Home visits

Home Visits (picture not able to be sent, tried 3 times!)

Once a child has been placed at Kasensa by family members, an agreement is made for the family to visit monthly. Indeed, even this can be a hardship as transport fees can be difficult to find.

On Wednesday, we took a 12 km. trip off the main road from Livingstone near Sinde mission to visit with Rozina’s father and extended family to do discharge planning.

As we sat, other family members gathered until there were about a dozen or more altogether.

Rozina has 2 siblings that the grannies are caring for. The father is grieving – as it’s only been a few weeks since his wife died. She was HIV positive and he likely is as well.

At first, the father thought we’d care for Rozina for about a year and a half or even 2 years. We explained that residential (institutional) care should ever only be for a very short time – only as long as it takes for the family to re-organize themselves, as the family is the most important source of love, attention, emotional support and moral guidance. We said the most important thing that we can do is to ensure that every child has a family that is able to provide the nurturing care that every child needs.

We’d brought along Rozina’s aunt and uncle. The uncle, Joseph – is a lawyer in Kalomo. He has great English and very much understands the concepts that we are promoting. After a few minutes of discussion – the family seemed to understand and said they’ll come with a discharge plan when they visit in November.

No doubt, this family is financially strapped. They fit the definition of poverty – no reliable income – only subsistence farmers. School fees, seed, fertilizer….will be a constant struggle for them. I offered to keep Rozina on the milk program until she’s just over a year old – as she’s very tiny.

I encouraged their church to consider having a second offering each Sunday for orphans and as well to plant a field that can be used to assist orphans. Each family could bring a handful of seed at maize planting time that could collectively be sown together!

Rozy’s aunty concluded out time in prayer and then the family gave us gifts of appreciation – i.e. one live chicken and a bag of mawee! (a hard covered fruit – the insides are juicy and sweet and look like brains!)