3 awesome days!!!

Have found some time to do an extra blog post this week (yey!!)

There is normally a point in volunteering where you think things are becoming a bit routine-  I thought I reached that point last week, thoughts of returning to the UK, Christmas and other things were starting to creep in over thoughts of work. Then Malawi showing it still wants to surprise us gave me an awesome 3 days.

On Friday we went to give a HIV prevention presentation to a youth group called Tisawale, who meet a school in a village not far off the east road we have been out on before. We went on our bike taxis (always a fun part of the journey) and after going to the wrong bit of the village (the group use to meet in front of the chief’s house before they were allowed to use the school) we arrived.

The group was similar to many of the others we have met, they suffer from a lack of resources and told us they have no specialist knowledge about HIV, they come together to discuss problems and did football, drama, poetry, songs and other things. The school’s Headmistress was present and said that while she wasn’t a normal part of the group she knew about them, they are very active and great examples to others in the area.

We did our presentation and tried a new idea, where the groups have to give us role plays/ dramas about either HIV transmission or prevention. The Head was in the transmission group, who chose to focus on transmission through unprotected sex; showing this by having various people walking round meeting each other and shaking hands then over time getting sick as the virus spread between them. The our volunteers all took part, as you would expect, and then the Head joined in as the last person, - this was met with cheers, smiles and a huge round of applause from everyone. It is wonderful to find someone who is prepared to take part with her students. She also told us that she was going to arrange for copies of the national curriculum (something we have been struggling without when running the adult education programme) for all 8 grades to be bought for us!

Saturday was our long anticipated trip to Mangochi and the Lake, organised by Youth Impact as a treat for us. The journey was a wonderful one-  everyone was already singing and dancing on the way – the weather was overcast and did rain at times but we weren’t going to stop! As we went past the rural communities there were cheers coming from the bus when we saw people working in their fields – not a “ha ha we get a day off” way, but celebrating the rains now coming and the maize having started to grow. For everyone but the youngest children memories of the famine and shortages of 2004/5 are still present, so seeing the crops grow promises a good year ahead as we are now getting to the months where food is eaten from storage, waiting for the new harvest in March/April.

We arrived at the lake and the sun came out – we had prepared some food the day before and had lunch of rice, coleslaw and chicken, followed a few hours later by a braai (Afrikaans word for BBQ, used all over southern Africa) of beef, goat and pork we had bought on the way. I went in a dug out canoe for a trip on the lake – lots of fun and reminded me of kayaking in Vietnam, so much so I asked if I could be allowed to row ( - after all how difficult could it be!!!). After about 3 minutes the boat started  tipping over, my boatman fell out and I was faced with the choice of jumping in, or trying to scramble and grab at the other side and probably go in. I chose to jump- and had an unexpected swim! Lots of fun, although I’m still trying to fix the phone Progressio gave me (oops!!!).

Drying off took very little time, although I have caught the sun more than I thought – but the day was totally worth a little sunburn!!

Sunday (an unexpected day off  - our planned visit to the prison has been delayed, hopefully we will go on Tuesday) we wanted to make the most of our last weekend in the south of the country so Aimee and myself got up early, grabbed a minibus and went to Zomba, once the capital city os Malawi. Compared to Liwonde, and even to Lilongwe it is beautiful, there are trees and parks everywhere and sitting at the foot of the Zomba plateaux (covered in clouds as we arrived, a beautiful scene!) We found a small market aimed at tourists and I was able to get a bao board (bao is a game played across Africa which I’ve become very fond of, if not very good at!!) to take back to the UK and to have in Kenya airport for our 8 hour wait in 2 weeks!) and went for a walk towards the mountains and the national botanical gardens. It was a nice chance to get away from the town and to see a bit more of this stunning country.

A most awesome weekend, and now our final week here in Liwonde which we know will be very busy. On Tuesday we (hope) to visit the prison and conduct our interviews, Thursday (World Aids Day) we are doing a big visit to a village to have football and netball matches, our awareness raising presentation, HTC (HIV testing and counselling) and may other things. Friday will be the re-launch of Kwatukubuchire; we are going to open the AEI (Adult Education Initiative) to the whole village and have a day to showcase everything the centre does.

Teaching teachers

Last Tuesday Aimee and myself along with Gilbert, Chipiro and Lot from Youth Impact (one of our partners) went to visit the Machinga Teacher Training College south of Liwonde. This new institution built and funded by the government provides teacher training to several hundred students with the government meeting most of the costs – there is a need for good education in rural areas.

We met with Austin who is a teacher there and runs a branch of Theatre for Change – a  DFID backed programme working along the lines of several others we have encountered – using theatre and dance to engage local young people with the issues of HIV awareness and prevention.  The group at the college has around 90 members and the hope is that they will be able to use what they do when they are working in schools once they graduate.

Our meeting on Tuesday took place in the small classroom next to the TforC office. When we arrived on Sunday we were in a large hall, complete with microphones, speakers , a video camera and all 90 members of Theatre for Change – we had been expecting a much smaller crowd!!

Gilbert started by sharing his experience of discrimination due to his HIV Status (if you haven’t read my last blog post – please go and look now –it is  part of Gilbert’s story and well worth reading!) and then we spoke. We talked about Progressio, our programme and the work we had been doing with Youth Impact and how we had found that what people most enjoyed was the interactive nature of what we were doing. We shared the games that we had come up with – an agree/disagree game looking at some of the myths and stigmas that are attached to HIV and then we were shown some of the games that Theatre for Change use.

One gave us all the instruction to walk around the room, not speaking or touching anyone. We were given a small piece of paper which when opened either said + or -. This is HIV status, there were 4 people who were positive, and were asked to stand at the far side of the room. We were then asked that anyone who had spoken to or bumped into these people while we were walking round to go and stand with them, and then anyone who had bumped into us to come and join to. There were a handful of people where we started but nearly all of us  were now at the positive end. They uses this game to talk about prevention methods ( abstinence, one partner and condom use) and also to look at stigma, the people at the far end, even in a game who didn’t want to admit they had touched or spoken to one of us who was infected.

We had bought the football and netball teams from Kwatukumbuchire and had a match against the TTC teams. We lost the netball (the first time in all our visits they haven’t triumphed!) and the football was either 2-1 or 2-2, depending on if our second goal was offside or not – we all choose to believe it was a draw!!

This weekend we are going to Lake Malawi near Mangochi with the staff from Youth Impact (not a work thing, they just want us to have a chance to go on our day off!!) then on Sunday will be conducting our stigma/discrimination issues in a local prison. In our enquires we have gone from being told we can NOT go – to being told “We have 300 inmates with HIV, do you want to speak with them all?”

Gilbert's Story

One of the activites we have decided to involve ourselves in is to collect the stories and experiences of people who we meet who are living with HIV, and the stigma and discrimination that they have faced.

We decided to do this after meeting and hearing from Gilbbert Momora, our boss and the director of Kwatukumbuchire who we are working with.

Below is an extract from his story - we are hoping to publish either while we are here or shortly after our return to the UK. With World Aids Day (Dec1st) only a few weeks away please read this story and share it.

"I started working for the Machinga food security project as a field officer in 1998 and arranged to marry my first wife. In 1999 we had our first son but he was very sick and I became suspicious of why, so in December I went to the hospital for a HIV test. I went to collect the results in January 2000 and was told that I was HIV positive. I returned home to tell my wife, but she told me she already knew as she had held the baby as it passed away earlier that day. I wanted to tell people of my status but did not want them asking questions of my wife. The only person I told was the pastor of the church. I enrolled in bible school with my wife for the following three years, however during our final year my wife started acting strangely and I was suspicious of a bad spirit. She began preaching Christianity to Muslims, even though I tried to stop her.

My wife and I graduated together in 2003 and our church arranged for us to receive ARVs from a local hospital. My wife refused the drugs and became anaemic. The day before our ordination she went home and did not attend the ceremony, she asked me ‘what’s the point in being ordained when I am going to die in three months?’. Three months later she returned home and told her family she would die on Friday. On Friday morning she came to me and said “I think I should die so you can marry” and later that day she passed.

Later in 2004 I became involved in youth activities and HIV awareness campaigns. I was appointed a youth coordinator and would speak to large groups of people about my status and tell them my story. Someone came to me with vitamin supplements and said “You are not alone, you can live life after this” and I realised many people were living with HIV. My college arranged money for me to but supplementary food which helped meet my nutritional needs.

I graduated from college and faced a lot of stigmatisation, people would say I should not be chosen as a pastor as I have HIV and will die soon. I became a board member for the Malawi Network of Religious Leaders Living with, or personally affected by, HIV (MANERELA+) and started to speak openly about HIV. I visited churches, did interviews for radio stations and attended a state function to speak about HIV which was broadcast on television in 2008.

I have never been in a situation where I thought to myself ‘things are working out’. I struggled through everything, even as a youth co-ordinator, I would submit ideas and proposals for programs but the ideas would be taken and funded elsewhere so I couldn’t do anything.

One time I was sharing my experiences with a group of young people and explained that I could not marry again and a young woman stood up and challenged me, saying that I could. I replied that if she was serious she would write me a letter… and she did. Her name is Gertrude and we are now married. She understood the issue of HIV better than others as several members of her family had died from the virus, but she knew we could live a normal life. We now have two children Hope, 5, and Passion, 1, who are both HIV negative.

I have been doing well since I was diagnosed with HIV in 1999 but recently I have been getting worried. I worked unpaid as a HIV coordinator for two years because the church kept saying the money was coming to pay me, but it never did.

I was called into a meeting recently to be told I was being dismissed by the church and was no longer a pastor. The reasons they gave for my dismissal were trivial; riding a motorcycle assigned to my wife and failing to pay back some debts bought on by working unpaid. I suspect the dismissal was connected to HIV stigma. I do not want to take legal action against them as it does not set a good example for the people. I am hoping they will realise their mistake so I can rejoin the church and maybe one day I will get my money.

When I tested positive for HIV I wanted to bring people together who were living with the virus. People started to come to my house when they discovered they were HIV+ as I was very outspoken about the issue. There were 12 people who would regularly come to discuss issues of HIV so I suggested we formed a group. By 2006 the group was meeting fortnightly at my house and we received training from MANERELA+. Many more people joined the group until there were 32 of us and we looked at getting land so we could meet. The village headman supported the idea and with funds from MANERELA+ we bought a plot of land and built a small structure where we could hold meetings. We took the name Kwatukumbuchire which means ‘remember us’ and started youth activities, adult education, child care and village savings and loans programs to support people in the village. Everyone who works at Kwatukumbuchire is a volunteer, including myself but everyone is struggling and I want to help them.

The church has the ability to fight stigma. There are many programmes out there to support people living with HIV but often they do not reach those most in need. The information is there but people are not empowered to do things on their own. We need to teach them how to fish. I see much dependence, even in the church. People living with the virus can do things, like me. People are surprised when they look at me because I look so well, they do not expect me to have HIV.

I want to help people but I feel like I’m failing to reach them."

Bike taxis, youth groups and TV cameras!!

Once again behind on blogging – this time it is due to trying to do job applications for when I return (and the usual lack of reliable internet!!)

We’re working with a group called Youth Impact – they promote HIV and AIDS awareness and prevention to young people around Liwonde.  We have arranged to give a series of 10 presentations to different groups they are in contact with.

The first one was last week – we all got on our bike taxis (a bike with a seat on the back) and headed south to a group called Simatele. It was the middle of the week so most of the members were away at school, so we met the leaders, the local village chief and some of the villagers. Since this was the first time we’d done the presentation we asked if we could treat it as a dress rehearsal and get feedback from them. They were more than happy to oblige!

We started by asking if anyone knew what HIV and AIDS are. We then went into a game about stigma. We had a series of statements about HIV, the facts, myths and stigmas that can be associated with it. People had to go to one side of the room (not a room but a series of stone benches build to make a meeting place) if they agreed with the statement and to the other side if they disagreed. Some were very easy “Drinking the urine of an old women stops you getting HIV” (This is a real myth that is believed in some villages!!) and some more difficult, “You can tell that someone has HIV by looking at them.” But we did well. We then split the group with one half listing transmission methods and the other prevention. We all feedback together and covered any gaps that were missing.

The event was well received and Gilbert (our boss in this) was able to start making connections for his new project; a network of villages supporting each other  - more on him will follow very soon.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we were in Salima having the mid-phase review of our time here (hard to believe we’re already half way!!) It was awesome to see our friends and hear about their work, share what we had been doing and to re-evaluate and plan for the second half. My proposal that we start to document the stories of people living with HIV who have experienced SSDDIM (Stigma, shame, denial, discrimination, Inaction and mis-action) was well received by our partner agency MANERELA and is now going ahead full swing.

It was also good to get the chance to see Lake Malawi “You can’t come here and not see the Lake!!”

Back in Liwonde we went, again on our bike taxis to a village who are running a CBCC, this was a chance for us to share best practice and widen the network we are building with Gilbert. The journey was interesting, at pointed we felt just like Livingston (if he’d had a bike!) and there is a real sense of working together with the driver when you are both trying to lift the bike up a hill! The organisers at the CBCC had told a local youth group we were coming and said we might stop in – so back on the bikes and into the hills where we arrived and totally disrupted the morning classes of the school where the youth group is based (oopss!!!). Having met them we are now trying to find time to give our presentation to them too. On our way back down the hill we came across some journalists (Gilbert’s  mother law was to be interviewed because she killed a hyena with a spear – don’t ask!!) who were interested in us and came round afternoon and record a short piece about us. We were able to talk about Progressio, the work we’re doing and our mission to collect peoples’ stories of discrimination due to HIV. It will be broadcast on Monday morning, so we’re planning an early morning trip to Gilbert’s house to watch!

To end a busy day we observed the 2 minute silence for the armistice and all had the realisation that in 1 month it will all be over and we’ll be back in the UK. But we’ve a very busy 4 weeks before that!!

Kwatukumbuchire and MANERELA+

I’ve been promising to tell more about where we are working – so here we go.

Kwatukumbuchire Malayi is a community centre about 3 kms east of Liwonde, heading towards the national park. It was started about 6 months ago to work with the villages surrounding the area on HIV issues and other things. MANERELA+ (The Malawian Network of Religious Leaders living with or personally affected by HIV/AIDS) work to develop the capacity of individuals to do this kind of work, and Gilbert Momora (our boss) is one of these.

MANERELA+ also exists to promote the SAVE model and anti-SSDDIM.

S – Safer Practices

A – Available medications (lobbying the government for these)

V – Voluntary Counselling and Testing

E – Empowerment (e.g-  women owning land and earning money so they are not dependant on a abusive/ unsafe relationship)

At Kwatukumbuchire – although the initial focus was on HIV there are several other programmes running in the community. Home Based Care – identifying people who are sick or struggling and taking the medication and help they need to them. Community Based Child Care – running a nursery in the mornings, where there are some classes in English, Chichewa and Maths. Adult Education; Malawi has a 49% literacy rate in adults, many drop out of education due to financial or social pressures – this is an opportunity to get back into studying. Support groups where both HIV +ve and –ve can meet to provide social and emotional support. We also work with Youth Action, running sport programmes, dance and theatre and using these as a forum to discuss and educate about HIV prevention.

We have been working in all these areas, we also are making plans to visit several other youth groups run by Youth Impact, along with orphan centres, and a prison.

Part of our work is to promote ‘anti-SSDDIM’. SSDDIM means Stigma, Shame, Denial, Discrimination, Inaction and Mis-action. We hope to collect stories from individuals about their experiences of SSDDIM to be used by MANERELA+ and other groups as an awareness raising resource.

We have just over a month left, and it is hard to believe that we have been here for a month already. We have a lot we hope to achieve in what feels like a very short space of time. We remembered it was Halloween last night so decided to watch a couple of horror films, they were less scary than the bats which chose that night to nest in the trees next to our lodge – or the lightening we could see in the sky. Sadly, no rain for us – but people in Blantyre must be feeling cooler now.

From the UK

I know I've been promising updates - they are coming, but in the meantime please have a read of this. Saw it on the BBC website this lunchtime after a meeting where we've been making plans to interview people about their experiences of stigma and discrimination because of HIV status and I see our own government doing this.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-15525537