healthy lessons in unusual playces

i visited a township school yesterday. a primary school for 800 kids. 30ish teachers. it is an unusual school.

some kids come to school hungry. and they are fed - food grown in the school garden at lunch, porridge cooked by early-bird teachers in the morning, and a snack for all mid-morning provided by a local programme.

if they arrive dirty (they have no soap at home, or no parents), then they are bathed by parents volunteering and dressed in clean clothes while their uniforms are cleaned.

if they are HIV+, they are welcome. and if the social workers assessing suitability of their homes for regular, daily, life-long dosing with anti-retroviral drugs (now, finally, available) deem their homes too chaotic, too unstable to warrant these medicines? the school now intervenes - they find neighbours who can help ensure that the children eat the right foods at the right times and take the pills just so. teachers accompany sick parents to the hospital. the principal advocates to have sick students admitted when the system wouldn't ordinarily be bothered.

the principal recently adopted a young girl who is 'positive'. the girl had been very very sick - was delirious, was dying. and the principal had felt that she'd not be able to speak at the funeral if she hadn't done anything to intervene. now the child is back at school, is doing well, may soon start on antiretrovirals. another teacher has taken in her sister's grandchild, and people see that there are things they can do.

the kids in grade 7 and 8 performed for me a play that they had researched and written about antiretrovirals. there are many myths here about these, and the reasons for that are complicated. but their play was marvelous.

none of this is ordinary. if that is sad, it is also true.