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STORY: MOZAMBIQUE / AIDS ORPHANS
TRT: 03:31
SOURCE: UNICEF
RESTRICTIONS: none
LANGUAGE: PORTUGUESE / NATS
DATELINE: APRIL 2011, MOZAMBIQUE
1. Wide shot, Marime family pound maize in Guara Guara
2. Close up, Felipe
3. Close up, Solomon by maize
4. Close up, maize
5. Med shot, family
6. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Felipe, 15 years old:
”I feel so sad.”
7. Close up, Solomon and Virginia
8. Med shot, family sitting
9. Med shot, family farming
10. Med shot, family farming
11. Med shot, children in maize field
12. Wide shot, seven orphans in Inbahariro
13. Med shot, local official speaks to grandmother
14. Close up, official looks at ID card
15. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Joaquin Mojarsire, local community leader:
“She has the right to receive the grant because I identified her situation saw that she deserved to have the subsidy. She is a widow and lives with orphaned children and she is elderly, that is older than 60.”
16. Med shot, Grandmother tends crockery
17. Med shot, grandmother
18. SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Grandmother:
“It has made life a bit better.”
19. Med close up, several orphans
20. Med shot, orphans on dusty ground
21. SOUNDBITE (English) Ana Maria Machaieie, UNICEF Mozambique:
“Unfortunately the criteria used by government to make people receive these cash transfers does not include children living on their own. It is necessary that the household has an adult who is labour constrained to be eligible so in the case of child headed households they do not benefit directly which is not fair because they are left without any kind of support and are put in a situation where they can be exploited and really don’t have any hope for the future.”
22. Med shot, cooking pot
23. Close up, child eating
This family is cursed by witchcraft. That’s what Filiphe Marime’s mother said just before she died and her four children became orphans. Whether it was black magic or the continuing scourge of AIDS that brought such misery the impact is clear.
Filiphe, aged just 15, must now spend his time looking after his younger sisters Virgina and Christina and their little brother Solomon.
SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Felipe, 15 years old:
”I feel so sad.”
This is one of an estimated 24,000 homes in Mozambique made up entirely of children. None of the Marimes are enrolled at school and the two oldest spend their time growing maize. Sometimes community workers and relatives do look in on them but the Marime children are on their own – and receive no financial assistance from the government.
A short distance away, live seven more orphans. Though still desperately poor, they are being helped by the authorities. The difference is that they live with their grandmother.
Each month an official comes and informs them that their social grant of 200 meticals – almost seven dollars is ready.
SOUNDBITE (Portuguese) Joaquin Mojarsire, local community leader:
“She has the right to receive the grant because I identified her situation saw that she deserved to have the subsidy. She is a widow and lives with orphaned children and she is elderly, that is older than 60.”
It’s not much especially in a time of rising food prices but it has enabled them to buy a few items of crockery.
There are no winners here both sets of orphans face a difficult and uncertain future. But pressure is growing to at least make the system fair and provide child-headed households with some sort of official help.
SOUNDBITE (English) Ana Maria Machaieie, UNICEF Mozambique:
“Unfortunately the criteria used by government to make people receive these cash transfers does not include children living on their own. It is necessary that the household has an adult who is labour constrained to be eligible so in the case of child headed households they do not benefit directly which is not fair because they are left without any kind of support and are put in a situation where they can be exploited and really don’t have any hope for the future.”
The economy is growing but with plans being made to cut food subsidies things look like they will get worse before they get better for Mozambique’s orphaned children.
