1 December is World Aids Day.
Today we choose to honour Tony Moll a Doctor at the Hospital in Tugela Ferry. This wonderful man and his family have been serving the rural community for as long as I can remember and he was the one who told me about HIV AIDS in 1991.
Living in Africa is the dream of a life of living on the wild side, surrounded by natural beauty, amazing cultures and awesome animals. However, with this beautoful continent comes pain, suffering, war and disease. Our HIV AIDS battle is not only against time and soaring numbers of infections, but it is also against a lack of education and distrust. In some rural communities even aspirin is considered a white-man’s medicine and the locals would rather resort to their medicinal herbs and home-made remedies than take anything from foreigners. There seems to be mistrust and corrupted thinking, sometimes it is ignorance, but most often their sangomas, a shaman or medicine man/woman have warned them not to take anything the white people give them so as to avoid a curse.
This makes it very tricky top reach out, educate and build trust so that HIV can be treated before the full blown affects of AIDS is felt. Sometimes it feels like you are swimming upstream and not getting anywhere. It is at these times when we take a deep breath, keep swimming and “vasbyt” somehow, through love and acceptance trust does form, then treatment of HIV can take place and our war against AIDS gives us strength to find another family in need of the treatment.
• Tugela Ferry Second most economically disadvantaged community in South Africa
• Estimated rate of HIV infection: 36%
• Rapidly growing number of destitute orphans
To find out more about Tugela Ferry and their projects please visit http://www.tugelaferry.co.za/index.html
Tags: aids, hiv, world aids day