By Peggy Goetz
    Most people are at least vaguely aware of how HIV/AIDS is devastating the adult population of parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Fewer are aware of the plight of hundreds of thousands of children who have been made vulnerable by the disease – children who have lost one or both parents or who struggle to care for whole households.
    These children are as young as elementary school students in Irvine. The lucky ones live with, or at least get some help from, relatives in the traditional Zulu culture, but many are left without adult supervision. Most live in isolated, traditional rural homesteads without electricity or running water. Most have little or no cash. Many are shunned by other people who fear they may catch AIDS from them.
    Leaders of an outreach program called The Africa Project are aiming to make people in Irvine aware of the situation. They’re also hoping people will donate resources to make a difference in the lives of children made vulnerable by AIDS in the South African municipality of Nkandla.
    Sister Hedwig Maphumulo, 38, and Ngogi Mahaye, 33, have been in Irvine for the past two weeks speaking and meeting people to tell them about Nkandla and the more than 1,000 children there orphaned by AIDS. Sister Hedwig is a nun who has been helping children in her community orphaned by AIDS. Mahaye is the principal of a rural high school.
The Africa Project leaders hope to mobilize the youth of Irvine in support of the orphans, said Debbie Bianchi and Allison Hart, local leaders in the effort. Mahaye and Sister Hedwig spoke to Irvine High School students on World AIDS Day and have also reached out to other community groups.
KEY PLAYERS
    Sister Hedwig is a nun with the Nardini Order. She lives in the town of Nkandla, which is the government center of the municipality of the same name. She is a social worker in the hospital there.
She first became aware of the plight of the orphans a few years ago, when children began staying around the hospital and convent after their parents came to the hospital or died there.
Mahaye was born in Nkandla and lived with relatives after he lost his parents when he was 7. They lived in a grass-thatched mud hut and they ate what they grew. Mahaye completed high school and took correspondence courses through a university, while working as a teaching helper. Last year, he became the principal of Velangaye High School on the outskirts of Nkandla.
    THE PLIGHT
    The municipality of Nkandla is about five times the size of Irvine and has a total population of about 140,000. Most are Zulu tribes people who live in scattered homesteads of five or six huts. Only about 5 percent of the people work at paid jobs, with most surviving by subsistence farming, said Sister Hedwig.
    Nkandla and its region, Kwazulu-Natal, have one of the highest HIV/AIDS infection rates in Africa with as many as one in four adults infected, said Mahaye. Because of poverty and lack of education, the chances of treatment are slim, said Mahaye, though some treatment programs are finally getting under way.
    A FIRST-HAND LOOK
    Debbie Bianchi and her husband, Eric, went to Nkandla last summer after helping found The Africa Project in Irvine. The long-time Irvine residents wanted to see the situation for themselves and to see what resources might be pooled locally to help the orphaned children.
    Since South Africa is so far away, project leaders have decided to work with resources in Nkandla to help the kids. Education and the schools are about the only real safety net most of the children have, they said.
    Not all schools will take the AIDS orphans. But Mahaye has worked with Sister Hedwig and “her” children and has struggled on his own to help others. At times, as many as 40 percent of the students in his school have lost a parent to AIDS or are orphaned in other ways, he said.
    Though The Africa Project is still being formed, it is not too early for people to come forward with ideas on how to help the orphans of Nkandla, said its board president, Hart. She and Bianchi hope Irvine high schools might “adopt” Mahaye’s school.
    LOCAL REACTION
    Irvine High School students said they were impressed by the presentation given by Sister Hedwig Maphumulo and Ngogi Mahaye.
    “It was wonderful and fantastic for students to see it. It was so much better to see them here from South Africa than just on TV or to read about it,” said Kelli Michel, who is already working with Debbie Bianchi and is a leader in the Students for Social Responsibility club on campus.
    The club will sponsor a benefit concert in the spring and Michel hopes the money can go to The Africa Project to help Mahaye’s school.
    Irvine High’s Think Global also will be involved, according to its president, N.G. Do.
    The city’s High School Youth Action Team’s recent Battle of the Bands raised funds for the project.
    Sister Hedwig and Mahaye have also met with other groups during their visit.
    Hart said the Africa Project plans an information and fund-raising campaign in March or April to let people know about specific projects that are planned.
    “Together, there are so many lives we can change,” said Hart, quoting [...] Justin Saks who is visiting relatives in South Africa and has helped at Mahaye’s school.
    Anyone interested in becoming involved can contact Debbie Bianchi at (949) 502-7921.

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