orphans' kitchen

Why do I forget my camera every morning? I could kick myself. I swear I’m going to leave here with 5 photos.

I attended a meeting at a primary school yesterday. The school was exactly like something you’d see on one of those TV shows asking for donations for ‘poor’ Africa: cracked, faded chalkboards, wooden benches badly needing repair, window panes with the glass smashed out, a church in the yard that looked like it had been under a bomb attack and of the course the children - bare foot and wearing faded, ripped uniforms holding empty bowls as they waited for the first meal of the day (12:30pm). They were very interested in my being there. We shared a lot of smiles, high fives, ‘thumbs up’ signs and so forth.

It’s called an orphan’s kitchen because most of the students at the school are orphans. I was told many live in homes without adults. Most of their parents had died (I assume from HIV/AIDS but I’m not sure). Because they have no one to take care of them, the eldest child becomes the head of the household and raises his/her siblings. I asked if anyone visited the house to make sure they were ok but I was told probably not. This kitchen was their only source of food.

During the meeting a woman got up and asked for some help. She runs the orphans’ kitchen and had run into some problems. An international NGO based in Manzini had donated some maize. Maize is a staple food here. While she was happy with the donation she did not have the equipment nor the funds to process the maize (it can’t be eaten until it becomes mealy meal – sorry not sure of the technical production terms). When my translator told me this I couldn’t believe it! Is this a normal occurrence? Do NGOs not research where they are donating their goods? Did they know that the food was going to be completely useless until this woman could fundraise enough money to process the maize or get the equipment? Meanwhile I’m watching all of these children holding their bowls waiting for lunch and wondering when the current supply of mealy meal would be finished. I was on a mission – contact the NGO, find out what was going on and get this maize ready to be eaten!


I was speaking with my supervisor this morning and told her what had happened and that I needed to contact this NGO. She said next week I could go back to the school/kitchen with a field officer, pick up the maize, take it to a mill, have it ‘produced’ and take back to the kitchen! I couldn’t be happier. However now I’m worrying…..what will they do next time? Is my one time help really beneficial as it’s creating an unsustainable solution/dependence?