Voluntary work in Swaziland

At the ripe old age of 19 I finally got to live out my childhood dream by travelling to Uganda to work on a Water and Sanitation project. The beauty of the country combined with the beauty of the people provided for me a life changing experience. Returning to Ireland was like travelling to an alien land and I was eager to return to Africa when I had something to offer.

I arrived in Swaziland shortly after qualifying as a secondary school teacher. The country is a tiny, landlocked kingdom, complete with its own king and his mere 13 wives. It hosts great wealth side by side with startling poverty. 48% of the population is HIV positive; however the stigma attached to the virus is still so great that most people don’t avail of the free testing and subsequent free treatment for fear of being ostracized. I was working in a small centre for young children who couldn’t afford primary education or food. They came to the centre for breakfast and lunch and in between we attempted to educate them. Most of the youngest were living with their grandmothers or neighbours and if they were old enough, they lived alone. They were high spirited, fighter kids, many with behavioural problems, body sores and swollen bellies. They were used to volunteers coming and going from the centre so although they craved our attention, they were able to keep themselves very detached.

My time there was spent teaching English and Mathematics to children sitting on crates in the searing heat because the classroom was too small to hold all of them. And I fell in love with them. I started making home visits, concentrating on children who lived alone, desperately needed the HIV test as they were deteriorating before our eyes, or whose parents/guardians were alcoholics. The visits to shacks, sheds and junkyards that these children called home built up loyalties between us that improved the classroom relationships no end. I taught them structures, Mathematics tables and discipline and they taught me that their education was not as important as their personal and emotional needs. Along with other volunteers we set up arts and crafts mornings, sports afternoons, singing classes and educational game playing. We set up time to bring sick children to the clinic and made it a regular part of the volunteers’ duties. Some of us even got money together to build a second classroom.

When I left there I left with an overwhelming feeling of how small and insignificant I am. A whole country’s mindset needed to change before development could transform these children’s lives. But in those places of feeling hopeless, as inadequate as it seems, all we can do is our best; and love well.

Lydia Monds
Musical Director of The Discovery Gospel Choir and Teacher