“Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Elie Wiesel
In the last few weeks I’ve had the opportunity to work on several different projects here in Lesotho.
The Irish ambassador, Paddy Fay, and his wife are an extraordinary support to Irish volunteers working in Lesotho(there are a few). We have all spent time staying in their guest house (getting a break from the culture shock) and so, while we work in different areas on different projects, we have been brought together to accompany each other on our respective journeys.
The ambassador spends much of his time managing Ireland’s aid program in Lesotho while his wife, Dee, works with many of the nation’s orphanages. One such orphanage is what we simply call ‘The Grandmother’s’ Over an hour’s drive into the mountains a grandmother, like so many others here, has taken in orphaned children into her small rondaval (hut). There are now nine orphans living with her. One of them, a seven year old boy, is HIV positive and one, a seventeen year old girl, is pregnant for the second time due to rape.
Around 30% of Basotho have HIV/AIDS and over sixty die each day because of this horrific epidemic. This is of a population brinking on two million. The nation’s population is declining with a significant portion of blame going to the AIDS epidemic. The King of Lesotho has on several occasions warned that if this trend continues Lesotho will be a land without a people by 2030. That is urgency!
There is literally a missing generation here and so the elderly, like our grandmother, are called upon to look after the young orphans.
Soon after I arrived a group of us, Irish volunteers, travelled with Dee to the grandmother’s. A few weeks before the local villagers, recognising the grandmother’s efforts and needs, began to build another house for the orphans alongside the current rondaval. For various reasons the building was never finished and so we went to finish building the walls and put a roof and windows on this new little ‘orphanage’. So, picking up three builders from the fifty looking for work at the side of the road, we were on our way. By the end of two days we had finished the job. I then decided to use some of my funding to fill the new building. I did this yesterday.
I am now staying in the ambassador’s guest house and alongside my bed was stacked blankets, pillows, towels, a cooker, pots and pans, plates, cups, bowels and cutlery, mats and basins. I ordered a table and chairs and three sets of bunkbeds. We travelled up last night and put everything together for them. A crowd of local children gathered to watch as the grandmother sat on a stone, shellshocked and visably upset.
In Ireland, and, I suppose, everywhere else in the affluent west, our knowledge of HIV/AIDS is reserved to academia. While they are useful indicators, and sometimes motivators, facts and figures give us a sense of a horrific reality which is too far apart to cause any lasting impact.
What do we mean when we talk about HIV/AIDS? What is the true reality behind the endless streams of statistics?
The reality here as I am currently experiencing it is this: when I walk down the street in Maseru every third person is limping slightly because of circulatory problems, caused by HIV, and is covered in dark marks on their face and arms. There are countless orphanages filled with the children of AIDS sufferers. Countless other homes, like the grandmother’s, are transformed into ‘orphanages’ as local people try to deal with the sudden appearence of homeless children. Many of the children in these ‘orphanages’ have HIV/AIDS themselves. While ARV drugs are supplied by the state young children soon become immune and so there are countless children who, by the age of three or four, have no hope of survival.
Then there’s the issue of condoms. The teaching of the magisterium counts the use of condoms as a sin. I am not one hundred percent what I believe but I am struggling with this. Once again this is an issue which goes beyond mere academia. For example: I am teaching a man english while here in Maseru and we’ve gotten quite close over the weeks. His wife is HIV positive. Whether for religious or cultural reasons my new friend does not use condoms (which, by the way, cost more than an average day’s wages). About two days ago he came to me complaining of strange bruising and pains across his stomach. He hadn’t gone to a doctor with it in the week he’d been aware of it because it costs 100 maloti (about 8 euro) which is a fortune here. So I gave him the money for the doctor and the following day he came back to say that he was given tablets for a sexually transmitted infection. This is the situation we must consider when discussing the morality of condoms from our armchairs. Is there a moral obligation to continue to investigate this issue?…What do you think?
Phrases like ‘is positive’ of ‘has the hiv’ abound here. The reality of HIV/AIDS is that it can be transferred by blood or semen and that a child born to a HIV positive mother can have HIV at birth. If a person is lucky enough to survive for a time on ARV drugs (like my friend’s wife) are they destined to lead a life void of erotic love (eros)?
This is the reality here. Sixty people die each day from AIDS. That’s 2,600 people a year. That’s one percent of Lesotho’s population every year from one disease. There’s also typhoid, TB and every other nasty disease under the sun. So, when you read or hear someone talk about HIV/AIDS please remember what it really means.
“Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” Elie Wiesel
Either we really care about poverty, inequality and, in particular, the AIDS epidemic which is tearing a continent apart, or we don’t. To drift through life looking away because the truth hurts is not an option. The approach of so many, to happily ignore Africa as a continent kept from us by oceans, is not acceptable….it is nothing short of racism (put them aside). If such a reality existed in the west it would be remedied within a week. Take sides in this war on poverty. Take sides in this war on inequality and, practically, take sides in this war on AIDS.
Take sides.
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008 and is filed under Messages from Africa.
Responses are currently closed
Aoife Says:
Heya Ronan!!
January 13th, 2009 at 7:18 pm
cool4 U Says:
cool i looked up a link and iit came to this …thnx alot
June 3rd, 2009 at 12:14 pm