, the first of it’s kind in this country aims to provide children who are infected or affected (by losing a close family member or members) with an opportunity for their views to be heard.

Forum organiser, Sonja Giese of The Children’s Institute at the University of Cape Town said they were also aiming to increase awareness of the impact of the epidemic on the children and to provide feedback and information from the child’s perspective on the implementation and development of policies and programmes designed to address the impact of HIV/AIDS.

A memorandum of action will be produced which summarises the issues raised by the children and ensures commitment from decisionmakers to address these issues.

None of the national ministers who were invited are attending.

The children, many of whom live in abject poverty and might go without food for days, come from urban and rural areas.

For many this was their first time on an aeroplane, staying in a hotel or visiting a big city.

“We have to acknowledge the courage of those children who have come here, many of whom head households.

“This courage needs to be respected and the best way to do it is a decent response to their needs and concerns,” said Giese.

At today’s session, which will be open to the media, the identities of those children who have chosen to share their stories, will be protected.

These are the stories of three of the children (their names have been changed).

Jeremy (12 years old)

When Jeremy was asked on the first day of the forum to draw a picture of his family and his home, there was only one person in the drawing who was carrying a baby on his/her back. When probed to tell more, the youngster, from a rural village in the north, revealed that he was the boy in the picture and the person on his back, his six year old sister.

“I look after my sister. My mother is dead,” he said. Jeremy and his sister have lived alone in the house for three years and are dependent on the food parcels from a local non-governmental organisation.

He doesn’t know his father and admits that he at times feels extremely lonely and harbors suicidal thoughts.

Jeremy is able to attend school, but spends his afternoons collecting firewood to cook their meals. Neighbours are far away and the two children have to fend for themselves.

“He has been very disciplined in his eating and told me that he feels guilty about having access to all this food while his sister is at home,” his group facilitator said. “He wants to take some of the food back to his sister.”

Millie (13 years old)

Millie’s sad story seemed to encapsulate many of the problems and concerns voiced by the children over the three days. Her story was told by her caregiver, a nun who works in the most remote areas of this country who tries to offer relief in the form of food. “You can’t start to work with people if they are hungry,” she said.

Millie lost her mother to an AIDS related illness in December. She nursed her mother until she died. At the time she was already caring for her six month old baby brother, Gift and three other younger brothers.

Gift died in April of starvation.  

“She used to feed the baby goats milk, but after they were forced to slaughter the goat there was nothing. When I found her she was feeding the baby water with a teaspoon,” the nun said.

“She was totally devoted to the baby, but she (Millie) couldn’t stop crying when I found her.”

According to the nun, the family is extremely poor and goes without food for days on end.

The father is also HIV positive.

“She does all the house work. She cooks and cleans which means she rarely goes to school.”

The nun said she suspected that Millie was also the victim of sexual abuse.

Zanele (15 years old)

This sketch was written by Zanele and is her life story.

One day Mrs X was sitting at home bored and she decided to go for a swim. On her way back she met three guys. They raped her. So she went to the police and reported the matter. And they opened a case.

Mrs X was a virgin. One of the guys who raped her was HIV positive. He knew he was HIV positive, but he didn’t care. Three months later Mrs X found out that she was HIV positive. The doctor didn’t refer her for counselling. She was mentally disturbed because everything confused her.

She was very hurt by this and carried that anger for a long time. After a year of counselling she lives a healthy, happy positive life. The scars in her body will always remain there. The rapists have got to rot in jail forever. The worst part of it is that the ones who raped Mrs X are walking free.