Bend it like Kalusha Bwalya

AIDS orphan dreams of playing like the Zambian football star

Ten-year-old Wilson Mwanza dreams of playing football for the Zambian National Team.

He would like to play like his hero Kalusha Bwalya. But being HIV-positive, Wilson might never live to see his dream realised.

Looking at Wilson for the first time you might be excused for thinking that he was maybe six or seven years old, but he is ten. Since he was three years old, he has gone from one ailment to another, never really being fully healthy.

Wilson's brother, sister and parents have all died. The first to die was his sister Lucy, when she was only three years old. Her death was mysterious according Wilson's grandmother, who is looking after Wilson. "She was not even sick, she was just healthy one day and the next day was ill. The third day she had died," she recalls. Lucy's death is attributed to witchcraft. Wilson's brother Patrick and their mother both died of tuberculosis and his father died around the same time of another mysterious illness.

When Wilson was seven, he also started showing TB symptoms and he too was put on TB medication. As his condition got worse, his aunt decided to take him to the hospital for an HIV test. "We needed to know so that we could know how best we could take care of him," she says. After being counselled, they took him for the test and it came out positive.

Although Wilson's grandmother attributes the family's illnesses to witchcraft, it is likely that the whole family, and not just Wilson, were infected with HIV. TB is one of the most common diseases that HIV-positive people develop. As Wilson is HIV positive, it is very likely he caught the virus through mother-to-child transmission, and also likely that Patrick and Lucy caught it the same way. But like many people in developing countries, they were never tested for HIV and consequently were not treated.

Hospital staff have recommended that Wilson should commence treatment using the anti-retroviral cocktails (ARVs). ARVs would reduce the amount of HIV present in his body, and keep him alive for years. But these are way beyond the reach of the family in terms of cost. "Just to take him to the hospital is a struggle, we have to rely on World Vision to provide transport. So buying these medicines will not be possible for us as a family," his grandmother laments.

The Zambian Government recently announced that it was going to procure ARVs for about 10,000 HIV positive patients country wide, but what is not yet known is the criteria they will use to administer these drugs.

Taking care of Wilson has not been an easy task for his grandmother. It has been made worse by the fact that she is unemployed. Wilson's aunt has been selling popcorn and charcoal, but the profits are very small, and the family rent out two of their rooms to tenants, for K25,000 (NZ$12) per month.

Wilson's grades at school have continued to drop as a result of being ill most of the time, but this has not made him give up going, even though school is a 30 minute walk away and his illness makes the trip tough going. But he still walks so that he can go and learn more in his favourite subject, maths. During break time, it also gives him an opportunity to play football with his friends. Though weak, he will play football then rest while the others continue.

Looking at him, with the black spots on his hands and legs, one feels sorry for him. But one is also struck by the strength from the frail body, the self-confidence he exhibits when responding to your questions, and also by his innocence. His grandmother has not told him that he is HIV positive, "How do I tell him that he has a disease that will kill before he grows up," she explains tearfully. All he knows is that he is sickly, unlike the other children.

For his grandmother, she has become his father and mother, she has undergone parenting a second time around. When she thought she had retired to a different level, she is back in the parenting role, not as a grandmother, but as a mother or father.

As to whether Wilson will fulfil his dream of playing football for the Zambian National Team, only time will tell.