Children Raising Children
children Parental illness, death or a job away from home means leaving millions of children without full-time parents. Candice Jaques shares the story of an African teenager who is raising children.
Sixteen-year-old Sarah* lives in rural Malawi. Her father passed away some time ago from an unknown illness. In Malawi, an unknown illness is often HIVrelated, since the prevalence of HIV among adults is more than 14 per cent. The stigma of the virus, which is very strong in Africa, causes many families to declare an unknown cause of death rather than admit the truth. Or it’s possible the family really doesn’t know, since testing and knowledge of the virus and its symptoms is limited. Sarah’s mother is not at home either. She lives and works in Blantyre to earn money for her children’s education. Blantyre, the largest city in Malawi, about 170 km away and taking four hours by public transport, prevents Sarah’s mother from returning home regularly.
This means that Sarah is the only person available to raise her younger sisters—aged 10, seven and six—as well as care for her elderly grandmother.
As the head of her household, Sarah manages the family garden and fulfils household tasks. She says it is difficult to care for her entire family, especially since her grandmother is too weak to provide much help. Her sisters help her in the garden and around the home.
On top of all this, Sarah is also a student.
Given her circumstances, the fact that she is still at school is remarkable.
And more impressively, she has just graduated from primary education. Sarah is proud of herself for this accomplishment, and so is her family.
Sarah’s life is incredibly difficult, with both she and her family in an extremely vulnerable position. Fortunately, Sarah’s family is part of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA)’s Southern Africa Food Security and AIDS Response Initiative.
ADRA’s project targets vulnerable households in Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia, addressing food security and health needs. The project also responds to the unique and devastating impact HIV is having on communities in southern Africa.
To facilitate training and education, ADRA helps communities form into organisations that are responsible for the development of the community as a whole. These community-based organisations (CBOs) have representation from all groups in the community.
As a member of a CBO, Sarah attends weekly meetings where the group discusses community needs, how to meet them, and plans for the coming week’s activities. These weekly meetings are also used by ADRA staff to share agriculture techniques and teach health education.
Sarah has learned a lot about agriculture from ADRA, such as crop diversification and how to make natural fertiliser. These techniques mean that she is now growing a greater variety of vegetables and producing better quality plants with increased yields. As a result, Sarah’s family now has better nutrition, and with increased yields they have year-round food security.
Life is still not easy for Sarah, but with this support she has hope for the future. And Sarah has big plans—she wants to be a nurse. Attaining this goal won’t be easy, especially given her circumstances.
It will take four more years of secondary school and then four years of nursing training. She doesn’t know where she will get the money for this, since her family doesn’t earn an income and she doesn’t have time to engage in income generation activities.
If Sarah can one day become a nurse, she will then have the resources to help her family escape poverty. Although she doesn’t know how she’ll do it, Sarah believes she will find the money and reach her goal.
Sarah is just one of millions of children around the world raising other children. Many of them have dreams that they don’t know how to fulfil.
You may be the answer, even if for just one child. To change the lives of children and families around the world, please donate today.
*Name changed to protect privacy of family.
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