One Homeowner's Story

Assarta Raule Mondlane's new house sits just beside her old one, on a well-swept dirt yard landscaped with rows of small rocks. Assarta, 31, is as meticulous with her new home as she is with the old, the one with the borrowed roof and the reed walls insulated with cardboard to block the wind. On these walls, three weeks ago, hung Assarta's high heeled shoes. Next to them hung small black tennis shoes that belong to Aderto, Assarta's 3-year-old nephew. She has been raising him since he was one month old. Even then the shoes were surprisingly clean despite their proximity to the red-dirt floor.


The heels now rest on the finished floor of Assarta's new home. A thin layer of dust belies the frequency of use. Four nights a week Assarta slips on her heels, ties Aderto's sneakers, and walks with him to the nearby Assembly of God Church. Thursdays Aderto plays while she sings. But Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays Aderto squeezes his eyes closed like the adults in prayer.


Assarta's schedule is as orderly as her home. As long as the wind isn't too strong, she sweeps her dirt yard as soon as she wakes, even before she washes her face and brushes her teeth. At 7 a.m. she takes one pill. She'll take another one at 7 p.m. just as she has since she started her anti-retroviral drugs 14 months ago.Assarta, sick and thin, followed the advice she received at the local medical clinic, and on January 24, 2005, she was tested for HIV. She was alone when she learned that she was positive. She was afraid and cried a lot.

More than one year later she started taking anti-retroviral drugs. She looks healthier now but still visits her doctor, Anita Maria Beatrice, every other month. She and nine other HIV positive patients ride in an ambulance for about an hour to the military hospital in the capitol city of Maputo.She hopes to have a husband and a daughter one day. After 11 years of marriage and a divorce in 2001, Assarta currently has neither.

In 2005, the same year she learned she was HIV positive, Assarta took in her brother Samuel's infant son, Aderto. When Aderto's mother left for Swaziland she left the baby with Assarta, who has cared for him ever since.

Assarta received her official Inheritance Certificate helping her to formally protect her new home for Aderto (see more information on Inheritance Training in OVC Overview)