| Introduction
:
HIV/AIDS was once looked at as a disease of people in
cities rather than in the villages. This was a common
observation because most who got sick and brought home
were from our big cities. Nowadays it is everywhere
and in fact cities have done well with prevention messages
because of the mass media campaigns on TV, radio and
other commercials.
The HIV/AIDS
program was such a great opportunity for my group, Hope
Against AIDS which has a mission “to
curb HIV/AIDS spread by teaching Kenyans on HIV/AIDS
scourge through theater and presentations. Counselling
services and care for orphaned children on HIV/AIDS
and other diseases.” We had two members, Crecencia
and Lucy wo were chosen by GN/BA to participate in the
program but who could not obtain a visa to come the
US. After these two failed to get the visa’s I
was requested to try and luckily I got it. The journey
started the same day on April 13th. We flew through
London then on to Boston arriving on the evening of
April 14th.
My
expectation was to know counselling on HIV/AIDS
for both infected and affected people. Having participated
in the leadership training program of 2001 and now this
one I have felt more at home and feel I have a deeper
understanding of my brothers and sisters in GN/BA in
the USA. I am grateful for the friends who have enabled
me to have had such great experiences and opportunities
for learning which I will share with the groups back
in Bura. The places and sites we shared were support
centers, homes for people with HIV/AIDS, crisis centers
for adolescents, counselling and testing centers, schools
sessions on HIV/AIDS, nutrition lessons, Strongest Link
case management services, and a meeting with Dr. Sullivan
at UMASS Medical Center who is working to reduce mother
to child transmission of HIV in Kenya.
Supportive
housing for people living with HIV/AIDS:
These programs are State funded and the victims are
provided with medications (cocktail). This supportive
environment with the drugs has really prolonged their
lives. We meet people who had been living with the disease
for 14 and 19 years. It was wonderful to have met people
who are free to talk of their status and how they got
the virus freely to visitors. This is great! I was sympathetic
to them because of the number of pills they have to
take every day (almost 40 pills a day). One person we
met with showed us his very large basket of all of his
pill bottles.
We visited a center for disturbed youth, which was a
great program because the young ones are counselled
and when they reform, are returned to their parent’s
home. This way there is assistance at every step to
ensure that no one goes to waste.
Our visits
to Wilmington and Newburyport schools
was great. We told students of the impact of HIV/AIDS
in the village compared to those in the city where people
have anti-retrovirals.
Counselling
and Testing: This is a center where people
get counselled and tested for HIV. Contrary to what
I thought the counselling is based on a set questionnaire,
which the client has to answer. This will enable the
counsellor to determine if the client is ready or fit
for testing. It is completely anonymous – you
do not give your name or any other identifying characteristics.
It takes 2 weeks to get the results from the oral test
back. The Public health officials in the State track
the information in order to monitor the infection patterns
of the virus. This is done so that prevention efforts
can be targeted at the most at-risk groups.
Nutrition:
A lesson which highlighted us on nursing people with
HIV positive people – we learned that deficiencies
of vitamin A create a higher risk of transmitting the
virus to a child at birth. Foods rich in vitamin A are
vegetables, dark green like broccoli, spinach, kale
etc. . Also vegetables that are dark orange like sweet
potatoes and carrots. The nutritionist gave us methods
to feed someone who is not feeling well with HIV:
- Give patients
small portions of food frequently. This is less stressful
for them.
- Try to
keep the smell of cooking food away from the patient.
The smell of food may make them less likely to want
to eat.
- Keep
patient hydrated.
- Make
the foods soft and easy to chew.
- Give
foods to patients – do not ask them to make
decisions about what to eat because when they do not
feel well this is too stressful.
Meeting
with Dr. Sullivan: We felt honored to meet
with the research doctor who participated in the development
of neverapine which is a drug that prevents transmission
of HIV from mother to child during birth. Many of the
issues were clarified and recent research on HIV/AIDS
treatment with neverapine where discussed like efforts
to give a child an implant with medication that could
protect from infection while breast feeding from an
infected mother. We learned about the major differences
in Type I and Type II HIV strains. Type II is less virulent
then type I. Type 1 originated in chimpanzees. All strains
of the virus respond the same to HIV/AIDS medications.
There is
hope for the development of an HIV vaccine and many
new discoveries that are supporting this effort.
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