Across sub-Saharan Africa, Africans are rising to meet the challenges of the AIDS pandemic with extraordinary acts of courage, ingenuity, determination and the strength in their communities. There is an inspiring transformation taking place across the continent, where community-based organizations are working to turn the tide of the AIDS pandemic.

ACTS OF COURAGE

In Africa, it takes a great deal of courage to live openly with HIV. The women, men and children who are HIV+ battle stigma and discrimination in their own communities, and often struggle to access much-needed care and support.  

These brave women and men are at the vanguard of social change. By their example of ‘positive living’ and self-help, they encourage others to get tested and seek medical and emotional support.  

Umoyo, in Zambia, is a special programme for teenage girls who have been orphaned by AIDS, and are no longer able to attend school or build a happy and secure future. Umoyo works with their communities so that the girls can spend a year in counselling, building their self-esteem, learning a trade, and return home with the resources to start a business and provide for themselves, their families and community. Umoyo shows extraordinary courage when it deals with the girls’ sadness, anger and fear. And the girls show immense courage leaving all that they know, and grasping hold of the unknown. Umoyo nurtures and inspires them. They emerge resilient and determined to live life to the fullest once again. 

Women active with the Zambia National Anti-retroviral Treatment Support Programme (ZNARVS) have boldly reclaimed their voices in the face of often crippling stigma around HIV and AIDS.

Sepo shares her struggle: “There has been such a big change in my life.  Before ZNARVS, I was an object of hatred by my family.  I was totally dependent on them and they used to stigmatize me and say that being HIV positive was worse than having cholera, because cholera kills instantly.  They thought I was a burden.  I stood up and now, many who used to hate me, consult me!”

Sepo was one of the women at ZNARVS who developed the idea for an annual event to combat stigma.  Women living with HIV and AIDS compete in the “Ms. Stigma-Free” pageant to raise awareness of the hardship of discrimination, put a human face on HIV and AIDS, and provide shining examples of living positively – with humour and sisterhood!

INGENUITY

In Africa, ingenuity in the midst of the AIDS pandemic is manifested in many ways.  It can mean building a rural library for children orphaned by AIDS in order to encourage their love of learning and create a centre of community support. Or it can mean combining music and dance to help children deal with their intense trauma and grief, and express their deep feelings of sadness and hope. The ingenuity of grassroots projects at the frontlines of the AIDS pandemic continues to inspire new beginnings, resurrect fractured lives, and bring strength to those struggling to survive.    

Nyaka AIDS Foundation in Uganda provides excellent education, absolutely free of charge, and extracurricular activities to children who have been orphaned by AIDS. 

These children face deprivation in nearly every aspect of their lives – emotionally, physically, socially and economically. That’s why Nyaka strives to meet more than just their educational needs. They understand that in order for children to succeed at school, they must have a nurturing and stable environment outside of the classroom. So, Nayaka funds nutritional, economic and psychosocial support to the families and caregivers of these children, and to the community as a whole. 

Most recently, Nyaka took on the ambitious project of building a community library.  Uganda has one of the highest illiteracy rates in Africa, and Nyaka’s goal is to develop a culture of literacy in the community – to turn the library into a centre of community support, and to engender greater economic self-sufficiency through learning. 

The Blue Lupin Library has three children’s reading rooms, organized by reading levels.  Each room has educational toys and books in English and Rukiga (the local language).  A fourth room serves as a general lending library to the community, with access to computers, printers and paper.  The fifth and final room is a large, multi-purpose room where community members can gather for special events, adult education classes, meetings and special occasion rentals.

The Music Therapy Community Clinic (MTCC) in South Africa is one-of-a-kind, truly on the leading edge of community-based responses to the AIDS pandemic in Africa.  The Clinic uses music therapy as a method of healing and a vehicle for expression by children, youth and adults who are grieving.

Many of these people are living with HIV/AIDS and/or tuberculosis. They are far from home; depression, loneliness and grief are common companions to illness and isolation. 

The music therapy sessions celebrate the health and abilities of children and adults, moving the focus beyond illness and incapacity.  They sing, dance, play the marimba and tell stories as ways to express the experience and difficult emotions around their trauma.  Music therapy helps bring them through their pain and grief and allows them to feel connected and joyful.

MTCC’s approach is unique in South Africa. It’s been difficult to hire staff with adequate training. As a result, MTCC started a training programme to allow existing caregivers to bring music therapy into their communities.

“One of the children I met was a five year old girl who had been living in the hospital for two years.  She had never spoken aloud, but through music therapy is becoming more and more responsive.”           — SLF Field representative                          

“Music contains all of the emotions that need to get expressed, and can often be the safest way to express them.”    — Sunelle Fouche, Co-founder, MTCC

DETERMINATION

The Rwanda Women Network (RWN) supports women who have suffered violence, children orphaned by AIDS, child-headed households, and women and children living with HIV/AIDS. It provides primary and secondary school fees for children and youth; psychosocial support; and the distribution of nutritious food to HIV positive women taking anti-retroviral drugs.

Young women, in particular, face almost overwhelming challenges. They wake every day having to confront desperate poverty, the lasting effects of extreme violence, the loss of their parents and other family members, and the realities of HIV and AIDS.  Often they deal with all of this while they are raising their younger siblings and trying to earn an income or go to school.

Ruth lost both parents in the 1994 genocide.  She lives with her older sister and spent a year at home without school fees before getting connected with RWN.  With their support, Ruth has completed her secondary school studies and is now enrolled in an accounting programme.  Although she did not get a government sponsorship for further studies, she plans to get a job and pay her way through university.  There is now hope for a girl who had lost all hope.           

The women and children supported by RWN are determined to survive and reclaim their futures. RWN is equally determined to help more people like Ruth transform their lives. 

STRENGTH IN COMMUNITY

The Farm Orphan Support Trust (FOST) is all about the power of community in turning the tide of the AIDS pandemic in Zimbabwe. Even in the midst of violence and hyper-inflation, FOST supports children orphaned by AIDS in farming communities – by providing funds for school fees and uniforms, counselling, small business management training and granny support groups. And invariably, FOST encourages participation from the whole community.

Lucy’s home consisted of two tiny mud and straw huts - both falling apart - at the edge of a farmer’s field.  Lucy gave birth to nine children, though only five are alive.  She cares for many of her grandchildren and an adult daughter who has multiple disabilities and cannot care for herself.  Lucy could not leave her daughter to go to work and felt hopeless.

FOST now provides nutritional assistance and school fees for the grandchildren, who have also been enrolled in a FOST Kids’ Club where they are learning basic life skills along with gardening and disease prevention.  The community rallied and now care for Lucy’s daughter so that Lucy can work to bring in money for food and firewood.  Community members also helped Lucy to repair one of her huts, and build a new one.

Organizations such as FOST prove the strength and transformative power that exists within communities.