From Jennifer, one of our home based care clients:
I am a 30 year old female Namibian and I am HIV-positive. I’ve been living with HIV for about 10 years now and lost my second-born child to HIV-AIDS. I’ve been diagnosed with full-blown AIDS and am receiving antiretrovirals as treatment.
Since I have been introduced to the EBCAIDS Home Based Care my life has improved tremendously. This is due to the food, love and support I receive from this ministry. I currently do not have a job and through the Home Based Care visits I have been encouraged and counseled to live positively even in the face of this, and other, difficulties. I really thank God who keeps me alive day after day, and because He has used His servants from EBCAIDS to help me accept my condition and live a happy and productive life.
Aline has been visiting Jennifer for about seven months now. Jennifer lives by herself (her first child stays with his father) and she often got discouraged by the emotional and health problems that come along with HIV-AIDS. Since Jennifer has been receiving the home based care, Aline has seen a real change in her attitude and life.
“She is a lot more positive now that she can talk about her problems with someone. It also helps that we pray about the issues she has to deal with and I encourage her that God hears our prayers and will answer them,” Aline says. “Also since I started visiting her Jennifer has started her own small business of taking wedding photos. This means that she isn’t just depending on the food that I bring her each month, but is also able to make some money for herself. That has really improved her outlook on life.”
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Friday, March 27, 2009
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 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
Friday, March 20, 2009
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
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
Friday, March 13, 2009
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)
(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.
friends, some of whom I hadn’t 
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!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Term 3 Update
The term has started well at the After School Program with 140 children already registered and high average daily attendances of 71 children in September and 77 children in October. The highest daily attendance so far has been 85 children – now that was a busy day!
New Faces
Rahel Widmer, a volunteer from SIM Switzerland, joins the ASP team from Term 3 2008 until mid-2009. She has training and experience in children’s ministry and loves working with young children.
A new activity the children can try this term is creative dance, run on Thursday afternoons by Ujandja Veii. Ujandja is a talented young lady from the church who especially enjoys hip-hop and creative dancing.
Life Stories
This year one of the activities for the children in Grades 6 to 12 has been a Life Skills group. Through this they have learned that everyone is special; the importance of accepting and respecting each other; how to make good decisions; and facts about HIV and AIDS.
While we were talking about the pressures that young people face, many of the children shared about the pressure to have sex that they experience. One girl told us about her sister in Grade 10, who constantly gets approached by older, often married, men who are interested in a ‘relationship’ with her. Others talked about peer pressure and boyfriends or girlfriends who demand sex.
These are issues that our children face regularly and we want to equip them with the skills to make the right choices for their lives.
New Faces
Rahel Widmer, a volunteer from SIM Switzerland, joins the ASP team from Term 3 2008 until mid-2009. She has training and experience in children’s ministry and loves working with young children.
A new activity the children can try this term is creative dance, run on Thursday afternoons by Ujandja Veii. Ujandja is a talented young lady from the church who especially enjoys hip-hop and creative dancing.
Ujandja puts the children through their paces
Life Stories
This year one of the activities for the children in Grades 6 to 12 has been a Life Skills group. Through this they have learned that everyone is special; the importance of accepting and respecting each other; how to make good decisions; and facts about HIV and AIDS.
While we were talking about the pressures that young people face, many of the children shared about the pressure to have sex that they experience. One girl told us about her sister in Grade 10, who constantly gets approached by older, often married, men who are interested in a ‘relationship’ with her. Others talked about peer pressure and boyfriends or girlfriends who demand sex.
These are issues that our children face regularly and we want to equip them with the skills to make the right choices for their lives.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Home Based Care
Meet Edler, Jogbeth and Aline (above, from left to right), the Carers in our newly-started Home Based Care (HBC) Program.
Between them they are currently visiting eight clients, all of whom are HIV-positive and taking anti-retrovirals (medication used when HIV has reached an advanced stage).
Apart from assistance when a client is sick, the HBC provides support and counselling, as well as help and education to the clients’ families. Often the households have practical needs such as for food or medicine; sometimes the clients may just need the encouragement of someone caring enough to listen to, and pray with, them.
HOW DO YOU…?
One of Jogbeth’s clients is Susanna (not her real name), a nine-year-old girl whose family did not know how to tell her that she is HIV-positive. Shortly after starting to visit the home, Jogbeth saw that Susanna didn’t understand why she needs to take medicine every day. After speaking with the parents, everyone agreed that Susanna needed to know the truth. So Jogbeth explained the disease to her and the fact that taking the medicine properly will help her stay healthy. Susanna had many questions but was able to accept this. Jogbeth now needs to talk with Susanna’s brothers and sisters so that they can also understand and help Susanna.
This is just an example of the many challenging situations our Carers encounter, please pray for them!
Between them they are currently visiting eight clients, all of whom are HIV-positive and taking anti-retrovirals (medication used when HIV has reached an advanced stage).
Apart from assistance when a client is sick, the HBC provides support and counselling, as well as help and education to the clients’ families. Often the households have practical needs such as for food or medicine; sometimes the clients may just need the encouragement of someone caring enough to listen to, and pray with, them.
HOW DO YOU…?
One of Jogbeth’s clients is Susanna (not her real name), a nine-year-old girl whose family did not know how to tell her that she is HIV-positive. Shortly after starting to visit the home, Jogbeth saw that Susanna didn’t understand why she needs to take medicine every day. After speaking with the parents, everyone agreed that Susanna needed to know the truth. So Jogbeth explained the disease to her and the fact that taking the medicine properly will help her stay healthy. Susanna had many questions but was able to accept this. Jogbeth now needs to talk with Susanna’s brothers and sisters so that they can also understand and help Susanna.
This is just an example of the many challenging situations our Carers encounter, please pray for them!
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Term 2 in Retrospect!
188 children attended the After School Program in Term 2 and the average daily attendance was 61 children.
International Flavour
Two international teams assisted at the ASP during the Term.
International Flavour
Two international teams assisted at the ASP during the Term.
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Pip, Cherith, David and Richard from the Scottish Team running games for the children
The first was from the Gilcomston South Church of Scotland in Aberdeen, the home church of SIM missionaries Paul and Hilary Gunning. They were here for two weeks at the end of June and did a fantastic job running a Bible Club program for the children each afternoon.
The second was through Africa Inland Mission Canada and came for six weeks in
July/August. Tim, Becky, Justin, Amanda, Cecilly and Katie worked hard tutoring the children, especially those in Grades 1 to 4, helping with the sports, Bible Club and craft activities and running a special Bible program during the last week of the Term. The water fight on the last day was very memorable!
The AIM Team with ASP volunteers (L to R) Hauta, Absalom, Lazarus and MartinIn addition to the teams, three nursing students (Melanie, Carly and Danelle) who were also in Namibia through AIM Canada helped out two afternoons a week.
Donations
One of these students, Danelle LeBlanc, donated some money for sports equipment. The children were very excited to see new soccer balls, rugby balls, a cricket set, darts and cones. The AIM Team also brought some sports gear, so now we have a good variety of sports to offer the children.
A big thank you also goes to Bicycle Empowerment Network (BEN) Namibia, who donated six bicycles to the ASP volunteers. This makes their transport to and from the Program much easier.
Lazarus, Martin and Absalom with their bikes
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