Who knew that Soweto Hospice is also caring for the children of the patients they serve? Mapetla is a day care center providing childcare services and education to the children of hospice patients. All of the kids attending the center have a parent or relative who has been cared for by hospice. Many have parents that died of HIV/AIDS and themselves have HIV/AIDS. South Africa has a program where children under the age of 6 have access to free medical care to treat their HIV/AIDS. Mapetla currently cares for 105 children between the ages of 1 ½ to 6 years. Transportation to and from school is provided as well as meals at no cost to the family.
We spent some time drawing pictures with the 5-6 years old. They drew pictures of themselves, their school and families. I presented them with some beautiful hand puppets made by my son’s preschool class in Tampa with the assistance of his teacher, Ms. Patti. Each puppet displayed a picture of the student that created it with the words “From your friend in America”. As you can see from the picture above, they loved them. These children were an absolute joy and captured our hearts.
Amy
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