On Thursday I ventured to Senga Bay with Finn and Kate. They are two musicians here on a Fulbright producing an HIV/AIDS awareness CD with one of Malawi's favorite musicians, Peter Muwanga. Their project, "Stories of AIDS Through Music," seeks to capture 10 narratives of people affected by the AIDS epidemic and tell their stories through traditional music.
We spent the day at Nyumba Ya Thanzi (House of Good Health), a nutrition organization that provides ARVs to children and mothers who are HIV+. I am encouraged by this organization's approach in caring for people with HIV because there are so many people who have access to ARVs, yet lack the food to accompany it. For someone on ARV therapy, this has the terrible effect of making them really sick. I remember being at a camp in January 2009 when we found one of our beloved "rugrats" throwing up next to a classroom. This 7 year old kid was one of the lucky ones in his community; the government provided him with monthly ARVs. And here he was, body rejecting the treatment because he hadn't eaten in two days; there was no food to absorb the medicine.
Anyways, I sat with Finn and Kate as they began collecting their narratives for the day: a Nyumba Ya Thanzi worker who lost two of his siblings to HIV; a mother who not only has HIV, but whose HIV+ husband is in jail for recently raping their 3 and 7 year old daughters and putting them at risk for contracting the virus; one of the organization's directors who has been living with HIV for years; a group of 4 HIV+ women.
As we're sitting there, listening to these incredible stories of strength and hope, horror and devastation, I was struck by a contrast that has a way of sneaking up on me again and again: how HIV/AIDS in Malawi is so utterly simple, yet so completely complex.
The faces of those affected by HIV are complex-old men, young kids, wives, NGO workers, teachers, businessmen, families. How do you even begin to work with that? Who do you start with? But when it comes down to it, HIV simply affects...everyone, it affects people.
We know that HIV is spread through three ways, and most commonly (worldwide) through unprotected sex. Simple. Don't have unprotected sex. But the factors that lead to this behavior are sometimes so complex-social, economic, religious, relationships and pleasure, access to condoms, stigmas, knowledge, even fear. The man who sleeps with a girl because he has been told that sex with a virgin cures HIV, the woman who sleeps with a fisherman to provide food for her family, the couple that cheats on each other because sex is not openly discussed and they are not satisfied with their relationship, the young person whose just interested in their body and that attractive someone.
Finn and I became quite overwhelmed discussing these simplicities and complexities on the way home. Then I was reminded of our conversation the previous night about how an individual's responsibilities and talents play a role in navigating injustices in the world. How although we work towards a common goal, we each have to fight it using our own passions and abilities. Finn and Peter's awareness CD that will raise money to fight HIV/AIDS, World Camp educating kids/teachers about HIV and helping communities mobilize, and Nyumba Ya Thanzi providing care for those who are HIV+. We break down the complex, we make it simple, we make it workable.
And I am encouraged by an Oscar Romero quotation on the back of a t-shirt from my student activist group in college, "We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it very well." Perhaps if we all focus this, on the simple things we can do, we naturally take on the complex.
To read more about Finn's project, visit: Andrew Magill's Stories of AIDS project.
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