World AIDS Day
Last Thursday, December 1, was World AIDS Day. There was a benefit hosted by Will Smith and Nelson Mandela in Jo’burg and it aired on TV. Special debates and shows were shown throughout the day. I spend the afternoon at a memorial for one of Becca’s teachers.
It was my second memorial service for a teacher, the first was for one of Alicia’s teachers, but the message was a little different. For both services teachers throughout the district came, a pastor prayed, family members and co-workers gave small speeches remembering the dead, and there was a song sung by the whole group in-between each speech. Both teachers died after a long illness but were in their late 30s to early 40s. At neither service did anyone directly state the cause of death. But at the service on World AIDS day, the circuit manager gave a long speech talking about the ABCs of HIV/AIDS prevention:
A abstain
B be faithful
C condomise.
I heard that teachers are the most effected profession by HIV/AIDS. 17 teachers have died this year in my district. Most of the teachers in my schools live in small cottages in front of the school and only see their families on the weekends, putting pressure on B. Add in the difficulties of telling your spouse (or anyone that you’ve been in a relationship with for a long time) to wear a condom and imagine the consequences, the whole nation linked.
Because of fear of being tested (why be tested if their isn’t a cure?), there isn’t’ firm data for the number of people with HIV/AIDS in South Africa. The disease also carries a stigma of ‘risky behaviors’ and people fear telling their friends and family if they test positive. Conservative estimates from SABC2 say that 20 percent of women and 11 percent of men from 18 to 45 years old are HIV positive with 300,000 people dying and 500,000 new cases each year.
Campaigns to prevent HIV/AIDS have a very-middle class view: high self-esteem will prevent the spread of the disease. Let’s help your self-esteem! But 50 percent of the nation lives in poverty. How will high self-esteem help a poor woman tell her husband who works far away to wear a condom the few times a year that he visits?
Regardless, I haven’t seen anyone in my village that looks less than healthy and HIV/AIDS isn’t a topic of discussion on most days. Bigger concerns are water and unemployment. At funerals, no one mentions the cause of death. The sheer number of funerals gives me alarm, there are usually 5 to 7 each weekend for my small village. Will the problem continue to grow until a whole generation is gone?
Unfortunately, I don’t know as much as I wish to know about HIV/AIDS (including the herbal remedy that you mentioned, Margaret). In the beginning of March there will be a weeklong training giving us more information.
A good movie is Yesterday. It takes place in KwaZulu-Natal which has the highest infection rate of any province. It’s a pretty good picture of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, but I haven’t seen anyone throwing stones! It was nominated this year for a best foreign film Oscar.
posted by Melissa @ 11:06 AM
4 Comments:
The immune boosting plant is Sutherlandia Fructescens, lots of info here
http://www.sutherlandia.org/
It is indiginous, we saw it growing wild in the Karoo.
Maybe there is a nursery near you that has some. There are programs (intially begun by Maryann Orr an Artist who is HIV+) that distribute seeds, teach how to grow them and make medicinal tea out of it. You chop off the outside half meter or less of the bush, being sure to leave enough for it survive. Then chop it into 10cm lengths, (including twig bits, not just leaves) pour boiling water over it, steep it for 12-15 mins then drink it plain, no sugar/ milk.
Medication is not accessible in KwaZulu Natal so the challenge is to live with HIV/Aids. Aids Stigma and socialization of women to supply sex on demand are some of the biggest barriers to decreasing the stats. It is estimated that 20% of Southern Africans are HIV+ now. For too many rural woman, or economicly interconnected (not even dependent) waman to ask her man to wear a condom is tantamount to being asked to be beated or made homeless.
The latest survey the UN did on effectiveness of Aids education in South Africa (Aids eduication programs have been around well over 10 years) showed that Black people of every socio economic knew the material, the causes and transmission of HIVAids very well. The people the most ignorant (rather than the most at risk behaviourwise) were religious Afrikaners and Muslims. Muslims have the lowest HIV transmission rate in all the ways that they still slice and divide the population in SA. A useful way of targeting information even if it's built on uncomfortable apartheid bones.
Gender issues have a huge, huge impact in SA as your bumper stickers show in a much lighter way, across every race and socio economic.
Just as an FYI Bush is promoting ABC as a cornerstone to Aids prevention in the USA. I always thought we could learn more than we could give from countries we pour Aid into, but this policy is born out of very poor, consistent medication access in Africa where access to food has to be fixed before medicine is effective at all.
Back to Sutherlandia. I heard from a friend that the bush is under threat in SA. Some farmers are cooperating with big Pharma (pun intended) to ship all the seeds overseas for first world Health food Markets.
I have found a site here http://seedrack.com/09.html
that sells Sutherlandia frutescens - common name 'Cancer Bush'
15 seeds for $ 3.29 pkt I can ask my Meeting and the UU church whom i have spoken to twice to help raise funds to buy up the seeds and re-export them back to you if you can't find them near you. Let me know.
the bush takes about a year to mature I'm told. You need to find places where it will be cared for and NOT CUT for tea for the first year.
You started something! My email box is jumping from SA!
http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za
Silverhill Nursery has the seeds
P.O. Box 53108, Kenilworth, 7745
Cape Town, South Africa
Telephone: +27 21 762-4245/ Facsimile: +27 21 797-6609
E-mail: info@silverhillseeds.co.za
Family: Fabaceae
Genus: Lessertia
R 11 for 100 seeds, and $15 if ordered on US credit card.
Like most legumes, it would benefit from a 24-48 hour soak in water followed by shallow sowing in a warm, moist medium indoors. In the ground it would prefer a sunny, well-drained site
I hope you like your e-mail box full of South Africa, Margaret! I don't think we're planning on going any where. . .
I just found out that "Yesterday" is playing on HBO. It's definetely worth checking out and will probably be out on video eventually.
Thanks for looking up all of the information Sutherlandia. I'll keep it in mind and remember to mention it at in-service training (a week long workshop on AIDS). I don't have enough community contacts yet to figure out the best place to plant it. Luckily, I will be here for two years and I'll be able to plant it next year. My Baba drinks tea made out of some kind of bark. He's not the healthiest person, something about diabetes, high blood pressure, and maybe something with his kidneys. I haven't asked what the tea is because of the language barrier.
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