Sparrow Village

Jonnek JONNEKSSON


This post is also available in: French

This is Sparrow Village in the ghetto of Soweto, South Africa. This is a place that collects AIDS patients from the streets of the ghettos and tries to offer a dignified last period of their life. All patients there are about to die. Babies, children, teenagers, mothers, fathers and seniors, all living together, knowing that the end is inhumanly close. The Sparrow Village is considered as a special clinic providing medication and treatment for people who are not able to have for economical or social reasons. Is very strange that this place is not well known in S. Africa, as people feel shame to admit that AIDS is the biggest problem in the country. Sometimes the staff which is responsible for collecting patients from the streets, have big fights with them or their families, as they prefer to continue living in a tin house and die there, instead of going to Sparrow Village for a special and organized treatment. The answer is that if they decide to go there, they admit that they are about to die.. When someone dies there staff strings up on a big trunk a small sparrow made of brass, engraved with the name and the birth-pass away date of the deceased.

 


Country : Afrique du Sud
Place : Johannesburg

Number of photos : 67