Rebuilding of ghost town offers hope in Swaziland, a nation of orphans

Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

A nurse plays with a child in an orphanage in Bulembu, Swaziland, on March 1, 2012. [Pictures made available March 23]

Agence France-Presse reports — Lost in the mountains of Swaziland, Bulembu became a ghost town when the local mine closed, cutting off its lifeblood. Now the town is coming back, centered on an orphanage taking in children whose parents have often died of AIDS.

Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

The old miners' houses in Bulembu have been fixed up to house orphans, their caregivers, and other employees.

Swaziland has the world's highest rate of HIV infection, with at least one in four adults carrying the virus. A crushing financial crisis has left the tiny southern African monarchy struggling to pay for medicines and for orphans' education.

About 120,000 children have been orphaned in Swaziland, comprising more than 10 percent of the total population. Those startling statistics inspired Canadian entrepreneur Volker Wagner to buy the entire town of Bulembu in 2006, five years after it was abandoned.

He has created a private community, a sort of "Christian kolkhoz", which is developing around the orphanage that now houses 303 children, aged from two weeks to 21 years. Continue reading.

Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

Workers renovate the old miners' houses in Bulembu.

Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

Pupils drawing during a school lesson.

Stephane De Sakutin / AFP - Getty Images

 

Discuss this post

They would not need towns like this if the people would begin using contraception and get fixed after the first child is born. They need more education on what to do for NOT having children - same in Mexico and any other country that has too many people especially if the US is sending money, food, and medicine to take care of them.

  • 4 votes
Reply#1 - Fri Mar 23, 2012 10:17 AM EDT

It's an AIDS orphanage, not a "we have more kids than we can support so we're abandoning them" orphanage. Complaining about the number of children born doesn't do a thing in this case, and some of these children are all that the parents left in this world. Let them live their lives without judging them.

  • 3 votes
#1.1 - Fri Mar 23, 2012 3:16 PM EDT

If you are interested in helping the children, who have done absolutly nothing wrong, please visit the website for "World Vision" and sponsor a child. It cost less than a cup of coffee a day.

    #1.2 - Tue Mar 27, 2012 1:53 AM EDT
    Reply

    Thank you Christianity for instilling in OUR people that kind of virtue

      Reply#2 - Sun Apr 1, 2012 1:39 PM EDT
      You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead.
      As a new user, you may notice a few temporary content restrictions. Click here for more info.