The Untold Tale of an Orphan Centre that Attempted to Avert Child Labour, Street Looting

Since it was first diagnosed in 1985, HIV/Aids appears to have proved its supremacy over humans in Africa, including Malawi. According to the World Bank Martin Lutalo, 42 million people are said to be living with the virus worldwide. Of this, 19 million are Africans and it is approximated that about 23 million have already died of the scourge worldwide.

The most alarming of this trend however, is the ever-growing number of orphans as a result of the pandemic. Africa is presently estimated to have 13 million orphans and about 450,000 for Malawi alone.

In Malawi just like in most sub-Saharan African countries, children have resorted into street life and engaged in hazardous work after the death of a single or both parents. The violence they experience in their guardians’ homes, discrimination in their communities and lack of knowledge of their rights can be some of the reasons attributed to taking such unfortunate, painful and hard-to-reach decisions.

Alufred Thom is one such young boy who has not been exempted from the miserable life resulting from her mother’s reckless life who used to be a commercial sex worker. At 10, Alufred has neither been to school nor dreamed of being there once. His life is fully engulfed in shutters.

“My mother never told me who my father was and since she died in 2002, I live my whole life in town doing piece works or carrying people’s luggage to bus stands,” he said.

He adds, “Routinely I wake up early in the morning so that I catch up with visitors who want to take the first morning buses. I usually end the day with MK40 or MK50.”

Although the problem is rampant in almost all developing countries, some are said to have found ways of redressing it. In Malawi, though no clear solution seems to be in place to avert the problem, some orphan care groups have tried to offer a positive answer. One of such initiatives is the untold tale of the Tilerane Orphan Care based at Area 23 in the capital Lilongwe.

“We know that if we just leave these children in the streets, they are at risk and their future is gone. It’s dangerous to be there,” observed Lameck Mandebvu, Deputy Director of Tilerane Orphan Care Centre.

He said many orphans have run from their respective communities into the streets because of lack of proper care and mutual love from their guardians, who force them into exploitative employment, especially in domestic households. Tilerane Orphan care thus, he said, offers family hood support initiatives to all guardians who have children at this centre.

“There is no doubt that the first challenge is to sensitise communities and families in particular on how to take care of orphaned children. If only we could succeed on this, we would not see kids on the streets, as the situation would improve,” challenged Mandebvu.

Tilerane Orphan Care also offers pre-school and vocational training to those who have finished their secondary education but they cannot support themselves in tertiary education.

According to Mandebvu, after they have reached school going age, these children are supported with school needs like clothes and soap so that they are able to go to school.

“We have about 1,400 children from ages of 2 months to 18 years but the number obviously has to be bigger than that because some are not registered.

“There are 30 vocational training students in carpentry, tailoring and tin smiting. Don’t you think this is enough evidence that we are trying our best to reduce street looting and child exploitation,” boasted Mandebvu, adding “without Tilerane these children would have been either on the streets today or engaged in various forms of child labour?”