 Challenging the impacts of HIV and AIDS |
Issue 155 |
Caring for those who care
Selinah is one of a growing number of African grandparents who have ended up having to take the primary caring role for their grandchildren. The HIV/AIDS epidemic that has swept through sub-Saharan Africa has meant that grandparents have had to take on the challenge of parenting once again. Selinah’s daughter who died some 5 years ago of an AIDS related illness, left behind three children. It is only natural that Selinah wanted to care for the children and bring them up the way she knew that her daughter would have done. Bringing up children is a difficult job at the best of times but even more difficult if you are 62 as Selinah is. This is when community support can be most welcome.
South Africa has the second highest incidence of HIV/AIDS in the world. This means that local communities all over the country have been severely affected by having large numbers of people in what should be the prime of their life, living with HIV. Without access to nutritious food and antiretrovirals, many die. Each death has consequences for the families involved and for their communities. The people most affected by HIV/AIDS are those who are parents, who are of working age and who should be at their most productive. Each illness and death means that those who were relying on these people will struggle to maintain even the most simple of lives. In rural communities like Mmakau where Selinah lives, life is fragile. HIV and AIDS can set off a chain of events which makes it very difficult to break free from the cycle of poverty.
In communities like Mmakau life can be like walking along a tightrope. As long as everything is balanced it goes along fine but it doesn’t take much to knock you over. Sickness in the family, especially of parents means that they cannot go to work and so do not earn any income. If the parents die then their children become orphans. Sometimes the children are looked after by relatives but this is still an extra strain on them. Often one of the children has to take on the caring role, both for the sick parent as well as the other children. This of course means that the child cannot go to school which has significant social and economic consequences, not to mention the trauma of seeing their own parents seriously ill and perhaps dying after some time of being nursed by the child. Many children lose the chance of having a childhood. They have to grow up too soon as well as losing their chance of getting an education.
Communities affected by HIV/AIDS need support to get them through: to provide practical help to those who are sick; to provide nutritious food to keep those with HIV as healthy as possible; to support those who care for the sick and dying; to assist in the care for children orphaned by AIDS; to assist with educating the children; to provide counselling support; to help with educating the community about HIV/AIDS so as to combat prejudice and discrimination against those who suffer from the disease; to set up support groups so that Selinah and others in her community can support one another. This is the support provided by Caritas Australia in partnership with the Siyabhabha Trust. Since they set up their support network, Selinah’s grandchildren now are able to attend school, can obtain a nutritious meal at school and attend activities afterwards like homework help.
This project is about reducing the effects of poverty caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic but it does more than this. It builds a community where people can live with dignity, free from stigma and discrimination. As Selinah herself says: “This project has brought life to my house.”
For further information about Selinah
Please go to: www.caritas.org.au
We would really appreciate you taking 5 minutes to complete a short on-line evaluation of our Project Compassion materials. What did you like? What would you like to see included next time? What could we do differently? Your feedback will assist in the planning for 2008.
Please go to: www.surveymonkey.com/
RELIGION
1. Jesus is a role model for Christians in the way he interacts with people living with illness.
a) Find one or two examples of Jesus’ interaction with a sick person in the Bible. Write a short recount of the episode(s) you find.
b) Write a short diary entry from the point of view of the sick person saying what it was like to encounter Jesus.
c) Find an example of Jesus interacting with a person living with leprosy. How were these people treated in Jesus’ time? Can you see any parallels with how people living with HIV are treated today?
d) How does the work of Caritas and the Siyabhabha Trust follow the example of Jesus?
2. Go to www.caritas.org.au/project_compassion_
07/pdf/Reflections.pdf
and choose one reflection. Design your own poster including this reflection and display it in your classroom.
a) Explain to the whole group why you chose this reflection quote.
b) Use the call and response prayers on pages 6 and 7 as the basis for class prayer.
3. Go to www.caritas.org.au/project_compassion_07
/pdf/PC_2007_Quotes.ppt to access a PowerPoint presentation of quotes from Pope Paul VI encyclical Populorum Progressio (On the Development of Peoples), which has its 40th anniversary this year. Watch the presentation and then discuss in groups what the word “development” means in the document. Then share with the larger group what your group concluded. How does the work of Caritas help the “development” of people?
4. Organise a 20:80 meal to illustrate the injustice of the distribution of wealth in the world. Go to www.caritas.org.au/project_compassion_07
/fundraising/global.html for more details.
5. Go to www.cafod.org.uk/var/storage/original/
application/5794fbec4a13b984138e132735d62a6b.pdf page 9, for a discussion of the Church’s teaching on HIV/AIDS.
ENGLISH
1. Go to www.cafod.org.uk/var/storage/original/
application/5794fbec4a13b984138e132735d62a6b.pdf and scroll down to page 4: Sinah’s grief and page 5 Tommy. Answer the following:
a) Who is Sinah?
b) Who does she look after? Why?
c) Why is she feeling “unwell”? What do you think she means by this?
d) Where does Tommy live?
e) How is his illness affecting him?
f) What does he enjoy doing?
g) What are his ambitions?
SOSE/HSIE/PDHPE/SCIENCE
1. Go to page 10 of www.cafod.org.uk/
var/storage/original/application/5794fbec4a13
b984138e132735d62a6b.pdf and use the information contained here to write an information report on HIV/AIDS. What it is, its causes, treatments etc. Explain the difference between a pandemic and an epidemic.
2. Go to wwwnews.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/africa/
03/biology_of_aids/html/default.stm for a presentation on the Biology of AIDS.
3. Go to wwwnews.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/africa/
03/aids_debate/html/default.stm and answer the following:
a) How many people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide?
b) How many people died of the disease in 2005?
c) Is there any positive news in the statistics?
d) Click on the dates at the bottom of the page and note the changes over that time. What were the major trends?
e) Where are the most new cases of HIV predicted to be in 2010?
f) How many new infections are there predicted to be by 2010?
4. Go to wwwnews.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/
country_profiles/1071886.stm and complete a profile of South Africa.
a) What are the surrounding countries?
b) How many languages are spoken? What are the main ones?
c) What is the population?
d) What is the currency?
e) Who is the President?
f) What was “Apartheid”?
g) What is the capital?
h) What are the main exports?
5. Go to www.caritas.org.au/project_compassion
_07/pdf/Sec10Sec11Combined.pdf to access the Problem Tree activity which looks at the impact of HIV/AIDS on individuals and society.
This activity can also look at solutions in the same way. Go to Page 3 of the following for more details: www.caritas.org.au/project_compassion_07/
pdf/SecondarySolutiontrees1.pdf
and
www.cafod.org.uk/var/storage/original/
application/5794fbec4a13b9841
38e132735d62a6b.pdf
Teachers: for some suggested answers to these activities go to: www.caritas.org.au/project_compassion
_07/materials/schools.html and scroll down to Secondary Materials. Contact Caritas Australia for the new DVD on this issue called: Tomorrow’s Promise.
Email: melissam@caritas.org.au
6. Go to www.accessmed-msf.org/
documents/
tablekids.pdf to see what adaptations need to be made to make the treatments for HIV/AIDS more child-friendly. Make a list of the current problems and suggested improvements. Take part in this campaign!
7. Go to www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/
0509/feature4/?fs=plasma.nationalgeographic.com for a special feature on the AIDS pandemic with video, people telling their own stories etc. Listen to the people’s own voices at www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/
0509/feature4/multimedia.html
8. Read more about the Siyabhabha Trust at their website www.siyabhabha.org.za/pages/HIV_AIDS.html
PARISH, COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE GROUPS
March 8 is International Women’s Day. Go to www.caritas.org.au/events/IWD_2007.htm to access stories, a video and a PowerPoint presentation.
South Africa is working towards providing free access to antiretroviral drugs for those who are infected with HIV. This access is not available in many countries, especially in Africa where HIV infection rates are the highest in the world. The reason that affordable antiretroviral drugs are available in South Africa is because pharmaceutical companies in India make a non-brand version (generic) which is much cheaper than the brand name drugs. A Swiss pharmaceutical company is now challenging the Indian company in court trying to make them stop producing the cheaper version and so stopping competition and boosting their profit. Join the campaign to stop the Swiss company from stopping millions of people from gaining access to affordable antiretroviral drugs at www.msf.org/petition_india/
international.html
Go to www.makepovertyhistory.com.au/
downloads/MPH_2007_Policy%20Priorities_brief.pdf for the summary of the Make Poverty History agenda.
Get behind the Project Compassion campaign. Go to www.caritas.org.au/project_compassion_
07/index.htm for some fundraising ideas.