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 CASE STUDY: Mitigating HIV/AIDS in the Education Sector
Orphans Learn Skills at Juni School
Juni School lies to the north west of Kasungu Boma. Juni is named after a small stream near the school. The stream got its name from the cold season's month of June as it is said to have very cold water then. People around the school involve themselves in activities such as growing food crops, cash crops, rearing cattle, and running small-scale businesses. Just like any other part of the country, Juni School has not been spared on the impact of HIV/AIDS. "It is the responsibility of everybody; churches, political parties and villagers around to take part in the fight against the epidemic since the impact affects everyone," said the Head teacher. Although communities around the school knew the impact of HIV/AIDS, including a rise in orphans, they did not address these issues. The problem was finally addressed when MESA sensitization meetings were organized at the school. After these sensitization meetings, communities through the School Management Committee started to plan. One activity they planned was the establishment of a vegetable garden at the school that could be used for feeding as well as fundraising for the orphans. The idea became a reality.
The vegetables grew well and the first harvest realized K2,600.00 (approximately $250) which was used to buy a football for the pupils. The second harvest was used to feed the whole school. Seeing this, the School Management Committee thought of expanding the activity with an aim of imparting life skills to both orphans and non-orphans. They opened up another garden at one of the streams in the area and had grown cabbage, rape, and tomatoes. On this garden, the pupils under the guidance of the SMC chairperson did everything.
"There is a lot of enthusiasm and excitement by the children since most of them especially orphans have opened dimba gardens at their homes knowing that its where they could be getting support from," said chairperson of SMC at the school.
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Community members thought of assisting the pupils teaching them life skills, namely agriculture. They involved the pupils in caring for the vegetables - weeding, watering and applying pesticides. The initiative is particularly resourceful since the area has a lot of cattle and therefore a lot of manure which was not fully utilized in agricultural activities.