Eswatini has been significantly affected by the HIV epidemic with the highest prevalence rate in the world. In recent years, the country has been making considerable progress in epidemic control, in no small part thanks to the power of the community-led organizations we visited today. Bonnie visited the Eswatini Nurses Association (ENA) and Laurie visited SWAGAA (Swaziland Action Group Against Abuse).
ENA: The Eswatini Nurses Association offers support for health care workers and their families. The Wellness Centre for Health Care Workers offers a range of services including testing for HIV, tuberculosis and cancer as well as clinical mental health counselling, outreach and home based care. We also went to a rural clinic that serves the surrounding community. There a clinical psychologist gave a presentation about gender-based violence which is on the rise in Eswatini. He feels the reason is because of the economic situation in the country, unemployment is very high even for educated young people.
We also had a home visit where we went to the home of Gogo Louise. She was a gracious and fiercely independent woman of 73 who has lost a lot of her mobility due to a stroke and is also HIV positive. She has home care and the wellness centre visits to deliver medication.
We returned to the Wellness Centre for a lovely lunch. Everyone we encountered today was very appreciative of the support of the Stephen Lewis Foundation. The SLF has been in partnership since 2006 when ENA was founded. They are all working very hard in extremely challenging circumstances and their dedication is clearly evident. The photo is a trailer set up for counselling that was purchased for ENA by the SLF.
SWAGAA (the Swazi name means “haven of hope”)
For over 30 years, SWAGAA has led critical community responses to gender-based violence and violence against children. Widely recognized as an expert organization, they work with government, police, social welfare, health, civil society and the justice system. First thing this morning we had a tour of the SWAGAA head office, not far from our Manzini hotel, and a presentation from the powerhouse executive director, Nonhlanhla Dlamini (she said we could call her Noni). SWAGAA started in October 1990 with volunteers, got its first funding in 1996 and in 1997, started recruiting staff. Noni was a volunteer and then one of the first staff members, motivated as many of them are by having a sexual assault in her family. One of her two adopted sons was sexually abused (sodomized) on the way home from school by a stranger – very badly injured. (He is now a teacher with a drug problem but he has an adorable daughter.) There was lots of denial and resistance when SWAGAA began but it eventually became a household name and people started reporting their assaults. Many many of them are children. In the early days (and maybe still?) this was related to the belief that sex with a virgin would protect you from the HIV virus. The US AID cuts have caused SWAGAA to lose its HR Manager, its Clinical Psychologist and 20 of its 42 counsellors and outreach workers. The remaining staff members are now multi-tasking and working extra hard to keep everything going. SWAGAA has four pillars in its work:
PREVENTION: This is a more recent focus. They get messages and training to communities, churches and schools, have a weekly radio show, and appear on TV and in print media as much as possible. We got to visit one of 42 local Savings and Loan groups started by SWAGAA in the Manzini area (14 unemployed women who meet under a tree just like the photos we’ve looked at so many times). They meet every Tuesday at 11 and each one of them brings 5 lilangeni ($0.40 CAD) to deposit weekly. The money gradually grows and they can take out a loan for purchases or businesses with 10 years to pay it back. (They can only have one unpaid loan at a time though.) They have used these loans to purchase electric kettles, school uniforms for their children, and seeds to start a market garden. They told us they appreciate feeling that they are contributing to their family’s income and they also appreciate the sisterhood of the group members they have come to know and love. They learn skills and take turns chairing the meeting. This initiative is definitely under the PREVENTION pillar.
CARE AND SUPPORT: They have counselling sites in all four regions of the county. One of their initiatives, now run by the government (on a shoestring) is called a One-Stop Centre. We also got to visit one of these, where survivors (no longer called victims) can shower and clean up, make their police report, receive medical treatment and counselling, and help with next steps. This brilliant idea serves to reduce the secondary trauma that comes from dealing with all of these things after an assault. The One-Stop Centre also has a social worker and a prosecutor on staff. The prosecutor makes sure that the cases heading to court are all airtight before they get there. The social worker deals with all of the minors (the majority of assaults), as well as babies that are abandoned at the attached hospital and malnutrition cases which come to the hospital. There is only one social worker and one prosecutor so when they are on leave, there is no-one filling their role.
LOBBYING AND ADVOCACY: SWAGAA staffers work on law reform and train police and other responders. There is a recent case of a high profile government spokesperson who raped two children. Though the children reported and helped police with the investigation, the perpetrator had not been arrested. Noni met with the Director of Public Prosecutions who said they had their case all lined up but there was a delay from the police, claiming the King wouldn’t give them the final stamp of approval. She then met with the chief of police and offered to personally go to the King. Three days later the perpetrator was arrested but he is currently protesting with all he can muster.
SWAGAA helped draft the legislation for the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence (SODV) Act way back in 2004 but it kept getting put off and delayed and then basically ignored. Noni went to the US for leadership training and was greatly influenced by an elderly woman who told her “The coach never scores goals. If you want to score a goal you have to get on the field.” So she went home and ran for Parliament, against seven men, and won! From her new position of greater power she finally was able to push through the SODV Act.
ACCESS TO JUSTICE: There is now a toll-free line for reporting and an SMS platform, along with a staffed national emergency response (NER) team. There were two officers working in NER but their salaries were paid by US AID. When their jobs ended as a result, one of them continued as a volunteer. Recent SLF flexible funding has now paid for part of a salary for him. Under this pillar, SWAGAA staffers help survivors prepare for court and accompany them. (There is often no-one available for this critical accompanying role since the staff cuts. When a SWAGAA staffer is in the courtroom, it makes a difference.) They also help them access medical services for diseases resulting from their assault. A grandfather recently raped his 2- and 4-year old grandchildren who both ended up with gonorrhea. A neighbour reported this and the grandfather threatened to and then burned down the neighbour’s house. Another 100-year-old grandfather recently raped his grandchildren; there seems to be an upswing in this particular familial assault. 90% of the sexual assault cases now happen at home; the old “don’t trust strangers” warning is very out of date.
When we asked Noni why she thinks the situation of familial assaults is worsening, she said it is a combination of many things. She feels that one of the big reasons is the long-term impact of HIV which includes a decay in moral values. Children raised in child-headed households have grown into adults with no moral values (no-one to teach them) and very angry.
In addition to the head office, the One-Stop Centre and the Savings and Loan meeting, we also visited a shelter, in a very remote and hard-to-reach location, staffed by people with a lot of love and not many resources. They currently have 10 women there, many of them teenagers. A 14-year-old recently had a preemie baby born on May 1st weighing 1.7 kg and the baby is doing well. The young mother goes to school (they finally managed to arrange attendance at a local private school for their teenage clients), pumps breast milk daily, and one of the women at the centre is caring for this adorable tiny baby boy who we were allowed to meet. One of the photos is us climbing back up the hill from this beautiful and remote location.
