Part of the training
is to work with an organization based in Namaacha. I was assigned to this organization
called Associacao Tiane. We work with them to understand how an organization
works and to give us a preview on what we will encounter in our site.
Asociacao Tiane is an
organization that supports people living with HIV/AIDS. Although the medication
(TARV) that treats patient with HIV/AIDS is free, people stop taking this
treatment after a month.
The hospital provides to
the patient with medicine worth of 30 days and they have to come back to get
more medicine. Unfortunately, patient don’t come back to get their medicine and
stop the treatment. This is when Associacao Tiane comes in and reaches out to
the community doing home visits in person and looking for the patients directly
to their house to find out why they stopped the treatment and ask them to go
back and get treated.
I had the chance to
participate in a home visit with an activista. We had to look for patient A in
the Barrio Z of Namaacha. This barrio is very much different from where I live.
It is very poor and the house lives next to each other and they are in bad
conditions. There is no system of numbers for each house and they are no street
names as well….it is like a very tiny village where people know where people
lives by names. So we went asking to neighborhoods and kids where Patient A
lives. When we finally found the house, we passed as we were patient A’s friends
paying him a visit to say hello.
It is important that
neighbors and family don’t know about the real reason why we come in person for
confidentiality. Unfortunedlty patient A was not at his home.
Associaciao Tiane pays
a visit 3 times. After 3 unsuccessful visits, the patient is classified as ‘abandon’.
And they won’t follow up on the patient because that person was not reachable,
or did not want to be reached or simply decided to stop taking the medicine.
The activista took me
around the Barrio and we talked to the neighbors. On that day I had my second
lesson of Changana, the local language in Namaacha, so I was able to practice
my language with them and talk to the community. It was amazing. People were so
welcoming and were so happy I was talking to them in their own local language.
It was truly a great experience to be in community. On my way going back home,
I had this long conversation with the activista who is actually living with
HIV/AIDS as well. Being a foreigner and not speaking Portuguese totally
fluently has its advantage and I took the opportunity to ask personal questions.
Questions I think I would never ask to someone with the same situation and who
would speak English. After our long conversation, what I can vividly remember
is the activista saying….all you have to do is forgive and move forward. At
this point I was inspired and amazed by her persona t the point that I teared…
It is truly amazing to
see people like this activista fully grasping the beauty of life despite living
with the disease. I admire her way of thinking and her input in working for Asociacao
Tiane in helping the community. She has the will to give back to the community
and she wants to encourage people who have the same disease as her to continue
living their life fully and inspire them that….simply….life is not finished.
Also, tell others that by taking the medication people can live a normal,
healthy, happy life.
We parted and I walked
home tearing….I was probably a bit too much emotional on that day but I was
amazed by her sense of determination that she had left me inspired and moved….
All these tearing
completely stop as soon as I saw an older woman, albino, beating up this little
girl like no shame. I was standing there….powerless…what should I do?
Intervene? Scream to stop the beatings? Or walk away?
I was shocked….I
walked slowly and then stopped as I was standing in between this woman the
child who had ran passed me and stood behind me. The woman stopped, grabbed her
children walked away…and I continue to walk my way home. I kept thinking…I can’t
believe this woman would dare putting her hand on this child but also I felt so
powerless in this moment. In the states,
people in the street would intervene right away. Although, I have to always
remind myself that I am not home. That I cannot completely act the way I would
do back home and that I have to be careful and discreet in the things I do. I
was by myself surrounded by little kids and this woman…there was no
police….there was absolutely nothing at all around me. This is just sad….to feel
powerful in this situation. That was one crazy first experience of violence
that I have experience and really pray it will be the last one.
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