Posts Tagged ‘HIV and AIDS’
Mike Hill, CRS’ communications officer for sub-Saharan Africa (based at our World Headquarters in Baltimore), writes from Zambia, where he is visiting CRS projects:
St. Joseph’s Hospice in Lusaka does something such institutions rarely do in the United States—it discharges patients.
The hospice offers a service common in America but rare in Africa: palliative care for those approaching death, including psychological and spiritual counseling as well as pain relief, though the most effective drug, morphine, is very hard to come by in this country.
The hospice, open only a few months in a brand new building, has its operation expenses paid by CRS. Other aid organizations have joined forces to get the hospice up and running, but its hospital beds are still enroute from Australia, so it is making do with the 11 beds it scrounged up. When fully operational, it will have room for 33.
Adminstrator Christina Phiri says that since opening in April, six of its clients have died. But eight have been sent back home in relative health. That’s because they arrived in what appeared to be the last stages of AIDS, but at the hospice were put on antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the first time. It got their disease under control.
This is just one more example of how ART, the so-called AIDS drug cocktail, is bringing hope and health to the many on this continent who were condemned to certain death only a few years ago.
Posted
September 22nd, 2008 in
HIV and AIDS, Zambia by:
jrivera |
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Photojournalist David Snyder is traveling in India for CRS. Here’s a dispatch David sent this morning.
September 5, 2008
New Delhi, India Nearly a week now in India visiting CRS projects here in Delhi and further south in Mumbai. I’ve been to India several times, but each time I’m overwhelmed by this place – by the sheer crush of humanity that India bears. A simple drive through the noisy, crowded cities here is a burst of sensory overload – the horns and pollution, the wealth of the rich and the incredible weight of urban poverty.
On his return to India, photojournalist David Snyder finds the country still impresses visitors with rich sensory experiences. Photo by David Snyder for CRS
It is that poverty that has given rise to the burgeoning HIV rate in India, where the government estimates that 2.4 million people are infected with HIV. While the number might seem low in a country with more than one billion inhabitants, India is ripe for the spread of the virus as it transmits among the poor migrant workers who still comprise the bulk of India’s labor force.
This week I spent time with CRS beneficiaries who are receiving all manner of care and support through CRS partners, reaching out to provide educational and nutritional support to kids living with HIV, and physical and psychosocial care for adults who are infected with the virus. On Tuesday I went out with a group of staff from CRS partner agency Karunya Trust as they put on a street performance for people in a local slum, hundreds of which rise up amid the cities of India. Their performance, delivered to the laughs of the many who gathered in the crowded alleyway, reminded me of those I’d seen in Africa so many times during the years I lived there – a raucous performance of comedy with a serious message of HIV awareness at its heart.
CRS programming here is as varied as the country itself. Here in New Delhi I visited a CRS partner who is working with a transgender community – men who have undergone surgeries to be women, and now live in shadowy communities where they earn money through dance and performance, and live high-risk lifestyles that leave them extremely vulnerable to HIV. Wednesday I met a group of HIV positive women who with CRS help are starting their own business making Nutrition Powder – a vitamin-packed mix used by a CRS partner agency as part of their HIV nutrition program. Rather than buy the product from an outside provider, they now buy directly from the women themselves, ensuring their own supply of the product and providing regular income for the group members.
There was talk of my going up north to document CRS’ response to the disastrous flooding that hit the state of Bihar this week. But I am off tomorrow to see some CRS programs in Bangladesh, a country I’ve never before been to. So, we’ll see what I find there.
David Snyder
Posted
September 5th, 2008 in
Asia, HIV and AIDS by:
Catholic Relief Services |
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A year ago, Pili Ramadhan was completely bedridden. Today she shares how assistance from the USAID-funded AIDS and Population Health Integrated Assistance II (APHIA II) Coast project in Malindi, Kenya, has helped her live positively with HIV. She is particularly grateful for the daily visits from her assigned community health worker, Teresia Umazi.
There was a time when I was bedridden. I was taken care of and recovered completely. Now you can see how I am, don’t you? I take my drugs every day since I started ART [antiretroviral therapy] last year in April. Pass on my gratitude to all the staff of APHIA II.
Pili deeply appreciates the support she receives from the CRS-supported APHIA II project and the community health worker Teresia who visits her regularly. Photo by Gilbert Namwonja/CRS
APHIA II is always with me. It doesn’t take a long time before someone from APHIA II pays me a visit. I have received so much from the project that I really do not expect much more.
Teresia is like my mother. She is always with me, and she looks after me in every way. Because I live close to her, she visits me every day. Because of her, I have received a lot of things from the APHIA II project—things like disinfectants, soap and flour.
I have also received a net and a mattress, and I have been given advice on how to prevent infections. Now I sleep soundly, and mosquitoes cannot reach me. In the past, I used to sleep on a mat but now I sleep on a comfortable mattress, and I am thankful for this.
Teresia has also taught me about nutrition, the benefits of eating vegetables—how instead of going on hungry I should eat various fruits like mangoes and bananas. She also advised me to plant pigeon peas so I could have vegetables nearby. And she supplied me with pigeon pea seeds to plant.
She introduced me to SILC [Savings and Internal Lending Communities], which has been helpful to me. When my child is sent away from school on a short notice for nonpayment of an examination fee, I can ask my SILC group to provide me with an instant loan. My children also benefit from the project and all the support I receive. They will also receive school uniforms.
Teresia and I encourage each other a lot, more so because we are both members of a SILC group. Her words of encouragement mean a lot to me, especially when my health was very poor and I felt low, constantly wondering how I would live. That was when she encouraged me not to worry and assured me that she would support me. Her encouragement brought great joy to my heart.
Posted
August 22nd, 2008 in
Africa, HIV, HIV and AIDS, Kenya by:
jrivera |
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Laura Sheahen, a regional information officer with CRS, is on the ground in Georgia and reports on the plight of those displaced by the fighting. She can be reached at lsheahen@eme.crs.org or 011.20.16.533.1643.
“Don’t let me die without you,” 87-year-old Zina Kvanchiani pleaded to her family when violence broke out in the Kodori Valley, a region of northwest Georgia. Paper-thin from illness and unable to walk, Zina was in no condition to flee the area unassisted.
Her two daughters and a friend had no other choice: they sat her in a bag and carried her on foot—for miles—to safety.
An elderly woman in a makeshift shelter for displaced people who fled bombings and shooting mostly in the Gori and Kodori Valley areas. CRS partner AbkhazInterCont is working to help displaced people in the Imereti region in western Georgia. Photo by Laura Sheahen/CRS
Now Zina and four other people from her family live in a tiny room on the third floor of a crumbling school that was unused for years. The building has water only every other day—and it’s not drinkable. There is no bathroom on her floor, and she is far too frail to move.
Zina is in a makeshift shelter in Georgia’s second-largest city, Kutaisi. As of Sunday, over 14,000 people had fled to the city and its surrounding towns.
As international attention has centered around Russian-Georgian politics and the capital city of Tbilisi, thousands of displaced people in the west of Georgia are at risk of being cut off from aid or forgotten. Kutaisi is only about three hours west of Tbilisi—on a good road. Kutaisi is closer to the Black Sea than Tbilisi, which helps in terms of port shipments. But with the railroad bombed and the main road between east and west Georgia shut down by the military, few resources from the east—where the airport is—are able to get through.
A CRS team arrived in Kutaisi on Saturday taking a winding, unpaved back road that few 4×4s can handle, much less trucks carrying humanitarian aid. Going from shelter to shelter, the team met with people who had lost everything and whose most basic needs—for water, bathrooms, and a way to cook donated food like rice and potatoes—were not yet met.
One mother displayed a prescription for her three-year-old son, wondering how to contact a doctor. Another needed adult diapers. An elderly lady had fled her house so quickly that she was without her false teeth, and could not chew.
“We know we can’t ask for what we had at home,” says a woman whose family lives with five other families in a 20×20 foot schoolroom. “But we need soap, medicine…”
CRS’ longstanding partner in the area, AbkhazInterCont (AIC), is run by formerly displaced people who fled similar violence in the early 1990s. Their current programs provide vocational training and small loans to displaced people who had to start new careers.
Having rebuilt their lives over the course of many years, the staff of AIC is now gearing up to help the new victims of the conflict. “We understand exactly what they’re going through, because we went through it ourselves,” says Archil Elbakidze, who heads AIC’s board.
Another CRS partner is also working to help Kutaisi’s displaced: local authorities have asked Caritas Georgia to provide bread from its bakery. There is enough food available to last a few weeks until aid shipments arrive, say city officials, and the hot summer temperatures mean that heating is not an issue.
But winter comes quickly in the region, and authorities are worried about what will happen then. Tens of thousands of people may need heaters for the winter, blankets, and kerosene. And if they are not allowed to return to their homes, they will need financial help to get housing and perhaps to learn new livelihoods. CRS and partners like Caritas are focusing on immediate needs like food and hygiene, but are also planning for the long road ahead.
Posted
August 19th, 2008 in
Emergency Response, Georgia, HIV and AIDS by:
Catholic Relief Services |
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Photo by Dave Snyder for CRS
Wrapping up the second week of my time with CRS here in Cambodia. Spent this week visiting partners conducting HIV and AIDS support, as well as health projects targeting tuberculosis and water and sanitation. After seven years living in Africa, I am well familiar with the impact of HIV in poor countries. Despite that, I still find it hard to convey the real scale and scope of that impact, especially in a country like Cambodia, which has such limited health care capacity. What that means in real terms are hospitals that don’t have mattresses on the metal frames of their beds, or in many cases even basic medications. Often, the family members of those who are hospitalized live on the hospital grounds, cooking meals they themselves purchase, depleting already-limited family resources.
Much of what I saw this week with CRS were efforts to address that directly – providing support to the hospitals and health centers that are faced daily with Cambodia’s HIV patients. I spent time with community volunteers who refer people directly from the communities and follow up – daily in some cases – with home based care. I met a Community Health Volunteer who dispenses TB drugs – one each day for eight months – to a TB patient in his village to make sure she is cured without passing it on, or making it resistant to drugs by missing dosages. I met a grandmother who lost not only her own husband to AIDS, but also three of her five grown children – as much an indication as any of impact of the virus in some parts of Cambodia.
I think what always strikes me most about the people who volunteer to help fight AIDS in small communities like those I visited this week is their dedication. They receive no pay, and yet still spend hours each day in many cases caring for others in their communities – others often avoided or shunned by poorly informed villagers. It is selfless work, and it’s making a difference for many here.
Posted
July 11th, 2008 in
Asia, HIV and AIDS by:
Catholic Relief Services |
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Justin Bartkus, a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame, recently returned from touring CRS projects in Ethiopia and Kenya with his mother, CRS Board Member Dr. Carolyn Woo. Here, Justin shares impressions from project visits in Kenya.
June 1, 2008—I actually am writing this from home in South Bend, but only because we were without Internet access for our last three or four days in Kenya! We did and saw so many things that it would be impossible to describe them all.
Two of our days in Kenya were spent in Mombasa, a hot and humid (and very poor) city in the southeast of the country on the coast of the Indian Ocean. Here we visited an AIDS clinic, witnessed a support group meeting for married couples living with HIV and ventured into an urban slum. We also spent time in Nairobi visiting with the papal nuncio to Kenya and the local cardinal. I’d like to comment on two of our experiences in particular, as they both left a deep impression on me.
First, while in Mombasa, our CRS delegation had the opportunity to visit the home of a recipient of HIV treatment supplied through the local Catholic Church in partnership with CRS. The woman with whom Archbishop Kurtz, Kenya country director Ken MacLean and I met was named Selena. She was an
incredibly inspiring woman.
Selena and her son with members of the delegation.
Selena’s husband died in 2002, and she has five children. Last year, she received the news that she had tested positive for HIV. She is a tenant in a small mud house with corrugated steel roofing. She pays 400 Kenyan shillings a month (about $6.50—not cheap for her) to rent a mere two rooms of the house.
It is hard to imagine how agonizing it is to learn that one has the virus; she knew that her life would never be the same. Yet she faithfully takes her antiretroviral drugs and has had the courage to head up a support group for other women living with HIV in the neighborhood—not an easy task considering how people with HIV, especially women, are often stigmatized and belittled in this culture. Selena is also an active participant in a local savings and internal lending community (SILC), which helps empower disenfranchised women to assert economic independence. She was not only courageous but also very funny, pleasant and good-willed. You could tell that she had a huge heart, and even though her life must have flashed before her eyes when she learned of her HIV status, she has remained strong (and her youngest son is really cute, see the picture!). To see someone who lives life with such fullness in spite of such difficult circumstances illustrates what true hope looks like and how it translates to action.
Another of our stops in Mombasa was the office of the Coastal Interfaith Council of Clerics (CICC). In response to the political violence earlier this year in Kenya, a group of local Muslim, Catholic, Protestant and Hindu religious leaders banned together to examine the roots of these conflicts and preach messages of peace to their congregations. Undoubtedly, many of these men met resistance from their flocks; in such times of upheaval, cooperation and solidarity are often trampled by division and vengeance. In the Mombasa region, the work of the CICC was certainly felt in dissolving the religious tensions that followed the controversial elections. The ironic thing was that the conflicts between Muslims and Christians on the coast were really not about religion at all. When resources are scarce and land is contested, opposing groups will latch onto religious differences as a justification for prejudice and violence toward each other, even though this is not the real problem.
We heard one story about how Catholic Archbishop Lele of Mombasa stood in front of the doors of a mosque that was about to be burned by a mob of angry young Christians. He told them that in order to burn the mosque, they’d have to kill him first. Hearing that, the mob laid their torches down. What tremendous courage.
I also was impressed by the fact that the clerics of the CICC admitted that there did exist tension among them several months ago when they first met, and to an extent, there still does. Fortunately, theological differences didn’t prevail over the urgent need for collaboration in resisting the post-election religious violence. I thought it tremendously wise that they have postponed theological debate so as not to let those differences get in the way of the work they have to do. The CICC is a shining example of leaders of various religions coming together in effective collaboration without reducing their respective faiths to a watered-down, “least common denominator” belief system.
Posted
June 4th, 2008 in
Africa, Emergency Response, HIV and AIDS, Kenya by:
Catholic Relief Services |
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Hemmed Lukonge, CRS Tanzania’s senior program officer for PEPFAR-funded projects for orphans and vulnerable children, shares his account of meeting First Lady Laura Bush and First Lady Salima Kikwete of Tanzania.
Dr. Aisha Kigoda, Tanzania Deputy Minister for Health and Social Welfare, introduces the National Plan of Action to the First Ladies. Photo by Dan Griffin/CRS
Last week I was honored to meet First Lady Laura Bush and First Lady Salima Kikwete of Tanzania. These two admirable women launched Tanzania’s National Plan of Action for Orphans and Vulnerable Children this past Sunday, February 17, in Dar es Salaam.
The event was a celebration of the significant support these children are receiving — help that is enabling them to stay in school, stay healthy and thrive even in the absence of one or both parents. Government officers, donor agencies and implementing partners joined children and their caregivers in launching the new plan, with gift-giving, singing and dancing adding to the excitement.
Funding from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, also known as PEPFAR, is playing a large role in Tanzania’s comprehensive strategy for protecting orphans and vulnerable children nationwide. Through PEPFAR programs, more than 200,000 children affected by HIV are receiving critical support services; as an implementing PEPFAR partner in Tanzania, Catholic Relief Services is supporting almost 52,000 of these children.
After the launch of the plan, the First Ladies toured informational booths showing the breadth of support offered to children in need. At the booth demonstrating household care, I welcomed them both and showed them how nutritional support, microfinance initiatives and income-generation activities, including food processing, handicraft making and small-scale farming, are helping families affected by HIV to make ends meet.
CRS’ Hemmed Lukonge shows the First Ladies of the U.S. and Tanzania crops grown by children and families affected by HIV. Photo by Amy Rumano/CRS
Mrs. Bush asked me about SILC, CRS’ innovative Savings and Internal Lending Communities, which she had learned of previously. I assured her that SILC is an important part of CRS’ programs in Tanzania, enabling poor families to improve their quality of life by saving small sums of money and accessing micro-loans for small business through pooled group savings.
I also shared with the First Ladies how PEPFAR-funded programs are improving the living environment of orphans in need through shelter enhancements and are increasing food supplies through home gardens. Both Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Kikwete were impressed by the pumpkins, cabbages, carrots and more grown by orphans and their caregivers.
“Through this partnership between Tanzania and the United States, we can restore lives and hope to orphans and their families,” Mrs. Bush said in a speech at the event. With the PEPFAR program now up for reauthorization by the U.S. Congress, we can only hope that this critical assistance and funding will continue for an additional five years and beyond.
Posted
February 23rd, 2008 in
Africa, AIDS, HIV, HIV and AIDS by:
jrivera |
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Bridget Chisenga. Photo by CRS
President Bush, in a speech this morning before leaving tomorrow for Africa with First Lady Laura Bush, made reference to a woman who made a profound impression on him: Bridget Chisenga, who works for CRS Zambia to promote adherence to antiretroviral therapy, the lifesaving medication for people living with HIV.
Bridget works for AIDSRelief, the CRS-led consortium that is funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Congress is currently considering legislation to reauthorize and expand PEPFAR for the next five years.
“Auntie Bridget,” as she is known to her co-workers and clients, spent several weeks in the fall here in the U.S. visiting schools and parishes and sharing her experiences of living with HIV and working with others with HIV. She joined President Bush for a World AIDS Day commemoration, and this morning, he recalled what she said that day:
Last November, I met a woman from Zambia named Bridget Chisenga. Bridget’s husband died of AIDS, and she expected to meet the same fate. Then she went to a clinic operated by Catholic Relief Services, funded by the American people. Today, Bridget is healthy. She has a job at the clinic, where she helps provide AIDS medicine to others. I want our fellow citizens to hear what she said: “This face is alive and vibrant because of your initiative. I would like to thank you.”
Posted
February 14th, 2008 in
Africa, HIV and AIDS, PEPFAR, Zambia by:
jrivera |
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CRS President Ken Hackett testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Photo by Rick Reinhard
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) President Ken Hackett testified today before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, calling on the influential panel to continue and expand the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The only witness representing an agency carrying out PEPFAR programs overseas, Hackett focused on critical needs on the ground.
“PEPFAR is above all a program of hope,” he told the committee while highlighting the need to provide adequate resources, to coordinate with other assistance programs - particularly those focused on nutrition, agriculture and education - and to enhance PEPFAR’s basic model.
Read Ken’s written testimony.
Posted
December 13th, 2007 in
CRS Leadership, HIV, HIV and AIDS, PEPFAR by:
jrivera |
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CRS Ethiopia holds a vigil with its staff for World AIDS Day. Photo by CRS staff
CRS offices around the world work on HIV projects daily, but employees often don’t have time to stop and reflect together on the impact of the disease on their own lives. Several CRS programs observed World AIDS Day with in-house events that allowed that time for reflection. Following are two entries about those events.
The first entry was sent in by Aynalem Demeke, a deputy administration manager with CRS Ethiopia who also serves as a point person for the HIV in the Workplace program.
CRS Ethiopia held a candlelight vigil to mark World AIDS Day and invited Berhane Kelkay, a woman living with HIV who works to educate other Ethiopians about the virus and lessen the stigma surrounding it. Berhane is a founder and the executive director of the Association of Women Living with HIV, a group known as “Tilla,” which means “umbrella” or “shelter.” The organization works to increase awareness and change attitudes about HIV through education, advocacy and promoting positive living. The association, which has more than 100 members, primarily focuses on women, who are often more vulnerable to the pandemic.
Berhane Kelkay arrives for the World AIDS Day ceremony at CRS Ethiopia. Photo by CRS staff
Berhane is a widow who quietly started serving people affected by the pandemic in her community, and grew to become a national figure on HIV issues. Speaking publicly at international symposiums and workshops, she challenges Ethiopians and those outside her country to confront the stigma often associated with HIV and understand the need to care for those affected.
A mother and a counselor to vulnerable youth, Berhane urged CRS to remember that problems children face today will continue into the next generation. She asked the audience to pledge to take an active role in awareness campaigns, echoing this year’s theme for World AIDS Day — leadership.
“Leadership starts at home, in the family,” she told the CRS employees in Addis Ababa.
Members of the staff said they were touched by Berhane’s presentation.
“She is one of the few HIV-positive women determined to expose her [story] to the public,” one person wrote in comments after the event. “I really acknowledge her effort and the great work she is doing.”
_____________________________________________________
The second entry was sent in by Debbie DeVoe, Catholic Relief Services’ regional information officer for East Africa, after participating in an HIV in the Workplace event at CRS Kenya in honor of World AIDS Day.
Talking about HIV and AIDS isn’t always easy. There’s often a fear in the back of your mind that someone might think your question is stupid, especially since you’re supposed to be completely informed working for an international aid agency. And there’s the concern of offending someone in the room with the words you choose to use. And then let’s face it: HIV discussions touch on, yes, sex — a topic many don’t want to talk about to anyone but their best friends. And now they’re being asked to discuss it with 40 of their closest colleagues.
CRS Kenya HIV in the Workplace Officer Pauline Kibe makes it easy for staff to discuss HIV issues by keeping everyone laughing. Photo by Debbie DeVoe/CRS
CRS Kenya invited all staff to come together in honor of World AIDS Day. Amazingly, the event facilitator Pauline Kibe, CRS Kenya’s HIV in the Workplace officer, put everyone at ease and led employees to have a frank discussion about the issues they face in Kenya and the support CRS can offer.
CRS Kenya has strict guidelines to protect employee confidentiality — an employee who breaches confidentiality to reveal another employee’s HIV status risks penalties that include possible termination. CRS Kenya will also revise work expectations for an employee if failing health prevents him or her from taking on certain aspects of their job. And, like other CRS programs, CRS Kenya taps one staff member to be available to answer questions about HIV and provide support or counseling.
This event also highlighted the staff’s generosity. Over the course of a week, employees donated enough toys, clothes, food staples and shoes to fill nine boxes. These were distributed to three agencies: a privately funded program that CRS Kenya runs to help children orphaned by AIDS, a group that provides assistance in Nairobi’s slums, and an agency that rescues abandoned infants, cares for young girls and provides HIV services.
I’ve only been working in Kenya for seven months now, but I already feel like I’m part of a supportive family — and even better, one that laughs more than cries.
Posted
December 13th, 2007 in
Africa, HIV, HIV and AIDS, World AIDS Day by:
jrivera |
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