Posted : 30 November 2011

An Aids orphan, 11, tells of being left to care for her baby sister

Khanyi Ndabeni [email protected]

TEACHERS often complained about how often she missed school, fell asleep during class and didn’t do her homework.

Little did they know that Lihle was in a desperate situation. Orphaned by her mother’s death from an Aids-related illness, she had courageously taken on the role of housekeeper, mom and breadwinner to her baby sister, and was fighting a tragic and lonely battle to keep the two of them alive.

Lihle*, now aged 11 and inflicted by the same virus that took her mother’s life, has been looking after her four-year-old sister at their humble Kwazakhele home for the past three years, begging for food to survive.

Initially, the two were left in the care of a female relative, but she took most of the monthly R740 government grant and left the children without food or clothes.

The siblings had to resort to begging from neighbours until social workers became aware of their  plight and last month placed them in the care of neighbours Busisiwe Malambe and Fikiswa Tyeya.

“I used to cook for both of us, when there was food at home,” Lihle told The Herald this week.

“I had to ask Busisiwe for food. I washed my sister everyday before school and if my aunt was not at home we would sleep alone. If there was no one  to look after my sister I wouldn’t go to school.”

“If my mother was still alive I’d ask her to buy me a pair of wedge (high heel shoes) shoes and jump suit for Christmas and a new uniform for school next year,” Lihle said, before bursting into tears.

She said her friends often spoke about what their parents bought them or did for them and it was painful for her because she had never known her father and her mother “will never come back for us”.

“It is still not easy for her to open up about her pain,” said Malambe. “This has really affected her so much that she is forgetful. She doesn’t know why she has to take five pills a day but the social workers said we must wait until she can understand about the disease before we can tell her,” she said.

An  HIV/Aids counsellor, who has worked with the case but cannot be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, said concerned neighbours had initially reported the sisters’ case to a social worker.

“After an investigation, the children were last month taken from their home and placed in the care of the neighbours. The aunt still lives in their house, but the grant has been stopped for now.”

He said the situation was temporary until the youngsters could be accommodated in a place of safety.

He said Lihle had gone for a year without ARVs.

“But now the neighbours help her with her treatment and accompany her whenever she has to come for check ups.”

Malambe said Lihle had improved a lot at school since moving in with them.

“When they came here they were so undernourished but both have  pick up weight now. The younger child doesn’t know what is happening but her sister is improving so much she even has time to play with other children her age now,” she said.

* Lihle’s name has been changed as she cannot be identified.