| | | |
WORK
OF THE MSOLA
WITH THE VICTIMS OF HIV-AIDS
|
 |
| Sr.
Amparo and her team working with the AIDS patients. | |
| |
|  |
| Sr.
Ursula Finder from
Germany, works in Malawi
with AIDS patients. |
|
MYSTERY
OF SUFFERING AND DEATH By
Sr. Ursula Finder (Germany)
Powerless before
sufferingOne
morning as I was visiting the sick, I noticed Margaret, the mother of Lily, a
young girl of 18 years whom I had followed during her two months in hospital.
She had been discharged, already a month and a half before. This time Margaret
was at the bedside of a very thin person who seemed to be extremely ill. What
was my surprise when I discovered that this person, looking so miserable, was
none other than Lily. She had changed beyond recognition.
| |
I remained
silently at her bedside for about half an hour. All of a sudden she opened her
eyes and tried to speak. I bent down with my head close to her lips and heard
her murmuring : 'Sister, why was I born ?' Surprised at first that she had recognised
me, I was struck by her expression of acute suffering. I had come to grips with
the great mystery of suffering and of death, and the many questions that remain
unanswered. Our eyes met at length and I perceived that Lily was able to guess
my feelings of powerlessness before her suffering. It is experiences like this
one that led me to give priority to the sick in the final stages of incurable
illnesses. Their needs are very different from those of patients who are in hospital
for a limited time.
My first concern is to establish a relationship to better know the patients. To
give them personal attention means for them that they are accepted, that we have
confidence in them and that we are concerned about alleviating their suffering.
Often, this intimate sharing leads to a desire to return to the Church. More than
once have I marveled as I witnessed trueconversions.
The living God is at work, deep in the hearts. Confidence grows when a relationship
is followed up.
To accompany these sick people in the different stages of their illness, to respond
to their needs, require a sensitive approach with much understanding, attention
and time. Though personally powerless before the mystery of suffering, I am often
in admiration before the deep perception that the sick acquire as they approach
death, and how many of them welcome this ultimate outcome. One day, a woman who
had been ill for some time, said to me : 'Sister, I'm going to die today ; stay
with me and pray with me.' Interiorly, I was not that sure that her hour had come,
but I stayed to pray with her. One half hour later, she had left this world. Conscious
of my own personal need for healing, I often find this healing in my contacts
with the sick that I accompany until the end. In my ministry, which is both enriching
and demanding, I tend to take a holistic approach with the person. I tend to go
particularly to the sick who are totally dependent and who have no one to accompany
them.
My
concern is to create relationships that extend to the families who often need
comforting and a listening ear.
I feel that the Lord is guiding me in this ministry. It is Jesus that I meet in
the sick : He lives the different stages of their illness in them ; He carries
the cross with them and accepts death. And I rejoice in the firm hope that life
eternal is a reality. 
|
| | Shaloom
Care House at the service of AIDS patients in Mwanza (Tanzania)
| |
 | Sr.
Corie at Shallom Care House with
some patients |
| |  | | Sr.
Corie with some patients during an outing |
| | |
Sr.
Cori, has spent many years in Mwanza, and knows the people and their needs. At
the end of the 80+, visiting the patients at the hospital and in their homes,
she realized the need to care for the AID patients, who at that moment were very
much rejected, because of the fear that the sickness produced in the relatives
of the patients.
What
started as a small activity helping the patients and their families to cope with
the sickness and its consequences has developed greatly (as the sickness does!!!)
and has become the Shalom Care House. The name indicates what it is: a home, a
haven of peace for the victims of HIV-AIDS. Since
the beginning when AIDS became known, the Catholic Church organized groups and
programs to attend those suffering from this disease and to care for them. Shalom
is one of them working in Mwanza. In
1990 Sr. Corie with another counsellor started the "Home base care".
They went to Bugando Medical Center, to get to know the patients and when the
patients were sent home, they visited them at their home. Bugando Parish, in Mwanza,
offered a room where the patients could come for counselling and treatment. Together
with the spread of the sickness the service grew. Sr.
Corie helped the patients "to live" and in other cases "to die
with dignity". She cared for their children when they died, and she got involved
in getting funds to spread the services as the needs increased. The
need for a Center exclusively for AIDS was strong, to have sufficient space to
run the many services the team was offering. In 2002 "Shalom Care Home"
as the new center was called, was inaugurated. The
accompaniment at the time when the patient discovers that he/she is infected is
very important. It is important to reach the family, friends, employers, the children,
and the family who will take care of the children when the parents will die. In
most cases the economic situation deteriorates very soon, as patients cannot work,
and there are no "security systems". Actually there is an effort country
wise to set up a union of infected people where healthy people could also join.
In 1994, the
patients started a support group. They meet once a month to discuss their problems,
find out solutions, encourage one another, and discuss subjects that interests
them. Many patients
died and leave children. To the trauma of "feeling abandoned" first
by one and then by the other parent, these orphans miss their parents and have
many difficulties to survive. To answer the needs of these children, the "aids-orphans
club" was formed in 1995. Many
children are taken care of by relatives, neighbours, or people of the parish.
We call them "guardians". Those "foster parents" need help
to know how to deal with the children, how to help them to overcome the difficult
periods… So the guardians meet with the counsellors. The number of orphans
became so big that the orphan club had to be split in two groups: those under
15 years of age and the adolescents (+15). Patients
need good food, but their economy does not allow them to buy it, as the disease
lives them too week to work, Shalom Care House helps them with a "food surplus".
About 200 families come to receive food and soap. Shalom
Care House is the home of all those related to AIDS: patients, orphans, guardians,
home-carers,… There is a small dispensary, counsellors, a doctor and a whole
team at the service of the patients and their families. The staff is formed by
: Sr. Cori, a doctor, a nurse, counsellors. As
new needs appear, new services are organized. Visiting the orphans Sr Corie say
that they needed counselling to help them to cope with their loses. The
aim of the Center is Home-Base-Care, Counselling, prevention and pastoral guidance
for patients, guardians, orphans and staff.
Shalom
Care House has now three sections:
-
The hospital-based activities in the three main hospitals (Bukumbi, Sumve,
Butimba): Aids committees, education, and community outreach. Other aspects are
visits to the patients, counselling, care of the orphans and making the link with
the parishes.
- The
parish outreach programs, where
parish-based activities with a new pastoral approach to health, faith response
to the sick. They also follow up their own patients. The "Youth Alive Clubs"
aim at Behavioural change. There is also a formation to combine education on AIDS
with Christian responses. Numerous workshops are organized.
- The
parish visiting and care for patients and orphans. There
is the more directly health aspect: follow up, medicines, food distribution, cleanliness.
Once a week the patients receive a full meal. Sr. Corie has discovered the importance
of a local tree for the patients, and she uses it in the food cooked in the center
that day. She goes on visiting the patients and the orphans, sees to their needs
and gathers them to be part of the "Youth Alive" movement.
Sr.
Corie Volk – Mwanza (Tanzania)
| | | |
| | Sr.
Francine Maas at PASADA - TanzaniaHELPING
TO LIVE POSITIVELY THROUGH EMPOWERMENTSr.
Francine Maas has been working at PASADA since March 1996. She provides financial
administration and human resources management. PASADA
is a Church organization that strives to provide quality caring and compassionate
services and support to people affected by HIV/AIDS. It serves the people of Dar-es-Salaam,
with particular attention to the poorest and most needy, through a holistic approach
and with special emphasis on the values of justice and solidarity.
|
|  | Sr.
Francine Maas from USA. |
| | Pastoral
Activities and Services for people with AIDS Dar es Salaam Archdiocese (PASADA)
is a social service agency that operates under the Roman Catholic Archdiocese
of Dar es Salaam. It
begun in 1992 when a small group of people with HIV gathered to seek mutual aid
and support. PASADA has grown rapidly to meet the exploding demands of the HIV
pandemic in the Dar es Salaam urban area, mainly the poorest to provide them with
spiritual, social, medical, and material relief. The services offered by PASADA
are available to all individuals without discrimination of any sort. We also work
to combat the further spread of this virus through educational prevention programs
leading to behavioral change. Our
main center is Chang'ombe-Upendano where:
- We
provide a preliminary counseling session, and then testing for HIV antibodies
(out of the 1,000 HIV tests per month 26% are seropositive). Those testing positive
are provided with ongoing social support and counseling, basic medical treatment,
pastoral care, and home-based hospice care when required.
- In
order to decrease mother-to-child transmission of HIV, Volunteer Counseling and
Testing services are provided at all archdiocesan antenatal clinics. Mothers who
are found to be HIV positive are offered Niverapine treatment at the time of delivery
to prevent transmission to their babies.
- The
Community Education Program provides AIDS awareness and education seminars, of
various types, to all areas of the city. The Stepping Stones curriculum is the
basis for all of our community HIV awareness and prevention. This program aims
"to empower local communities to discuss openly and honestly social, psychological
and sexual needs and desires and to analyze blocks to effective reflection, communication,
and behavioral change." We are now in our third year of providing HIV/AIDS
awareness education for one class period each week in 40 primary schools, grades
5, 6 and 7. All of the volunteer teachers completed a sixteen-week seminar utilizing
the Stepping Stones curriculum.
- PASADA
provides support for extended family members raising children whose parents or
guardians have died from AIDS. Counseling and support services, home visits, as
well as support for school fees and basic food. This help enables over 700 children
to continue their education and address the significant issues of loss and grief
in their lives. PASADA currently provides supportive services for over 1,300 children
who have been orphaned by AIDS.
- In
order to make our services more accessible to those in need, PASADA is reaching
out to the local communities through the Church dispensaries. At the end of 2003
PASADA had one counselor and a nurse serving the people in each of the church
dispensaries.
- Home
care provides medical and counseling services at the patient's home once they
are too ill to attend the day clinic. Over 90 trained volunteer community health
educators are visiting more than 500 homebound patients under the direct supervision
of PASADA clinical staff members. 8 nurses do provide this care from the out-lying
dispensaries of the church. While dramatically increasing the number of home visits,
this program empowers communities to care for their sick with quality care in
a sustainable manner.
- Almost
8,000 clients have received services from our Chang'ombe-Upendano clinic and presently
we are providing over 1,000 patient visits each month. Increasingly, a larger
percentage of individuals seeking treatment are children under the age of ten.
Our medical clinic is following over 500 children with HIV.
- The
staff of PASADA consists of 62 Tanzanian nationals and five expatriate missionaries,
each with expertise and training in providing health care and social services
to people living with HIV.
What
effect is all of this having? Happily, more and more we are witnessing people
being able to LIVE POSITIVELY. Besides
receiving support from our staff each time a client comes to PASADA they also
give mutual support and encouragement to each other as they come to know each
other.
The monthly support group is prepared by the clients themselves and
is open to all individuals who are HIV+, to discuss a variety of topics. While
providing the necessary clinical services we fully respect the religious and spiritual
beliefs of the individual. PASADA helps individuals integrate their personal religious
and spiritual beliefs with the experience of HIV infection. Francine
Maas, March 13, 2003
| | Sr.
Hildegard Nagel takes care of the HIV patients in Lusaka - Zambia
| |
 | | Sr.
Hildegard visits a dying patient at home. | |
|
 | | Sr.
Hildegard with a patient. | | | |
| Sr.
Hildegard visits a grandmother who is taking care of an orphan. |
| | | | |
| |
| | YOUTH
ALIVE : YOUNG PEOPLE MAKE A DIFFERENCESr.
Luzia Wetzel is from germany. She has worked for many years in Zambia with the
youth and as Secretary for the Women Religious of Zambia. When AIDS spread, and
many people were being affected, Sr. Luzia saw the need of creating awareness
in the young people for a change of behaviour. She was essential in the creation
of Youth Alive Zambia (YAZ). The
HIV/AIDS pandemic has become a serious health and developmental problem in many
countries of Africa. This challenge urged Women Religious in Zambia, to search
for concrete ways to respond to this threat. Initiatives like Home-based Care
Programmes within the Small Christian Communities in Parishes, "Open Schools"
for orphaned children were taken up and multiplied.
|
|  | | Sr-
Luzia Wetzel with a young couple. |
| |
At
the 1995 meeting of Religious working in Africa (SEASC) the Zambian sisters committed
themselves to "explore new and creative ways of working with the youth in
the fight against HIV/AIDS in Zambia"
YOUTH
ALIVE - a "Behaviour Change - Education for Life Process" (BCP) programme
that had been useful in Uganda was tried in Zambia in 1996, in collaboration with
different Youth organisations, NGO's, Christian Churches and other Faith communities
from all the Provinces of Zambia. The
Catholic Bishops responded positively and the programme spread helped by the dynamism,
competence and commitment of young people who started to implement and share what
had touched their lives. They were determined to make a difference to our society
and nation. The process needed tireless efforts. There were ups and downs, but
hope and trust in God's guidance prevailed. The
words of our founder Cardinal Lavigerie "You must not shrink back before
any hardships, not even death, when it is a matter of proclaiming the Good News
of God's Kingdom" inspired me and kept me going. Many, amongst them our MSOLA
family, gave me support and encouragement. The
BCP is a process and on-going formation where accompaniment is crucial. Since
1997 I was appointed official co?ordinator. I was to be a LISTENER, assuring unity
in diversity, giving advice and support... as a Woman Apostle on the way of discipleship
TOGETHER with other Christians. Walking with young people in such a powerful programme
has been a deep joy and a spiritual experience.
At the end of August 2000
I could hand over the responsibility of co-ordinator to a young Zambian Sister.
YOUTH ALIVE
ZAMBIA (YAZ)YOUTH
ALIVE ZAMBIA (YAZ) is a service-oriented organisation, formed by youths, for the
youths and run by youths. YAZ believes that the promotion of healthy attitudes
and behaviours at individual and community levels would make a significant change
in the present time of HIV/AIDS and is committed to eradicate HIV/AIDS. Different
programmes, spread throughout Zambia, help to realize this:
1. "Education
for life is a Behaviour Change Process" programme, based on the group counselling
technique of Gerald Eagan.
2. "Adventure unlimited" is a behaviour
formation programme for children between the age of nine and fourteen years.
3.
"Life skills" is a programme aimed at empowering youths with practical
day to day life skills that enable them to live more resourceful and healthy lives.
4.
Community based programmes enable youths to identify and respond positively to
the problems affecting them as a community.
5. Awareness programmes act as
supportive information programmes for the general public through different organizations.
6.
On-going formation: The commitment of the youths who give their time on voluntary
basis has been the greatest pillar to the implementation of the above programmes. Today,
YAZ is recognized as an important organisation, bringing about awareness of HIV/AIDS
and reducing risky behaviour among young people.
Success indicators are increased
attendance in all the YAZ programmes, Government reinforcing relevant laws on
issues being advocated for, Values like abstinence and faithfulness have become
"IN" - "COOL". The
UN research on AIDS acknowledges a considerable decline of percentage of HIV infection
amongst young people in Zambia. Yes,
I have witnessed to with deep gratitude how young people, empowered by the Spirit
of Jesus are making a difference as Agents of Change. Sr.
Luzia Wetzel, Trier-Ruwer (Germany)
| |
|
|
