Home --> Archives --> Swaziland Shoe Project --> About the Moya Centre
About the Moya Community Healing Centre
Moya Community Healing Centre, founded in 2000, is a free, volunteer-run health care centre, which borders a poor community, Mahlanya. The Indvuna (chief) of Mahlanya has agreed to be our patron.
We are in the midst of an HIV/AIDS epidemic. Swaziland has the second highest rate of infected people in the world. The majority of our economic work force are HIV positive, each of whom support on average 10 people. When a breadwinner dies, this places enormous strain on those who depend on him/her and the resulting orphans go to stay with even more economically overstretched relatives. We had to find a way to give marginalized kids life skills, to be able to contribute meaningfully to their families and to ensure that they had skills to survive for themselves.
We are entirely funded by donations and do not charge for any of our services. Our aim is to empower the community, teach them to care for their own health and take care of the needs of their sick relatives. We also help provide for the needs of parentless children. We are teaching trench gardening, a simple, low-water use method which enables the very young or very old to grow enough for themselves and their dependants. We teach home-based care for people with long-term illness. We are starting support groups for HIV positive folk and their caregivers. Working hand in hand with the Indvuna and his committee, we set up self-sustaining projects so people can become economically independent. We also see our role as being the bridge to bring members of the community to link up with other NGOs in the country.
We have a two-roomed concrete building, from which we provide primary health care, with emphasis upon food lifestyle, general hygiene and sex education. We have a wooden shed, from which we operate our day school for parentless children. We have a roster of health care workers from NGOs, Swazi Hospice and the community who regularly volunteer to work with us in the clinic. Clarence Sigudla, together with assistance from Thembie Mkhonta, runs the dayschool.
In November 2001, UNICEF gave us the support to share our nutrition and gardening skills with a group of young adolescents, living in a rural area, far from opportunities for employment. They have continued to strive under very trying hot, dry conditions and are keen to succeed. We are continuing to visit them each month for technical support and encouragement. Unicef has provided funds for three more adolescent gardening projects for 2002.
We are seeking to build another room to the clinic, a private counseling room (our two current rooms are adjoining, with no privacy at all!) A third, private room will enable us to conduct our HIV counseling in a way that will create anonymity and help save face in the community as people struggle to come to grips with HIV. We always need supplies for the clinic or food for the day school. Your generosity is so greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Jane Cox,Director, Moya Centre