‘€œSchool uniforms, Sunday clothes and shoes,’€ says Nosihle, a serious nine-year-old, quietly listing the first things her granny bought for her when her foster care grant came through.

‘€œBefore we got the grant, there was nothing at home. Only gogo’€™s pension. I was very happy when the grant came,’€ says Nosihle.

Both Nosihle’€™s parents are dead. First her father died, then her mother followed two years ago. She and her 12-year-old brother, Siphesihle, live with their grandmother.

At Nosihle’€™s school, Izingolweni Primary School in the south of KwaZulu-Natal, one in ten children have lost one or both parents. That adds up to 113 kids.

Patience Cele’€™s eyes moisten as she speaks about the many problems facing the children at the nondescript, overcrowded school opposite a taxi rank on the way to Kokstad.

For the past year, Cele has been the ‘€œschool-based carer’€ at Izingolweni, and teachers refer orphans and children with social problems to her.

‘€œHIV is affecting us a lot. Some children don’€™t even have shoes and some have not one parent. Others are struggling to get grants. It is such a long process,’€ sighs Cele, a large woman who oozes love and compassion.

Standing in the barren courtyard that serves as a playground, Cele hugs various children. ‘€œDuring break, I play with them and observe them. Those that are not playing usually have a problem. But they always laugh at me when I play with them because I am too big,’€ says Cele.

The idea of ‘€œschool-based carers’€ is being piloted by an organisation called the Media in Education Trust (MIET) at rural schools in southern and northern KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.

Carers identify and help those children who are slipping through the cracks: orphans and those from child-headed homes, disabled kids, children living with sick parents, children who are abused,

 neglected or who live in extreme poverty.

Eight schools in Izingolweni have carers, and Duduzile Cele (no relative) oversees their work. She says that the idea of the carers came out of a workshop MIET held for teachers about healthy living. The schools liked the idea of having carers employed by MIET at their schools and set about identifying suitable people.

Patience Cele heard about the job from her daughter, a pupil at the school, and was first in line to apply.

‘€œAlthough the money is not much, I love my job too much. I am very happy and proud of my work. As long as I can help my community and the children, I have got what I want.  Money does not mean that much,’€ she says.

Cele says that the teachers have been very supportive and the headmaster has even given her a little office, although space is so short at the school that each classroom accommodates two classes.

‘€œThe teachers identify a child with a problem and they refer that child to me. For example, there was a 12-year-old girl who could not sit properly. They referred her to me and she told me that she was being raped by her biological father almost every day,’€ says Cele.

‘€œThe headmaster contacted the police and that father is now in jail. The mother was crying, the way she was crying in my office, saying she didn’€™t know it was happening.

‘€œThe police took the girl to the hospital for blood tests and now she has found she is HIV positive. Yes, we have big problems here.’€

Ntombifikile Blose, one of the school’€™s senior teachers, says that she and her colleagues had seen how AIDS and poverty were taking their toll on their pupils. More and more children were coming to school hungry, without shoes, being ill with AIDS themselves and failing to concentrate.

‘€œBut actually, nothing was being done,’€ admits Blose. ‘€œWe would only send the ill ones to the clinic. It was even impossible to know how many orphans we had.’€

‘€œWe are very happy that some of these things are being uncovered now by the school-based carer. We now have forms to fill in about the children and we are able to know the children without parents.

‘€œThe school-based carer is able to visit their homes, organise food for them and organise the grants. This has given us 100% relief,’€ says Blose.

Not only does Cele get grants for children in need, but she also monitors how the grant money is being spent. She points out a 12-year-old child who has had a stroke, cannot use one arm and is getting a disability grant.

‘€œDo you see the torn clothes and those shoes? Her grandmother is an alcoholic and her mother doesn’€™t stay at home. But every pension day, the mother comes and takes the money to eat with her boyfriends. I called the mother to the social worker and she said she will go back home. But so far she hasn’€™t done anything. I went with the social worker to the child’€™s home, and now the social worker is looking for a place for her.’€

Cele says she works well with a network of community health workers, social workers, Home Affairs officials, the police and home-based carers from the South Coast Hospice to help children in need.

Some of the local farmers donate vegetables for the children from time to time, and the school is encouraging parents to run food gardens.

While wanting nothing for herself, Cele’€™s one wish is that someone can donate a container to her so that she is able to set up a sick bay for the children.

‘€œSome of the children have HIV themselves and come to school but they are not well. That little girl over there was hit by a car while crossing the road and now she gets terrible headaches. If only I could have a place where they could rest for a little while,’€ she says.

* Patience Cele can be contacted on 072 262 9312.