On Wednesday I went with Ruth, Richard and Nassar to a nearby village to visit a support group for people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS. One of the groups is run by a man named Sam who is infected, and who helps care for other who are infected when he is healthy enough. We began by visiting the homes of some victims, all of whom were single parents running households of a minimum of five children. In each home I visited, the parent was infected and in some homes there were infected children as well. Each parent had either been widowed because of the AIDS virus, or their spouse had divorced them after finding out that they were infected. One of the largest problems in this village is all of the children who require care. While there are parents and guardians for those that have been orphaned, many are too old or too sick to provide proper care and education for these children. After visiting the people in their homes, we went to a large support group meeting of youth, men, and women who were affected in someway by HIV/AIDS. It was really inspiring to see how the people reached out to each other, even in their own times of need. I will be coming back to visit the village in the future to work with some of the children in the area in whatever way that I can.
My trip to Mt. Elgon got postponed until next week so you wont be hearing about that until later, but we had a bonfire and sparklers last night for the 4th of July so that was fun. Best wishes to everyone, I'll write again soon!
Mwelaba!
-Hilary
Support group
Girls dancing at the support group meeting
Family with AIDS
Sam with girls from the village
Ruth with orphan baby
4 comments:
Wow Hil....great pictures and stories about the people you are meeting. You are doing great work...love you. xoxox Mom
Hilary- what great work you're doing! The pictures are wonderful and the stories are really inspiring. What's an average day like? The teaching environs? What interesting things are you eating? I miss you and love you lots!
Hilary
Glad to see you are settled and have gotten into the swing of things. Iganga, and especially Ruth, Richard et.al. are so generous and will continue to offer you a great experience. Be sure to have Richard take you around to meet the street kids, if you hav enot done that yet...another whole world to get immersed in! Also, be sure to go to Bujagali Falls near Jinja - as they are building a hydro dam there and will flood the Nile at that point - one of the most beautiful parts of the Nile River! Looking forward to hearing more of your experiences.
Dave
Hi Julia am Ivan one of the thousand kids brought up from Musana children's home 2008 to 2014
Post a Comment