Remember the Children at the End of the Road?

I hope that any KIWAKKUKI Blog reader has not forgotten the state of Peter Amani, the delightful young man who told his story on this blog about a year ago. Peter is an orphan who has been supporting his family, and as well, trying hard to attend college so that he can give his family (brother and sister) a better life. Thanks to a dear friend and willing donor, Peter has been able to enroll in his second year of school.
I met with Peter to give him the gift from Bill. You see above the picture of his happiness at receiving this gift.
Here is Peter in the Library at his college.
Here is Peter in the outdoor study area at the college
Here is Peter sitting on the grass outside his classroom building
Here is Peter in the entry to the classrooms.

For all who think that helping Peter involved just sending money, I want to let you know that his is not so. Yes, the money is crucial for Peter, for without it, he cannot attend classes and make his family life better. But, attending classes, not working for pay at a menial job is equally difficult. Peter is living on nothing. He has no income for extra food, transportation or clothing. For most of us, these basics are just "givens" and what we expect. We look for new things, ipods, phones or the latest mp3 player. We find value in entertainment. For Peter, these things are far in the future. His focus as a young man is to make it through school. As he struggles with keeping his spirits up when his stomach is empty, Bill writes to him on e-mail every day. Every day! Can you imagine, Bill writes to him to keep his courage up, to remember that God loves him and will be beside him always, to remember that there are people like Bill who can help and that Bill will do what he can to make sure that Peter gets through school. Peter tells me that these words of encouragement are what keep him going, allow him to forget how hungry he is and how he doesn't know where a medicine for his sister might be, or how to focus through these difficulties on the quiz coming up. The daily words of encouragement.

So, I ask anyone who reads this post....If you want to help Bill keep Peter in school or others like Peter. Send me a comment or message on facebook and I will give you contact information for helping these young people at the end of the road.

PLHAHow they survive

How the people live here

KIWAKKUKI September 4, 2009

I promised to continue the stories of the brave people who are part of the KIWAKKUKI family. In morning meeting today, we heard two students from the capitol city of Dodoma express their appreciation for all that they had learned from KIWAKKUKI. One of the things they told us was that when they came to their field placement, they thought that people living with HIV only had to deal with the disease. They didn’t realize that they also suffer from the other problems that people living in a poor country also have, but in addition, they deal with their illness and the STIGMA connected to it. As they said, “Shidas mbali mbali”! Translated, all different sorts of problems. As if to underscore what they said, a lovely lady who is HIV-infected reported that a thief came last night and stole everything she had. She had a shy smile on her face as she said, Thank God, that she wasn’t hurt. But, the man had taken advantage of her because of her HIV. The two students said that they learned that people with HIV had to find ways to speak up for themselves, and they now realized that this was very hard. They appreciated the work that KIWAKKUKI does in trying to help HIV+ persons to accept their illness and go about the other difficult things in life.

Cecelia and Ndosi (Ndosi is a KIWAKKUKI driver)

Blandi and John

My second story is about Blandina. Blandi is a young woman who became infected with HIV many years ago. At first, her husband wanted to leave her and treated her very badly. She found out about her HIV when she had her first child. This child died. She was incorporated into the memory project and worked with her husband on her story. They built a family tree together so that other family members would know and appreciate her story. This memory work has been healing for the couple and he is treating her better now. They had another child who is not infected. But, her struggles do not end there. Blandina spoke no English when I first met her 5 ½ years ago, but she has worked very hard to improve. As she learned English, she also learned the importance of standing up for herself, and not being ashamed. She volunteered with the memory project, working with children’s clubs, listening to their stories, helping them to express their sadness over being orphans and living with HIV. In one of these clubs, she heard the story of a young boy who talked to his sister about learning that both his parents had HIV, and how they died, and then learning that both he and his sister were also HIV-infected. These two acted out their story as if they were on a telephone. The children were crying before their story was over. She helped to comfort them and to give them hope for the future. Since that time, with her help, these children have acted out their story for schools, meetings, and businesses. Because of her skill with young people, she was hired for one of the mobile Voluntary Counseling and Testing (MVCT) counselors, and was found to be very good at this job. She had unusual compassion for people entering the system through counseling and testing. As her comfort level with people continued to grow, she was then hired to be part of the CHAT, Children with HIV/AIDS project in Tanzania. She carries herself with pride and honor.

Blandi has friends everywhere because she does not shrink from others. She joined an internet group of women with HIV, and in particular found a friend who visited from the US and they found a common bond.

The KIWAKKUKI folks are amazing. Some of them will appear in pictures. The woman who was robbed last night, John who has lived with HIV for 20 years and continues to thrive and others. John’s first born son died from AIDS two years ago at the age of around 24 and John himself suffered an accident in which his arm had to be amputated. Yet, each day he rides his bicycle about 10 kilometers from his home to KIWAKKUKI to work with the VCT program. A huge smile covers his face as he works. He married an HIV-negative woman who has accepted him with all her heart, and though there were problems from neighbors who thought that they should not marry, they rose above these critics and persuaded them that they had the right to live a full life regardless of John’s HIV status. Now he is one of the leaders of the community.

Their stories are unique only because they have conquered many of the fears and discrimination that haunt others. As peer educators, they serve to be the voice of the voiceless and it is precisely because of KIWAKKUKI that they have been able to do this.

Here are some of the heroes, Verynice, Theresia, Rayline, Ellie.....Every day they come to work with smiles amidst the angst.

The New KIWAKKUKI

Here we are at KIWAKKUKI at its new location in Moshi. The building is shiny, and the staff are enthusiastic. But, the needs are grave. With the economic crisis globally, there is little money to go around. Although, KIWAKKUKI proudly believes that it has helped the national HIV+ prevalence rates to decrease by at least 1% through their counseling, testing and education programs, they are still burdened by the orphans left behind in the first wave of the epidemic, and by the positive persons who are striving to maintain a quality of life.

Let me highlight a survivor of this epidemic:
Melkizedik is an 18 year old young man who has no parents. He has some distant relatives who for years shuttled him back and forth. Melki never knew that he was HIV-infected until he got quite ill and was admitted to KCMC Hospital. A fabulous Assistant Medical Officer, Rehema Kiwera, cared for him there, and helped him adjust to his new diagnosis. She helped him to find a place to live with a "small" sister. (This means the daughter of a different wife of Melki's father-both of whom are dead). This living situation was hardly acceptable but for over a year Melki remained in this home. His "small" sister sold used clothes for a living, and had her two small children to care for in addition to Melki. There was no electricity in the house, and the family barely survived on her income.
Melkizediki was so popular at KIWAKKUKI that he earned a place on the Community Advisory Board (CAB) for the Duke researches. During this time, he participated in the Memory Project, which allowed him to make a Memory Book and trace his family roots. These books have served young people in many ways and have allowed them to find some family members, to locate their tribe, and to help them find closure on the deaths of their parents. One advantage of belonging to the Memory Project is that young people are also registered as orphans, and this helps them to be eligible for discounts for school fees and for other services. But, one thing for Melki was that he wanted to attend school more than anything else, and he had not been in school for some years as he had been sent back and forth from Moshi to Dar Es Salaam.
Melkizediki was lucky. During the time that he was attending the CAB meetings and attending Memory Project work, some wonderful volunteers were spending time at KIWAKKUKI. Just some of them, Jennifer L., Tone A., Jennifer A., Caitlin H., Kimberly W., were so touched by his desire to return to school, to make a better life, and to try very hard to improve; and, at the same time to take every one of his pills every day, to attend the clinic at KCMC on a regular basis, and to be able to speak publically about his HIV, that they agreed to help to support him. Jennifer L. paid his school fees while the others began support. They and their parents, as well as the Weiss family has made Melkizediks dream begin to be a reality.
Melkizediki has a long way to go. He had to leave the "small" sister's house and has moved into a place of his own. The cost is overwhelming, and in this room, though he has electricity and quiet, he has no mentoring for school, and his chances of making his grades all the way through secondary are questionnable. Supporting him for this period of time will be difficult, especially in these tough economic times. His only hope is his support from KIWAKKUKI and from these wonderful friends who have sacrificed much to help him remain in school.
Melkizediki tells me-Say a big "Asenteni Sana" for all who have helped. (Thank you very much). I know who you are, remember you all, and want to see you again!

Stay tuned for a picture of Melkizediki and for more stories from KIWAKKUKI

Report from The Citizen

Tanzania: Caring for the Sick Carefully

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The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)

29 December 2007
Posted to the web 31 December 2007

Eric Kalunga
Marangu

In 2000, When Anna was in standard five she had to take care of her parents who fell sick. She was 12 years old and was the oldest female child so it was her duty to take care of the parents. In 2001 the parents died.

Then Anna fell ill herself. At this time she was about to receive confirmation at the church. Reverend Winfred Joseph Mosha of the Lutheran Church there saw that the child was in trouble and thought he recognized her symptoms as of a person suffering from HIV/Aids.

"I talked to her and suggested that she goes to a testing centre," recalls rev. Mosha.

With the little girl they set off for Moshi town to Kiwakkuki, Kilimanjaro women's group against Aids. The NGO offers testing and counselling services as well as information on HIV/Aids accumulated through research.

Anna stayed at the centre and they tested her blood. The results came back positive. she was devastated and could not stop crying.

The counsellor asked her which people she would like to inform of her condition.

Anna said she would like her grandmother and the father to know as well as her elder brother who was at the Serengeti National Park at the time.

"When I went to pick her up at Kiwakkuki," says Rev Mosha, "she told me 'father, I have tested and I am infected'".

The ride back home was hard for the two. Anna was grappling with the new reality of her HIV status and resorting to tears while Rev Mosha was thinking of the best way of helping the little girl cope.

Eventually Anna continued with her education. She completed primary school and reverend Mosha took her to his sister in Moshi who was a librarian at Moshi Technical Secondary School. His sister took the girl to the clinic regularly.

The church supplied her with clothes and money for food. She also got help from Kiwakkuki. Anna now lives in Arusha with her grandparents.

Rev Mosha says Anna is just one of the thousands of orphans that are a result of parents who died of HIV/Aids. Aids is a big problem in this area.

"We are in a tourist corridor," he says.

The road that leads up to Mount Kilimanjaro passes through their town. Many tourists pass through here annually.

To cater for these hotels and lodges have sprouted all over Marangu.

Beautiful houses with satellite dishes on their roof tops and signs in front advertising rooms are numerous.

As you walk on this road you are bound to bump into a toutist or two making their way to the mountain or the waterfalls, Kinukamori, also in the same direction.

"People make money from the tourists, from tour guides. So you get a lot of people from other parts of the country coming here to make money," says Rev Mosha. These people come on their own as single men and women to do business.

The money and the availability of alcohol and guest houses combine to make the area conducive for unsafe sex and the spread of HIV/Aids. Ultimately local children suffer indirectly as orphans or directly as people living with the Aids virus. It is not clear how Anna contacted HIV/Aids.

While it might be easy to point a finger at her deceased parents and say that she got the disease while taking care of them, experts disagree.

The leading cause of HIV/Aids is sex taking up more than 90 percent of the cases. Then comes mother to child transimission and then the last category includes blood transfusion, sharing of objects and nursing.

Negligible as it is, nursing of the the Aids victim can lead to an infection. Dafiosa Itemba is the executive coordinator of Kiwakkuki and deals with Aids cases on a day to day basis at the centre.

She vaguely recalls the case of Anna, more than five years ago, but cannot give a lot of details. "We deal with a lot of children here," she says.

However she says that it is possible that the child might have gotten infected through washing and generally taking care of her sick parents.

"It is possible that she did not know that her parents had Aids. If that is so then her grandparents who live with her could be in danger of getting infected as well," she says.

According to data from HelpAge International, 90% of Aids related care is provided at home, often by older women.

Up to two-thirds of people living with Aids are cared for by their parents in their 60s and 70s and over 60% of orphaned children live in households headed by their grandparents in severely affected countries.

"This area is important to study. There is a research gap in this and great care will be needed because we wouldn't like to advocate stigma which we are fighting now," says Itemba.

"Telling people to be careful in their homes could lead to stigma. They will be afraid of touching someone who has diarrhoea for instance," she says.

Antipas Mtalo, a counsellor, agrees that informing people about the full extent of the risks needs to be handled with delicacy to avoid stigma.

He himself has witnessed what can happen when people are misinformed or given too little information and make decions based on that information.

"I was in church once when someone stood up at the pew and told us a story," he says.

The story was of a person who was HIV+. When this person was given food he would not finish all of it and children used to eat what he left. Then the children got infected.

"I was shocked," says Mtalo, "there were about 500 people in the church and they all heard this outrageous claim. Some of the people were doctors that I know but you couldn't go up there and argue with the man. It was in a church."

He says it is this kind of misinformed conclusions that institutions need to be aware of when stepping into area of Aids related care provided at home.

"It is the same case with barber shops. There is a risk involved. If they use razor blades go there with one of your own," he says.

AIDS Climb

Support continues in North Carolina, USA:

Each year, members of the Duke, UNC, and surrounding communities come together to raise money for the fight against AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. The inaugural climb was up Mt. Kilimanjaro in 2004. That effort raised $10,000. In 2005, AIDS Climb was brought back to North Carolina as we climbed Mt. Mitchell, the highest peak east of the Mississippi River, and raised $9,000. Last year, similar funds were raised as we tackled Pilot Mountain.

This year, the Climb goes to Hanging Rock on October 27. Take part in AIDS Climb to benefit our partner organizations, including Amani Children's Home, KIWAKKUKI, and Students for Students International.

Visit AIDS Climb for more information.