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Camosun College in Swaziland

February 8, 2010

The Ensingzini Orphan School was established in the late 1990s on the Mamba family homestead to provide care and education for the staggering number of HIV/AIDS orphans in the community of Kabuta. Shortly after retiring from Swaziland's diplomatic service, and as Swaziland’s minister of agriculture, Sipho Mamba returned to his hometown to discover over 400 AIDS orphans in his community, with only their grandmothers to care for them. Sipho turned the family homestead into a school for 90 of these children. In addition to care and primary education for the orphans, the Ensingzini centre is also mandated to assist local people to re-establish traditional crops and learn sustainable food growing techniques so that a grandmother's or other caregiver’s small yard can feed several children.

The Ensingzini school has become a model of community mobilization in Swaziland as Sipho Mamba continues to explore new ways to help still more children, not just to survive, but to turn the tide of the epidemic and see a new future for their country.

Camosun College began its relationship with the school in 2005 through the activities of the college's Africa Awareness Committee (AAC), funded by local charities. Camosun College International (CCI) sent two CIDA International Youth Internship Program candidates to the school in 2007-08—Ms Gogi Grewal and Ms Julia Ward. Gogi’s internship focused on HIV/AIDS education outreach, while Julia was responsible for basic primary education.

Through the efforts of the internship program, as well as ongoing fundraising efforts facilitated by CCI and the AAC, Sipho reports that “basic facilities are now developed—including three classrooms, a library, kitchen and dining facilities. Accommodation for visitors like the interns are nearly ready for use in order for them to live at school.”

Learn about other Camosun College development projects facilitated by Camosun College International.