Hi...two days trying to send pictures through....without luck...so please use your imaginations for a time...have been interviewing people who have tested postive with HIV AIDS for the last few days...ranging in ages from KASHOMO, a grandmother -75 years to her dear little very weak grandaughter MUZNA aged four. Everyone in their group have 'come out'...a huge decision to make with much courage, the STIGMA factor here still in Tanzania huge, families ostricating loved ones,husbands who refuse to be tested leaving wives who are positive....but coming out gives strength, openness, support from many workers and friends in the community....their determination to educate others and to lend assistance is overwhelming...Masanja, the founder of the group, age 54, a former businessman with two wives, five children with the first, two with the second, the first died,the second infected along with himself....everyone blaming each other, the family disowning them,they moved from Dar es Salaam finding themselves finally in Handeni after years of working as a farmer in a nearby village, weak, exhausted....he decided to come out and begin a group of likeminded people...the pandemic here affecting 24% of the population in the early 2000s....
each person i spoke with experienced symptoms which were similar, chestpains, freezing cold, shivering, fever, headaches, shortness of breath,feeling like they were dying....some convinced they had been bewitched by evil spirts..most went to traditional healers in the beginning, with their families approval of this....healers tried everything,from herbal medicines, boiling into a foul tasting drink...from drumming, cutting into the skin of the arm with a razor blade, rubbing powder into the wound/blood, concoctions of every kind, asking for goats, cows, white bedsheets and money for compensation,but still,in every case,months,years of this..and still the patient getting weaker and weaker..losing weight....unable to cope..finally, someone suggested the hospital....
ARV medicine just came to this area free of charge in July of this year..many of these people are now experiencing a huge change in their health for the better...now able to help with others, and work toward educating youth, and people in their community,although the stigma is still rampant here....
Astonishingly, AMINA came in with baby JUMA strapped to her back..she is positive,her daughter is positive and the baby she is carrying is her grandson...she is 36 years old, has three children of her own..and is the fifth wife,the youngest..watching with dread the other four as they died..and then, her husband died....no one knowing who brings this disease into the family, it is pointless to point fingers....
It is darkening and i must run up a series of hills to get home before nightfalls..
talk tomorrow...wishthismachinewouldn't skip as it does...it is frustrating, but at least, IT WORKS!!
xme