Eswatini: how social pressures and poverty affect the ability of children to navigate school
THE population of Eswatini (previously called Swaziland) is slightly below 1.2 million people, and about 58.9% of the people live below the nationally defined poverty line – living on less than US$1.9 a day. For years Eswatini has also had the highest prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the world. In 2019, about 27% of the country’s population was HIV positive. Author NCAMSILE MOTSA, Post Doctoral Researcher, School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal One of the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS, coupled with poverty, has been the escalating numbers of vulnerable children in the country. For example, in 2012,…