February 15, 2008. "...Share it only with your husband or wife," reads the massive billboard erected on the Swazi side of the Lomahasha border crossing from Mozambique. Meanwhile, polygamy and multiple partners is widely accepted and a social norm, while the King maintains 13 wives with the intention of adding a 14th piece to his magnificent collection. “Get circumcised today and reap the benefits,” reads another sign as we drive along the highway.
At times, it seems as if death is all around here in Swaziland. It’s not that people have become numb to death and loss, more so than that they have simply acclimated to such a way of life and mentality where these devastations are to be expected. And when it strikes, they grieve, mourn, adjust, and then life goes on. A dear friend of mine here recently lost her brother-in-law to “the illness.” Shortly after, her sister also passed away, partly from grief, but her inability to cope with the loss diminished her perseverance and desire to live. Though she was never tested for AIDS because of the attached stigma, her succumbing to the illness was no mystery. A month prior to all of this, this same friend lost a dear friend of hers as a result of a misdiagnosis by her doctors in South Africa. Despite these multiple, traumatic losses, she has demonstrated admirable resilience by being the strong pillar for the rest of her family to lean on and is now caring for her sister’s orphan children as her own. She says to me, “Life has many good things to offer, my friend. And, we must enjoy them while we can.”
There are roughly 80,000 orphans in Swaziland, resulting in many child-headed households, and though communities strive to provide support for them, enlisting help has proven to be extremely challenging, not only because of a dearth in will, but also communities’ incapacity as a direct result of the high HIV/AIDS prevalence that plagues Swazi society.
In the drought-affected areas where we are targeting our interventions, food aid, which 
commenced in 1992, has risen from 250,000 to 450,000 individuals. This is over 50% of Swaziland’s population! Though rainfall has been above average this year, drought continues to negatively affect the Lobombo and Shiselweni Districts in the South and East of the country. In order to ensure that our interventions are appropriate, we’ve been working closely with our Mozambique team, which has been implementing similar programs for the last 2 years. We recently visited some of their project sites in the Inhambane Province to exchange lessons learned and best practices, which was an amazing learning opportunity, and seeing the output from their 2007 programs served as a much needed morale booster to remind our staff of what is possible through our own interventions in Swaziland.
commenced in 1992, has risen from 250,000 to 450,000 individuals. This is over 50% of Swaziland’s population! Though rainfall has been above average this year, drought continues to negatively affect the Lobombo and Shiselweni Districts in the South and East of the country. In order to ensure that our interventions are appropriate, we’ve been working closely with our Mozambique team, which has been implementing similar programs for the last 2 years. We recently visited some of their project sites in the Inhambane Province to exchange lessons learned and best practices, which was an amazing learning opportunity, and seeing the output from their 2007 programs served as a much needed morale booster to remind our staff of what is possible through our own interventions in Swaziland.
Representatives from our donor agency recently flew in from Pretoria and Washington, DC, and it gave us an opportunity to introduce them to some of our beneficiary communities and present the progress that has been made to date on both ongoing programs. Though we’re still in the preparatory phase of the Rain Water Harvesting and Conservation Farming program, we were still able to take them to some of our targeted schools to meet the students and teachers. The previous (failed) interventions of countless NGOs is clearly visible on the premises of the schools, and I can’t begin to imagine the level of disillusionment among the populations here. This is exactly what we are aiming to avoid, and being one of the few NGOs that includes engineers in its staff body, hopefully we will succeed in producing sustainable results in these communities. The status quo and existing needs are incredible, and a profound hope for inclusion in the program is very evident through the expressions on the faces and briefings of the teachers at every school that we visit. At the end of the school day, we observe the young students walking several kilometers to and from the nearest water sources with buckets of collected water carried on their heads. While some of the water can be taken home for household consumption, most of it will remain at the school for preparation of their meals for the following day. 
We continued on to our Borehole Rehabilitation program sites, and it was positively overwhelming to see members of the community actively engaging in some of the repair work. They greeted us warmly and expressed so much gratitude for bringing back water to their communities. Prior to the repairs, many women were forced to walk up to 3 hours a day just to collect enough water that was often hardly potable. Many of the water points were commonly used by grazing animals for drinking and bathing, and their consumption of this polluted water has led to outbreaks of various infections, including cholera. Though we may not be able to solve all of their problems, it is our sincere hope that these interventions will alleviate the plight of these families even just a little bit.
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