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PrintMemories that never fade
A colour photograph of a couple at a marriage ceremony stares out from a page, with a few words scrawled in pen underneath – just one of the many pages of memories contained in a book that a HIV positive parent has written for her infant son.
For many of the 470,000 AIDS orphans in Mozambique, these memory books are the only link they have to their parents, with page after page filled with stories about their personal and family history.
One of Oxfam's Mozambican partners, Kindlimuka, is helping HIV positive parents leave these lasting memories to their children. Caregivers, most of whom are HIV positive, are trained to work with the parents to compile memory books for each of their children, sometimes even writing down parents’ verbal recollections and taking photographs.
The books are nothing fancy – plain white office paper bound together with plastic – but for the children to whom they are individually dedicated, they mean everything. They provide a lasting link to their parents and heritage and cherished memories that might have otherwise been forgotten.
Each page of the memory book has a different heading, 'Special events', 'Family rules', 'What you like', 'My hopes for you', with spaces to place words, photos, drawings and other keepsakes. Parents are encouraged to write about their children’s births and how they were named, the family’s faith, traditions and culture and who their grandparents were and where they came from.
Kindlimuka Deputy Director Irene Cossa says the memory books enable orphaned children to learn about themselves, their family and their heritage and also help them through the grieving and healing process.
“These books become their most treasured possession. Particularly for those children orphaned at a very young age, the only memories they have of their parents are contained in the pages of these books,” she says.
The memory books also perform another, more therapeutic, role; helping HIV positive parents talk about their illness, impending death and grief and plan for their children’s future by preparing a will and appointing guardians.
