Sizakele

Beating the Odds:
An AIDS Orphan Finds Love in Her Extended Family

By David Snyder

For many, the statistics of the AIDS pandemic in Africa are too big – too impersonal – to be real. As many as one-quarter of the entire population of sub-Saharan Africa are expected to die from AIDS in the next 20 years. In the face of such staggering statistics, it is easy to ignore the reality of HIV/AIDS in the lives of those affected by it.

But 13-year-old Sizakele Keswa is the reality of AIDS in Africa – or perhaps more accurately, its aftermath. Sizakele lost her mother Joyce to AIDS in 2000. An only child whose father has never played a role in her life, Sizakele is among Africa’s growing number of AIDS orphans. Today, her welfare is looked after in part by SINOSIZO, a local non-governmental organization, supported by Catholic Relief Services, which provides home-based care and orphan support in communities around Durban, South Africa, such as the small township of Lamontville where Sizakele lives.

Though left with no surviving family, save for an uncle who was estranged from her mother before her death, Sizakele is among the lucky ones. Taken in by the family that had raised Joyce since she had been kicked out of her house, alone and pregnant with Sizakele, she has a home—one she shares with 12 other people.

The matriarch of her family is Zanele Bolata, known by all in Sizakele’s house as Makazi – the Zulu word for “mother.” Three daughters and nine grandchildren share the home of which Makazi is the center – mother, father, disciplinarian, nurse and provider. Sizakele and the others all depend on the 920 Rand – about $130 – Makazi brings home each month from her part time job as a domestic servant. With that she clothes them, feeds them, pays for school fees and doctor bills, and provides love for all. It was Makazi who cared for Sizakele’s mother in the last weeks and months of her life, and Makazi who has taken on, without hesitation, the task of raising yet another child in the aftermath of her adopted daughter’s death. Sizakele has a family that cares for her as one of their own – a loving environment often denied many young Africans left alone by the death of their parents.

Largely because of that care and support, Sizakele lives a typical childhood in most ways. She attends a nearby high school – math and English are her favorite subjects - and spends her free time in the company of friends and extended family. Many of her after- school hours are spent with a flock of neighborhood friends, playing, gossiping, and living the life of a happy 13 year old.

What follows is a brief look at Sizakele’s life – a series taken in the space of one week that provides a tiny glimpse into the family that took her in, and a snapshot in time of the girl their love is raising.

Photo Captions:

1. Sizakele sits on the edge of the bed she shares, by necessity, with Makazi, the family matriarch. One of Makazi’s three daughters sleeps on the floor, along with two of her children. In all, 13 women and children live in Makazi’s three-room house. Though Spartan by Western standards, the home provides something many in Sizakele’s position are denied – a loving, safe, and supportive environment in which to grow up.

2. Sizakele’s mother Joyce died at age 26, leaving behind only a single photograph for ten year old Sizakele to remember her by. Herself taken in by Makazi (“Mother”) when she was 16, pregnant, and homeless and raised as one of her own children, Joyce did not share the nature of her illness with Sikakele. “She knew that the other kids would tease me if they knew,” Sikakele says of the decision. Given a candle by SINOSIZO (meaning “We help” in Zulu), Sikakele lights it occasionally to remember her mother.

3. Nearly 60 herself, Makazi is now caring for 12 children and grandchildren, as well as Sizakele. Kind, gentle, and committed to her family, Makazi is a quiet hero amidst the crisis of the AIDS pandemic in Africa. “She’s very good to me,” Sikakele says of her adoptive mother, a simple summary of the commitment and love with which Makazi nurtures her family.

4. Sizakele talks with friends outside of her home as her “aunts” gather to speak with neighbors. Life in the townships of South Africa is uncertain and dangerous, especially for a household composed only of women and children. Men are distrusted, their presence often viewed with caution by Sizakele and the other females in the house.

5. Weekdays for Sizakele, here in her school uniform, begin with familiar routines – a morning grooming with a small mirror that gets much use in a household of girls.

6. Breakfast, which Sizakele makes herself, is a simple meal of porridge. With so many mouths to feed, family members eat only some of each bowl, and leave it for others to eat from as well. For Sikakele, half a bowl sees her through until lunch, usually comprised of a single egg sandwich which she prepares in the morning and takes with her to school

7. Sizakele attends a local public high school, about two miles from her house. Public education has suffered in post-Apartheid South Africa, and the cost – about $28 a term – is a drain on the family’s finances. Lessons are loosely structured, and Sizakele’s eighth grade class is comprised of students from ages 13 to 20, some of whom are disruptive and disinterested.

8. After-school time is first a time of chores. As soon as she gets home – about a half-hour walk from school – Sizakele washes one of her two school uniforms for the next day, and hangs other washings to take advantage of the late day sun. Though the house has electricity, there is no washer or dryer for clothes – everything is done by hand.

8. Several times each week Sizakele irons clothes – taking particular care to press her school uniforms. She also cooks a quick dinner – usually rice or an egg sandwich - before heading out to spend time with her friends. Late evenings are most often spent studying in the small family living room.

9. Surrounded by extended family and a host of neighborhood friends, Sizakele is rarely alone. Evenings are spent playing hide and seek, jumping rope, or in any one of a dozen different games that usually draw girls from all over the neighborhood.

10. Confident and outgoing, Sizakele is known by most at her school and in her neighborhood. “She has got so many friends,” explains Makazi. “She brings them here.” Here, Sizakele gives back a bit of attitude she catches from older neighborhood girls on the road outside of her house.

11. Well adjusted and surrounded by friends, Sizakele has a firm hold on the safety net that the presence of a loving adopted family has provided her. At times, though, her face reveals flashes of the memories she harbors of her mother – a quick glimpse into the heart of a girl left alone in the wake of the growing AIDS pandemic in Africa.