Up and running (the Program & the kids!)

The good news is that we have found a Coordinator for the After School Program, after Kauna’s studies kept her too busy last year and I stepped in until we found someone…and ended up acting in that capacity for the whole year!

Tangee Tjijorokisa has been involved as the Coordinator previously, for a couple of years shortly after we started the Program in 2004. He has been studying Adult and Community Education for the last two years and this has rounded out his area of expertise which is early childhood education. He has a real passion for working with children and is bringing a lot of new ideas that are improving the Program.

Tangee teaching the Grade 1s and 2s about vowels

The consistently high attendance from last year has continued and increased in this first term – so far we’ve had three days with more than 80 kids present! Of course we can’t handle these numbers without a whole heap of volunteers and so we’re happy that our dedicated ‘teachers’ (as the children call us!) from last year have stayed on (except for Martin, who’s too busy with study) and have been joined by some more.

Tom (left) helps the Grade 3s and 4s with their homework, while Uvatera (right) reads a story

Joseph and Zeka, members of EBC Rundu who are studying at the Namibia Evangelical Theological Seminary, were occasional helpers last year but are able to commit themselves more this year, with Joseph coming every afternoon (it’s great that his classes are only in the mornings!) and Zeka once or twice a week. Some of you will also remember Tom, his studies by correspondence allow him to be full-time at the Program again. And Uvatera finished Grade 12 last year and is taking a ‘break’ this year before taking up his tertiary studies – and decided to dedicate some of his time to After School.

Joseph makes sure there are no false starts!

And they're off!

For their sports days the last couple of weeks the kids have been doing ‘athletics’ – they’re split into teams and compete in races with the rest of the team cheering from the sidelines. The kids get very excited, as does the neighbourhood! Many people from nearby houses, or those walking past, come to the fence and seem just as interested in who wins as the kids are.

The kids cheer for their teams

The winning team is announced

As well as sports, the activities this term include the Life Skills group for Grades 6 to 12 continuing, craft, Bible Club and games. Pray that these, in addition to the schoolwork help provided, will fulfill the Program’s aim of promoting positive life choices to the children who attend.

A prayer to close the afternoon

Denial + secrecy = lives at risk

As we work more in the community through home visits and AIDS awareness, we see how much stigma is still attached to HIV and AIDS. Even though there is an openness in sharing information about HIV-AIDS, when it comes to admitting that HIV-AIDS is actually present in my family or my community there is still so much denial and secrecy. And this is putting lives at risk.

Consider the story of Martha*. When her aunt, who she was very close to, fell ill she willingly volunteered to help her cousin nurse her at home. She gave more and more of her time to her aunt, but eventually her aunt passed away. After a couple of years, Martha noticed that she was losing weight and was often sick. She decided, after a few trips to the clinic, to ask for blood tests. One of these was for HIV and came back positive. Martha immediately thought of her boyfriend and he was also tested, but was HIV-negative. Because of counselling she received, Martha was able to accept her HIV status although it was a great shock, and was open in talking about it with her family. When her cousin heard that she was HIV-positive, she came to Martha and, haltingly, confessed that her mother, Martha’s aunt, had died of an AIDS-related illness. Despite the risk to Martha and others who helped look after her aunt, her cousin and aunt had decided to keep her aunt’s HIV-status a secret because of the shame they thought it would bring to the family.

Rejoice* was also often sick. She was diagnosed HIV-positive and when her brothers and sisters found out, they decided not to tell their extended family. Soon their uncles and aunts came to them and suggested taking Rejoice to a traditional healer to find out why she was sick, since she kept visiting the hospital and was not getting better. Rejoice’s siblings kept making excuses for not taking her to the traditional healer, as they knew she had started on treatment for the HIV and her health would soon improve, but the pressure from the family intensified. Eventually they took her away and pretended to the family that they had seen the traditional healer. The family was satisfied as, soon after, Rejoice’s health improved.

If her siblings had not been in control, it is very possible that Rejoice would have been taken to the traditional healer, who could have tried remedies that would have interfered with the HIV treatment. In addition to this, the extended family is more likely to take relatives with symptoms like Rejoice’s to traditional healers in the future because of the ‘success’ of Rejoice’s visit.

One of the important parts of the work of EBCAIDS is, through education and counselling, enabling people to be open about their HIV-status, decreasing stigma and avoiding putting more lives at risk.

*Not their real names

Time Away

Okay, okay, I know I haven’t posted for a LONG time. For those of you who don’t know, I was in Australia for two months catching up with family and friends, raising awareness of (and some funds for) EBCAIDS – oh, yeah, and having a bit of a holiday! We nearly didn’t get there due to problems getting Australian visas for Jimmy and the girls because of a mistake in Samara’s brand new passport, and then a courier company that shall remain nameless (but can be identified by 3 capital letters…) LOSING their passports between the High Commission in Pretoria and Windhoek…all in the week before we were supposed to leave! Well thankfully we got there in the end, just over 24 hours later than planned. Jimmy could only be there with the girls and me for two weeks before he had to fly back to Namibia to do some work on his farm and then go back to work.

What's Australia without kangaroos?
(with Jimmy, Samara & Caietta)

or sun, sea and sand?!!
(Caietta and Samara with my good friend Kat)

I spoke at five churches and three other meetings about EBCAIDS, and there was a lot of interest in the work we are doing. The aim of my talks was to relay the difference of context there is of HIV-AIDS in a country like Namibia, compared to a country like Australia. Facts like everyone in Namibia knows someone who’s HIV-positive or living with AIDS; how HIV-AIDS affects families, communities and the country as a whole, but also what its effect is on individuals. It was great to see the concern expressed by individuals as well as the churches, and a big thank you to those who gave funds during my time in Australia, that’s really helped us with our planning for this year!

With my former primary school Principal and Deputy Principal, the Sutcliffes,
who attended the Gateway Presbyterian Church prayer breakfast I spoke at.

Of course it wasn’t all work, I got to catch up with a lot of ‘old’ friends, some of whom I hadn’t

seen for a few years, some for more than 10! A lot of great family time, including celebrating my, niece Annabel’s, Caietta’s and Mum’s birthdays. A good excuse to eat a lot of cake…

All the family at Christmas

All the cousins at Caietta's birthday party

Another highlight was that the international launch of the 10th book in ‘The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency’ series was in Australia and my sister, Vikki, and I attended the Brisbane leg and got to chat to the author, Alexander McCall Smith. For those of you who’ve never heard of the books, they’re set in Botswana and are well worth the read if you want to learn about everyday African life.

While I was away Jogbeth made sure that the Home Based Care carried on with visiting their clients, and Absalom, Mercia and Tangee had the responsibility of getting After School Program up and running for the year on 2 February. Everyone did a great job…and you’ll be hearing more about what’s happening in the Programs.

Thanks for your prayers during this time and it was great to catch up with those of you I saw or spoke to while in Aus!