Aine and Ciara on Newstalk

Caterina Totaro — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:13:27 +0000

Well done to Aine Carroll, Ciara O'Meara and James O'Connor of Open Heart House who were interviewed on Newstalk's "Global Village" about the work of the EIL Global Awareness Programme and of Open Heart House in Dublin. A really great listen... provides some fantastic information and perspective. Brilliant job guys! You can listen in here, the interview is at the start of Part 2.

Winter Newsletter 2011

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 11:57:14 +0000

The Development Education Winter issue has just been published! Check it out here

Nancy Navigates in Northern Thailand

Caitriona — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 12:27:09 +0000

Nancy Ormond decided to go volunteering with EIL Intercultural Learning for 8 weeks in January 2011. "But Nancy is not your usual volunteer and for a lady of her maturity it was certainly a brave undertaking by her to have travelled out to Northern Thailand in January this year, unaccompanied, except for her much younger volunteer colleagues". Click on this article and "download original" to learn more about her experiences volunteering.

Click on the following report to learn how she organised her photo presentation of her volunteering experience on her return to Mullingar.

“Connecting the Dots” at a UN conference in Bonn, Germany

aislinn — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:44:51 +0000

Last month, I set off to Bonn, Germany to meet with other members of Federation EIL and represent the organisation at the 64th Annual United Nations NGO Conference. There were seven delegates from EIL representing with representatives from Germany, South Korea and Colombia. Bonn was a lovely host city which is situated on the river Rhine and is the birthplace of Ludwig van Beethoven. Bonn is Germany’s UN City, with 850 men and women working in 18 UN organisations, programmes and offices, mostly in the area of sustainable development. This made it a very suitable host city for the theme of the conference: “Sustainable Societies, Responsive Citizens”. The German branch of EIL also have their offices in Bonn.

The conference ran for 3 days and was attended by more than 1,700 people from 70 countries representing many different NGOs. On the first morning of the conference I met with the other members of the EIL delegation at the EIL booth in the main hall. Over the duration of the conference attendees of the conference were able to stop by the desk to learn about EIL and the volunteer programs. Lots of other NGOs and some UN agencies had desks set up where you could find out about their organisations and their work.

The opening ceremony was very illuminating and set up the themes from conference. The slogan for the weekend was “Connecting the Dots” and the speakers at the ceremony gave their interpretation of how this related to “Sustainable Societies, Responsive Citizens. “Connecting the Dots” makes reference to a speech Ban Ki Moon, made in January this year where he spoke of “tearing down the walls between the development agenda and the climate agenda” and he spoke to his audience about “connecting the dots” between climate change, water, energy and food.

One of the opening speakers in Bonn remarked that “connecting the dots” meant that sustainable development is not just an environmental issue, but an economic and social one as well, as sustainable development needs finance and needs to be achieved alongside social equality. Vandana Shiva, an Indian environmentalist and a keynote speaker at the opening ceremony, stressed the importance of connecting the anti-poverty agenda with an environmental agenda, claiming that hunger could be ended by using innovations in agricultural ecology with are also good for the environment. The Under-Secretary General for Communications and Public Information, Kiyo Akasaka, remarked that we need only look at the famine in the Horn of Africa to see how hunger is cause by the intersection of climate, conflict and governance. The opening ceremony also included a video address from Ban Ki Moon who spoke of the need to development sustainable economies in order to achieve the Millennium Development goals and protect the environment.

The conference consisted of a series of roundtables and smaller workshops where which sought to link volunteering, youth involvement and bottom-up approaches to the creation of sustainable societies and economies. Irish MEP Marian Harkin was among the speakers in a workshop on “Volunteering for a Sustainable Future” that I attended. She spoke of how economies weren’t sustainable because they were no longer related to people. This workshop highlighted how volunteering should take centre stage in the struggle to develop sustainable societies.

Over the course of the conference, a declaration was which brought together the ideas of all the ideas and contributions of the various organisations represented by the delegates of the conference. The declaration calls on governments to come to the Rio+20 conference on Sustainable development to produce a politically binding document on the issue. The Final Declaration is available here:

http://www.un.org/wcm/webdav/site/ngoconference/shared/Documents/Final%20Declaration/Chair%27s%20Text.pdf

It was a great opportunity to attend a real UN conference and a huge thanks to EIL Ireland for the opportunity and the delegates from the German office who were there to welcome me on the first day. It was a wonderful chance to meet international members of EIL and people from NGOs around the world.

Here’s a link to a video summarising the highlight of the conference

http://www.un.org/wcm/content/site/ngoconference/pid/16700

My experience so far in northwest Argentina

Steph Elliott — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:30:36 +0000

Chilecito is a small city with a main plaza. This plaza is where I hang out, drink coffee and meet with my friends. The plaza is only a 5 minute walk from my host house so I am in walking distance from the banks, shops and post office. The landscape is extremely dry here, with the only water supply coming from the Famatina Mountains. I feel very lucky to have been granted the individual travel award to volunteer in this beautiful place. Winning this award has given me the opportunity to travel to the northwest of Argentina an area less travelled by tourists, which is something that really appealed to me about this particular award. The idea of travelling on my own and spending a summer in a strange place did scare me a little at the beginning but this feeling has long left my thoughts. I travelled to Argentina on my own however once I arrived in Chilecito I was surrounded by friends and my new family. I am honestly taken back by how warm and welcoming the people in Chilecito are. My host mum Betty is like a second mother to me now and I really enjoy listening to her stories about her family and Argentina itself. My house is always busy with people coming and going, Betty also owns a little dog that is adorable and waits for me at the door every day. I attend Spanish lessons every evening for 2 hours. Esther has been very patient with me as it is my first time learning a different language with someone who doesn’t speak English. She greets me at the door every day with a warm smile and a big hug, and after our class we sit and drink mate and of course we eat some dulce de leche a delicious delicacy of Argentina. We have become really good friends and I know I will keep in touch with her when I return to Ireland.

Initially when I arrived everything felt strange and different. I didn’t know the language very well or what people were saying to me. I was adapting to a new country, customs and people.However now I can honestly say it feels like home here in Chilecito and I will truly miss the kids from the project and all my friends and host family.

I love waking up every morning and having the amazing view of the Famatina mountains, and soaking up the air and sunshine as I cycle to the neighbouring village San Miguel. San Miguel is a small little village outside chilecito situated in the province of La Rioja, at the foothills of the Andes in the northwest of Argentina and it is where I go to the soup kitchen to work Monday to Friday. I work in a neighbourhood centre where residents gather for classes or celebrating festivities. The centre is basically one big room. In this room we store a sink, cooker, fridge, cupboard for all our cutlery and some tables and chairs for the kids. A lot of work has been completed on the comedor over the past few years and this September the comedor will celebrate its 3rd birthday. Before the renovations began the walls were cold, grey and sad, the floor bumpy. There was only one fridge and two gas stoves; the remaining equipment was limited and very old. However now the walls are painted and new flooring has been put down.

The comedor (soup kitchen) project is named after the Quirquincho which is a regional term for the armadillo living in the province of La Rioja. This animal has a hard protective shell to protect itself from danger. The two girls who founded the project Caddy and Anita believed that the comedor should follow the same ethos, and become a safe and secure place for the kids to come after school, enjoy a hot nutritious meal , receive help with their homework and most importantly be given the opportunity to be kids, play and have fun. It was founded in 2008. When it began, the kids were aged between 6-9 years. However now the kids have grown up and their needs and wants have changed .A game of Ring a Ring o' Roses isn’t going to cut it with 12 and 13 year olds. However this is where the real fun begins. Like with most projects it is necessary to be adaptable and use some creative thinking to help generate an environment that these kids will enjoy and come back to every day.

When I arrived back in July two volunteers from Germany were working in the project for almost a year, so my first 2 weeks involved a lot of learning and work shadowing. The daily routine of the comedor begins when the kids arrive after school. Every day we are flooded with hugs and kisses. The comedor is run by us (the volunteers) and we hold full responsibility for what the kids will eat on a daily basis, the educational activities and games the kids will take part in along with buying the necessary ingredients for their meals. It is a lot of responsibility and a little daunting at the beginning, however I enjoy the challenge and I have learnt so much in such little time. I am glad that I have two great volunteers working by my side. However in a few weeks time the guys are returning home and I will be given the keys to the comedor. I have two weeks working on my own in the comedor before the new volunteers from Germany arrive.

We work hard to prepare a nice meal that the kids will enjoy. They love to play with cards, and really enjoy drawing or painting. They always ask us to draw pictures for them to colour, so my drawing skills have really been put to the test. A room full of kids is packed with noise and banter and every evening I return home exhausted. It is important for us that the kids respect both each other and us, so on a daily basis we teach the kids to respect the comedor by cleaning up after their meal, and ensuring they take responsibility for their things. When our day is over we clean the comedor and pack all the toys and games away for the next day.

So that is my life at the comedor in a nut shell. I have really enjoyed my experience so far and I look forward to putting some of my ideas and hopes for the comedor into action. Speak soon again

Steph

Coming to the end of our South African experience

AislingEgan — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 12:46:55 +0000

As our final week here in South Africa looms, special moments and memories have already formed. After spending time with the NGO, we then moved on the HIV and AIDS Clinic, where we are volunteering now. This is a day hospital with a special ARV unit (the medication taken when you are HIV+ and your CD4 count is less than 250). The unit is divided into sections where there are doctors, counsellors, nutritionists and personal advocates. All of them are there to help and support clients who have contracted HIV. The South African health system is quite good and the government pays all medication expenses. There’s also a grant available to those who have a low CD4 count and are not earning sufficient funds to supply them with the proper foods like fruit, vegetables and porridge in order to make them strong and healthy again. Being white in the area we’re placed in, it’s automatically assumed you’re a medical student in the hospital and walking through many will greet you as ‘hey doctor!’. I was a little overwhelmed by this at first but then I was given the opportunity to work quite a bit with the counsellors. Here we’d take a pill count and make sure the client was taking the medication properly along with asking question about contraception, family planning and T.B. symptoms.

The day I found most rewarding was on Fridays as this is where paediatricians came in and let the day be solely designated to children. What I found difficult here was watching how the mothers felt about having to explain to their child that they were HIV+ as most of the children didn’t know what their medication was for. A lot of the mothers were afraid their child would tell others about their status and the stigma that is still in many places attached to the virus. A doctor from outside the clinic explained to me in the bigger hospitals they provide support groups so they have teenage groups where they find comfort in knowing they’re not alone to a women’s group where they take on crafts like beading etc. We also sat in on the maternity ward one week where we even got to see a baby been born! In the maternity ward, it’s the law that the mother must be tested for HIV when she first comes to the clinic and then when she is 32 weeks pregnant. In one case, the mother first came back negative and at 32 weeks she was positive. You could see the shock and disbelief in her face and it was times like these that I felt both compassion and helplessness to the cause. My time at this clinic has thought me more than I could ever have imagined about HIV and AIDS and for that I am grateful.

For Women’s Day, we gathered with the women from the support groups in our original project to celebrate. The women wore African dress and there was some song, dance and even some massages. It was a true reflection of the strength in women and how they are progressing in a country that is still very male dominant. We’ve even been given the opportunity to visit a juvenile prison on Tuesday evenings where a local church group visit these boys and give them hope. It’s a favourite part of our week as the group have everyone out by the end of it, singing and dancing. It’s a time when you see these young boys flourishing and the amount of positive potential they have within them. It’s moments like these that you discover how volunteering is the most gratifying, testing and stimulating experience. There are days when you question your role and the level of contribution you are making but then some little peak of goodness shines through and cancels out those doubts. Volunteering here in South Africa has opened my eyes in so many ways. I now feel as though I am a basket of knowledge when it comes to HIV and AIDS and I honestly look forward to going home and sharing this information with people in Ireland. From a personal point of view, volunteering has given me a clear focus and direction and I feel as though I’ve learnt a lot about myself along the way as well the cause.

57 Days in Mexico - Final count down

ley — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 04:34:22 +0000

Another lovely sun shining day in Mexico City, The weather is to die for, not too hot neither is it too cold. It rains in the evenings mostly which is lovely as it reduces the pollution in the air and the water cleans the streets. So people wake up to lovely clean streets kinda nice, but not all streets are like that though. My stay in Mexico City has been amazing and I want to take this opportunity to thank EIL for giving me this amazing opportunity to expand and share my knowledge. My time here is almost over, part of me is excited to go home but the other is sad and is not looking forward to saying good bye just yet.

I am volunteering with a Human Rights Organisation in Mexico City, The organisation deals with immigrants and migrants, refugees and asylum seekers here in Mexico, Previously, many of the arrivals used to be from Central America but currently there has been a flock of people from all over the place, like Africa, Haiti, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China etc. This is a new experience for the country as Mexico has for long been a emigrant population for many the main destination has been the US and Canada. So the laws on Refugees and Immigrants are relatively new or non-existent. When the government receives certain individuals they are either sent to detention centres or some to the organisation I volunteer with. So you can imagine how it works, myself I am working on Integration and trying to sort of help frame an Integration policy. Its been an amazing experience as I have done allot of work on Immigrants, migrants and Refugees issues, So this is an amazing opportunity for me to share ideas and learn new ones in the process. After the Integration paper I might be moving on to a funding project, the organisation is trying to start some sort of a Micro Finance/Grant giving project for their clients to help by the government or on self referral they are given only three month support that is Rent, and other basic needs. When the three months elapse they are expected to have learned Spanish, or have enough to go by anyway, then fend for themselves. Mexico does not have a social welfare system like we do in Ireland so struggle for survival here is not without its difficulties. The projects are amazing and most of all the amount of work the organisation does without/with limited government funding, is incredible. Because my work here has been mainly research work I have had very little engagement with the clients or users of the organisation, hence I can not dwell too much on the current issues. I take Spanish classes with their clients in the mornings which is a bonus and boosted my communication skills and confidence to a certain degree. From the Spanish class I go to work till 5:30pm then try rush home to my host family before the rush hour starts, as it might take even two hours to get home during that time. I haven´t seen as much as I would like to but this is an experience in its self.

In the evenings on my way home I go through an area called La Condesa which is like the D4 version of Mexico City. I must say there are other South Side like places here which are amazing and even better. At Parke Mexico proud owners of pure breed dogs walk their prise possession, Dogs are as I can see the most popular pets here. Some are dressed in all sorts and you can definitely see the love. (If only they picked after their dogs though!!!) I would not mind seeing some love for the environment too. On the other side of the park builders going about their business with cans of cold beers. Its a lovely time to walk past as you see lots incredible and funny things as you walk past. Most parts of the City are kept very clean which is quite impressive. I have tried to squeeze my interactions with other things than the computer on my tiny desk at the office on weekends.

The Daughters of my host mother are amazing and so is she. They have been kind enough to show me around. We just got back from Taxco (The land of Silver as I like to call it) the views out there were to die for. The town is South of the big City about three hours from Mexico City, on my way there I got abit home sick as the green vegetation reminded me so much of Ireland but without the sheep's on the farms. Taxco is a City of the silver mines and its build on mountains so the roads are quite narrow and if you are not going up hill you are going down hill. I love spending time with my host mothers daughter Betty and her best friend Angel de Jesus (isn't that a cool name or what?). They have made my stay here a delight. The duo are amazing, they are always happy and smiling. So after a week of sitting in front of a computer coupled with crazy traffic a dose of Betty and Angel is just what I need. These guys have showed me the fun side of the City which has given me yet another introduction to the different part of this Linda Ciudad. There is so much to see and with amazing company who would want to go home??. Definitely not looking forward to saying goodbye as I am only just getting to know the City, the people and finally being able to construct a sentence en Español without my friends dieing of laughter then gently correcting me is something to be proud of. At first I used to feel uncomfortable but when some of the things got translated back to me I laughed too. At one time instead of telling this gentleman buenas dias I said "Bueno usted" I think it means good you. and the poor guy blushed as my friends died of laughter. Very embarrassing

I should apologise for not having pictures yet my memory card does not seem to be compatible with the computers I have access to but will try harder.

This weekend we are going to see Jamie, I am so excited as he has been an amazing friend and very supportive. For a person who was so nervous getting here he has been a rock. We have supported each other through homesick, culture shocks and constantly reminded ourselves of how lucky we were to be here. Being in the same country with someone you know was a real bonus as I can not imagine how it would have been without him. Thanks Jamie for the support.

I could write a book, but I guess I have to stop somewhere. Or I will soon not make any sense as I am trying to squeeze everything in one account.

My experience in a HIV and AIDS clinic

Danielle-RP — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 08:27:23 +0000

Today felt like an “Irish Day” here in South Africa as the sky clouded over with grey mist and heavy rainfall. However, this rainfall was a blessing for the South Africans as it allowed the reservoirs and lakes to fill with fresh water to prepare for the annual drought of the Summer to follow. People seemed quite happy with the change in the weather pattern from the last month of blistering sun and dry earth to a more damp, wet and cold atmosphere. So, it was all raincoats, hats and scarves for Aisling and myself as we plodded our way through the puddle filled streets of Mitchels Plain, a small town on the outskirts of Cape Town. We have changed placements and for the last two weeks Aisling and I have been working in a HIV and AIDS clinic in a public hospital. The hospital lies in the centre of the town of Mitchels Plain and has a constant flow of patients, so the staff are always kept extremely busy. Due to the fact that it is a public hospital, the services are free to patients. One of the biggest squatter townships in South Africa, Kayalicha, is situated only a couple of kilometres from the hospital so the majority of the patients who attend the hospital are from this township, but many are from Mitchels Plain also. The HIV and AIDS clinic is funded and staffed by the NGO YMCA, a community development organisation. The clinic itself focuses on three area’s – HIV testing, counselling and medical treatment with the prescription of ARV’s (Anti Retro Virals – the prescription drugs which suppress HIV for a limited time depending on the patients health). The clinic caters for both adults and children. According to the doctors the majority of adult patients in the clinic are female rather than male as it is thought that the females are more willing to get tested and feel more comfortable to discuss their status. The number of children who attend the clinic are equally male and female. There are three testing rooms in the hospital, two in the clinic and one in the maternity ward. The rooms in the clinic are open to anyone who wishes to know their status, while the testing room in the maternity ward are for pregnant woman only who must take a HIV test before they receive their initial pregnancy medical check up from the maternity ward. Many of these woman have no idea they are HIV positive and would have never gone for the test had it not been the regulations of the ward to test all pregnant women who want to receive free maternity care. The clinic feels that this rule is one of the only ways many pregnant women will get tested for HIV and become aware of the fact that they must take the appropriate PMTCT (prevent mother to child transmission) treatment in order to stop HIV being passed on from mother to child during pregnancy if they test positive for the virus. The other two testing rooms in the hospital are open to anyone who wishes to get tested. There are many times when the counsellors who carry out the HIV testing would roam the corridors of the hospital asking random patients if they would like to avail of a free 10 minute HIV test. Some patients take advantage of the free test but there are still a lot of people who refuse as they feel the reality of knowing one’s status is a fearful thing. TB is rampant in the hospital as the majority of the patients come from extremely disadvantaged backgrounds where hygiene is very poor. This is incredibly dangerous for the HIV patients as the risk of contracting TB if one is HIV positive is very high. Therefore, all the staff and patients are required to wear a mask at all times to avoid passing on TB to others if infected and for those who aren’t they must wear the mask to avoid contracting it. In most cases it is TB that causes death to HIV patients. There is free treatment for TB in the hospital but at times the illness is so far gone without treatment there is little the doctors can do to cure it. It is since I have been working in the clinic that I have come to realise just how prevalent HIV is in South Africa. The Clinics waiting rooms and corridors are over crowded everyday as the patients wait from as early as 5am to receive their ARV medication and emotional support from the counsellors. The shocking thing is that this is just one clinic in one town. According to the national statistics, one in seven people live with HIV in South Africa. However, these are just the statistics based on those who get tested, if one were to include those who do not get tested and live with HIV unknowingly, the number would be more like one in four. The main way the virus is contracted with the patients in the clinic is through unprotected sexual intercourse. However, there are many patients who contract HIV with the sharing of needles through substance abuse, blood to blood contact through open wounds and many females become infected from being the victims of rape. Most of the children all contracted the virus from their mother during pregnancy or breastfeeding. Therefore, there are many instances where there is more than one family member living with the virus in one house as both parent and child are infected. While working in the clinic I have met many mothers who find the aspect of telling their child that they are HIV positive just as tragic as discovering their child’s status for the first time. One mother burst into tears today as she described that she had managed to distract her daughter from finding out she was HIV positive for as long as she could, but now that the child is ten years old, she has come to the age where she is beginning to question why she must take pills everyday and why she must visit the clinic with her mother every month. The mother explained to me that she was distraught when she found out her daughter was HIV positive, it took her a long time to come to terms with it. Now, she must go through the whole process again, as she this time it is the daughter who will go through the trauma of the discovery of her illness. Not only must she inform her daughter of the horrific implications of living with HIV, she must also explain to her how she contracted it, which can often cause rifts between parent and daughter as the child may blame them for her illness. She expressed the fear of letting others know of her daughter’s status as the stigma attached to HIV is awful and many fear being rejected by family and friends. The mother stated that she must emphasis to her daughter the importance of keeping her illness a secret, which is another strain for the daughter. This mothers pain and worries mirror many of the other parents hardship of raising a child who is HIV positive in South Africa.

Barra de Potosi: Aventura número dos

Jamie Kelly — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 19:19:02 +0000

Firstly I just want to apologise I haven´t been able to blog as much as I like which means I have to try cram everything into one blog, i´ve been trying to keep up with the blogs, loved reading Aisling the other travel award winners blogs, I am not able to blog so often as I have limited internet access but I will try get everything more or less that I have done so far,with great difficulty I am sure :P

Leaving Oaxaca was a rollercoaster ride in itself, I made so many lovely friends there, lots of different people with different stories and backgrounds, I have kept in contact with them so far and know I will for a long time, most of them I met were in my class in the Spanish school. It is amazing, lovely friendly teachers and a great atmosphere, cant say enough good things about there. It was lovely to have Leylah, another travel award winner with me too for them two weeks, we were a great support for each other and have got really close since we have been here in Mexico emailing when we can. My family were also amazing in Oaxaca and I found it really hard to leave them and the friends that I had made. I went from Oaxaca to Mexico city with Leylah where we departed, I went to the hostel and Leylah went to her host family in Mexico city. I was really glad to see Fernanda and David, two friends I had made in Mexico city through the programme, we went out for dinner with Fernanda family. It was nice to socialise before I set off for Barra de Potosi, I had so many mixed emotions about Barra, I was sad to leave Oaxaca, scared, but excited too.

The next morning Cecilia met me and came with me to the bus station where I got the bus from Mexico city to Zihuatenejo, 9 hours, it was really comfortable, surprisingly as I thought 9 hours on a bus was going to kill me but it was fine. I dont think I will ever forget getting off the bus in Zihuatenejo as the first thing I can remember is the heat literally hitting me in the face, I was amazed. Ive since got used to it but at the beginning it was tough. I was met at the bu station by Maggie one of the German volunteers who had been there nearly a year, also Anna luisa and Arturo came, they are two biologists studying the animals of Barra. They brought me to Casa del Encanta where I am living, Doña is an American woman and also the coordinator of the library project I am working with in Barra although when I arrived she wasnt back from the US yet, she arrived two days later. At first being totally honest I was think I was slightly in shock, coming from a city like Dublin and arriving from Oaxaca and Mexico City Barra was totally the opposite, it was small with very few people and a couple of shops, and an amazing beach. I was really in shock I think for the first day or two until I started to settle in a bit, my spanish had really come on before then but because there is a slightly different accent on the coast and they speak quicker I had to adjust to that too but all in good time. I remember the first day I came out of the bathroom and there was a crab on my net, I thought it was an alacran or scorpion in English and told Maggie and the others, she informed me they were dangerous and of course that made me be more nervous, being someone that is not a big animal person was so hard living in Barra at first, there are lots of dogs everywhere and often crabs, lizards and the occasional snake or manta rays in the water, the first week we also saw a small shark so that was and still takes some getting used to but I have got used to it slightly now. If it werent for Maggie and everone at first I think I would have went crazy.

The first week it was just Maggie and I as the other volunteer sophie was on vacation with her sister, we were in the library every day with the children, I got to meet them all, they are all amazing and full of energy and character, I have really got to know them now , at first it was difficult because although I have experience working with children its harder in Spanish. We done different activities including art, games, reading, competitions and I thought some english classes with Maggie, the children are on their summer holidays so the schedule is slightly more relaxed now. We also had a fiesta for Mia, one of the children, she was from America and had been in Barra for a month with her grandparents, she had attended the library for the month she had been there, the kids had a great time and everyone waved her goodbye.On the weekend we went to Zihuatenejo to look around, I enjoyed it, the Pasajero was an experience at first but now feels similiar to a Dublin bus. We come here to use the internet mostly which is why I havent been able to blog as often as I would like. After the weekend Sophie arrived with her sister from vacation, as Maggie had told me she was lovely and always so helpful, I also made really good friends with her sister, they have since left, this week for Germany, I was really sad to see them go as I had became really close but we will keep in touch. It was hard for them to say goodbye to everyone after a year but I am glad I could be part of their adventure. Last week we took the children on an excursion to the local Refugio it was really good, they all really enjoyed it, so many animals I had never saw, they also received a workshop on the animals in Barra. The other days in the library we had numerous different activites including preparing for another fiesta for Maggie and Sophies departure, it was a great event, we had cake and treats for the chilren and games , everyone had lots of fun. I dont think fiestas happen that often in the Library as it is run solely on donations by people , Mias party was donated by her grandparents.

Its frustrating trying to put everyhing into one blog as I have really done so much , I know when I press upload there is going to be things I forgot. Barra itself is amazing, the place is like a paradise and we go to the beach to swim or the lagoon almost every day , if we have time. I am on my own now for a few days until the two new German volunteers arrive on Tuesday, that is really exciting to meet more people, it is a boy and a girl, the first time the ibrary has had a boy for a year. The people in Barra are all so friendly and helpful, they have been great with me so far. The library itself is an amazing project, it is the centre of the community and so many children benefit from it, unfortunetly with the current economic climate the donations have slowed down a bit but they still plough on working with what they can, I am glad to be a part of it , helping as much as I can. The children are always so happy. I have come across some cultural differences which was inevitable but at first they are hard to distinguish, that has been a challenge at times.

Juani and her family are the host family in Barra, although I dont live with them I usually eat with them and have become really good friends with all the family, last week we went on a boat to a different beach to snorkel. la manzanilla, it was amazing, the water was turquoise and the sand white, it was beautiful, so hard to explain but it was breathtaking. Juani and her family are amzing, they are a real credit to the library programme and always patient with my Spanish. I am looking forward to the new volunteers coming , I know they will love Juani and her family Danya,Jorge,Ivan and Cocky, Juanis husband.

The library is closed for this week as we are concentrating on doing the gardening and cleaning inside, I never chopped down a tree with machete until I came here, yesterday we also painted sealer onto the amazing murel which maggie painted with the children as a project about the birds in La Barra, it is truly something. We are also repainting the windows inside the library at the moment. I am excited to see the new volunteers plans for the library and the projects that might happen. That is one thing that upsets me about being here for a short time, it is really hard to make a mark as such or have a big impact with the children, I am here in between volunteers and the outside work of the library so its tough to really try make a difference but I suppose just being here I am making a difference with lots of things.

I got some great news yesterday, Leylah, Cecilia and Fernanda are coming to visit next weekend just after the new volunteers arrive for a couple of days. I am really excited about them coming. This will be a busy week for us in the library preparing everything for the new arrivals, we plan to open before the new guys get here and have the children make them welcome notes, they also done this for me, it said bienvenidos Jamie, I was really touched so I know the new guys will love it too.

I have gone on and on and still have so much to talk about, I have honestly done so much and experience so much. I have met so many brilliant people. I never imagined all them months ago when I applied for the travel award that I would be sitting here writing this but I am extremely greatful to EIL for this opportunity and for seeing something in me to send me to this wonderful place and project here in Mexico.

So for now thats me but I will blog much sooner this time so I can put everything I left out of this one and all the new adventures I have had.

Hasta Luego

Jamie

First three weeks!

Danielle-RP — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 07:35:16 +0000

It is hard to believe that three weeks has passed by already! While there are times when it feels like both Aisling and I have been here for much longer, there are other moments when it feels like each day passes us by so quickly.

For the past three weeks we have been working with an organisation called Sothemba AIDS Action, which focuses on raising awareness of HIV & AIDS in Cape Town. It is a small organisation based in the suburbs of Bellville just outside of the city in Cape Town. It consists of three full time staff and seven part time staff.

The areas that we have been working with Sothemba Aids Action are: local squatter townships, a nearby psychiatric hospital and local education programmes.

We work with both adults and youths in the local squatter townships. Each awareness programme is different as there are days when Sothemba AIDS Action would run awareness workshops for adults in the local crèche in the squatter township and then other days would consist of awareness games with the youths. The people who we have met in these town lands are all so welcoming and warm towards Aisling, and myself as they are all interested in where we are from and why we are in South Africa. The children are so enthusiastic and fun loving as they run towards us when we arrive, all eager to start playing games immediately! The main challenge we face in terms of the awareness workshops is that many people are disinterested in learning about HIV and AIDS. One woman replied to me when I asked her if she would like to come to an awareness workshop, “ It is better not to know about HIV and better not to know if you are infected”. This is a constant struggle for the organisation as even though they offer free awareness programmes they struggle to keep the numbers in attendance from the public. This has lead them to believe that they must offer a reward to those who do come to the workshops so as to keep the number of people involved as high as possible. Therefore, if people do come to the workshop, Sothemba AIDS Action will provide them with either a hot meal, sandwiches, fruit and a drink. There are times when this is the only reason why many people come to the workshops in the first place. However, there are a few who do come to the workshops to learn more about HIV and AIDS.

On Tuesday and Thursday mornings provide HIV and AIDS awareness talks to the patients of Stickland Psychiatric Hospital in Bellville. This is a free hospital service offered by the South African government, which aims to care for patients who suffer from various mental illnesses ranging from mild to severe depression, anxiety, schizophrenia and a range of other illnesses, which I have not been informed of. There are ten wards, which cater for different patients depending on the severity of there illness. Each talk we provide lasts for an hour and depending on the ward, it can be at times successful and at times not so much. The patients can be very nice but there are many who are so mentally ill that we must be careful how we approach them. Each ward consists of about 20+ patients with guards who keep all doors locked at all times. We are instructed by hospital staff not to allow the male patients to touch us in any way, as their personal hygiene is very poor. I find this very difficult to follow up as I feel extremely rude ignoring their welcoming gesture of a handshake or high five, but it is a rule that I must obey. We incorporate many songs and dances into each talk, which is always a great success with the patients as they are always so enthusiastic in partaking in any type of fun!

After-school awareness programmes are generally held in local libraries with local youths from the community. All these youths come from disadvantaged backgrounds and their age’s range from 3-16. The awareness programme consists of an educational drama or story, which incorporates the issues of HIV & AIDS, followed by various games and activities. The challenge of keeping interest towards the awareness of HIV & AIDS is evident here as well as the squatter town lands as many of the youths will not participate if there is no reward for their attendance at the end. Fruit, sandwiches and a drink are offered at the end of each programme to those who attend.

I am beginning to discover that raising awareness of HIV & AIDS in South Africa is not just as simple as providing more awareness workshops to the communities. While these workshops do provide some awareness to many people, there are also many people who refuse to listen or be educated about the issues. At times I feel that the importance of general health awareness is not a priority for many people also.

Indian Reality - Street Smart

AshB — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 18:04:38 +0000

Working in my host organisation has been an incredible experience! It is tough challenging work as the children are not used to being told what to do! It is a day programme with approximately 25 students, who are all living on the streets of Dehradun. The children have tough lives, it took great effort to begin this project as the children’s parents expect them to beg all day everyday to provide for their families. The organisation provides jobs in block printing for about ten children, this ensures the children receive some kind of education and also learn about the satisfaction of earning your own wage. The children do block painting on notepads, gift wrap, cards, gift bags. These products will be sold all over America.

Today was such an exhausting day but it was a great day. The week has been going really well although when I get home sometimes I sleep for two hours as I am so tired!! I am growing so close to the children now where I'm working and if I’m travelling through Dehradun at night I always worry whether they are ok. India doesn’t have a big night life like Ireland so thankfully most people are at home in bed by 11 or 12pm which is a good thing for the children. Today I made masks with the children conveying emotions such as happy, angry, worried, crying and asleep. I played a game with them, they had to choose a mask and act it out for the children and teachers. This is a fast way for them to identify how to convey emotions in English. I also do a morning exercise with them which involves them acting out; being asleep, waking up in the morning, washing their face, brushing their teeth etc. They love this and think it is really funny; it’s also a great way to relax them as they often get quite hyper.

At the beginning I found it quite difficult to keep their attention but now I think I have the hang of it, which is quite a good feeling. They can tire you and exhaust you and sometimes it is overwhelming, you need a lot of patience, particularly when you don’t speak their language but I’m working on it! The children range from about two years of age to about 18, so you can imagine their level of education is so varied. Many of them are fast learners and want to learn (it is a dream working with them) although the younger children often get bored and resort to rolling around or play fighting. It is completely normal but you have to think of ways to hold all their attention. I find the most successful methods are through drama and art. Art completely relaxes them, it is when they are at their quietest and drama entertains them. They pick up English much faster when they identify with what they are doing so I try to make it as practical as possible.

There are many future plans to make the children fully independent by training them in beauty therapy, hairdressing, tailoring and servant training. The project is making every effort to ensure the children will eventually move off the streets permanently. Living on the streets is a tough life. The children are hated by Indian society, they are kicked and pushed while they beg, and there is very little protection around them. If they do not come home with a sufficient amount of money, which is about 200rupees, they are often beaten and shouted at.

The children have come on leaps and bounds since the beginning of the project. At first it took such a long time for the children to trust the project. They all expected everyone to give up on them within a week. The project began in January and since then we have developed a programme of education through art, drama, fun and love. One of the main focuses of the organisation is for the children to learn English, as this will help them secure future employment in life. The children are full of love they all want hugs and affection which they don’t find on the streets or even at home. When you arrive here you will be greeted by a dozen hugs at least. The children have so much love to give and despite everything they have had to overcome they are so strong and so loving. I feel the work with the children can only get better as we literally have so much fun with them!

3 Weeks into the Global Awareness Programme in South Africa

AislingEgan — Sat, 23 Jul 2011 13:51:03 +0000

Just about three weeks here and wow, what a whirlwind it has been. We arrived in Cape Town to be greeted by a member of SASTS and were orientated at a volunteer house for one night. The big thing about South Africans is their sense of time, everyone is very laid back along with being super friendly. We then were transported to our host family where we were greeted by a big family of a grandma, grandpa, their daughter and her husband and their three young children. Here we were given the opportunity to sample African cuisine and see their love for chicken and butternut squash not to mention the surprising amount of fish and chips shops you pass along the streets.

We then came to the start of our volunteer work with Sothemba AIDS. The very first day we were packed in a van with two facilitators and brought to a psychiatric hospital – an experience that was something very new to me. It was explained to us, by the community development officer, how each week they give awareness talks to the same wards to reiterate HIV & AIDS and its prominence in South Africa. Working with people with mental illnesses was something new to both Danielle and I but even in our short time here, I feel more adaptable to any situations thrown at us. We then went on to visit a township called Freedom Farm. This was without a doubt the highlight of my trip so far. The warmth and love that came straight away from the children was truly humbling. They instantly take you in with hugs and smiles. We were even given the opportunity to help some of the locals make fried dough balls to accompany their chicken feet supper. Most of the locals I have personally come across have a positive attitude to HIV and AIDS awareness. I was struck by how little a response was given by adults if there is no food to accompany the talks and sometimes we have very little to none turn out. This for me made me realise the importance of educating young people, as it is here they’re most willing to learn. By incorporating awareness through games etc it is very easy to teach the young people about HIV and AIDS and also self-satisfying to see their enthusiasm towards interactive learning.

This opportunity is my first experience of overseas voluntary work. I can’t express how awe-inspiring each and everyday becomes. Not only do you learn so much about another culture but you also learn a lot about yourself. Patience is one thing that I have definitely adapted to while running on African time! EIL have kept in brilliant communication with us and have been as efficient as always. I really can’t wait to see what challenges, tasks and heart-warming moments lie ahead for the rest of our duration here but like the South Africans I’ll be welcoming each and every experience with open arms.

My First Week in Chilecito

Steph Elliott — Sat, 16 Jul 2011 21:40:50 +0000

Sorry about the delay in getting my blog up for everyone but time is flying by very quickly here in Chilecito and I honestly can’t believe my first week is over already. I have already fallen in love with everything here the people, the food (Dulce de leche... Nina you were right very addictive) and my project. I arrived in Chilecito at 9.00 am Friday the 1st of July. The landscape here is so vast and breathtaking, I have probably taken 100 photos of the Famatina mountains already they are honestly so beautiful.

Betty was at the station to greet me when I arrived, it was so lovely to see a friendly face after my 17hr bus journey (which flew by as I was travelling at night so I slept ALOT). There were toilets on the bus, but some warning for future travellers bring some food, water and tissue paper. Betty brought me to her house by taxi. My room is very nice and I am not sharing with anyone as Betty lives alone. On Friday evening the other volunteers working in the comedor came to meet me at my host house and brought me around Chilecito for the first time. They are both great and I feel so lucky to have their company for a short while.

On Saturday morning I went to the local market with Lea and Leo to ask for some donations for the comedor. The people were very generous and we received a lot of food which will help us to cook some nice meals for the kids. On Sunday I atteneded my first asado at Leo’s host house. I adore the way people here appreciate the importance of the family unit, they welcome everyone into their homes with open arms, and they made me feel right at home!!!After our food settled we played a game of basketball with some friends which was a lot of fun.

My first week of working in the comedor with the kids has been wonderful. They are so kind helping me to learn new Spanish words every day. During the week I was even thought the alphabet by 3 young boys who I truly believe would make great teachers in the future!!! The kids are even writing down new words for me to learn in my little notebook which is really kind. When I arrived I gave them some small gifts of footballs, cards, colouring pencils and coloured paper. It is great to see the walls becoming more and more packed with paintings and pictures every day.I have learnt some great new card games which I cant wait to play when I return home as I think I will be a bit of a pro before my ten weeks are up . On Thursady we had a little party in the comedor as one of the other volunteers Leo is sadly leaving us next week. We ate empanada’s and fruit which all went down a treat with the kids. Every evening when I return home from the comedor I go to my Spanish lessons, my teacher is really nice and patient with me. My spanish lessons will continue for 3-4 weeks.

On Saturday I went on my first excursion in Chilecito. We walked up to the 2nd cable car station....which was pretty amazing. The day was so beautiful we all chilled out when we reached the... and took in the amazing scenery. We all met up on Sunday again to play basket ball which was lovely I am starting to get some of my skills back!!!! :)

I am making the most of my short stay in this beautiful region and I am hoping to travel to Cordobar this weekend and maybe even get in some horse back riding.. I will keep u all posted..

I know it is a very quick synopsis of my first week here but I truly hope it paints a clear picture of how amazing my time has been so far ... speak soon again Steph xxx

Indian Reality- Here we go!

AshB — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 13:18:46 +0000

Wow I have learnt so much already! It has been an incredible opportunity! The Hindu religion is fascinating and inspiring, it is a peaceful religion. I find the emphasis they place on family is something us westerns should learn from. Being in India has made me realise the importance of family, taking care of each other and helping each other. I don’t think Western society value family enough. I don’t think we are told enough to continue to work at our relationships, to do everything in your power to try make a family work. Indian humour is hilarious, it’s self deprecating and it is common for family members to joke about each other. Indians tend to stare at me a lot, which is due to the fact they are not used to seeing Caucasian people and they are also quite obsessive about pale skin tones.

In Dehradun life is very laid back, people are relaxed and friendly! Delhi is a different world all together. Delhi is very crowded and people tend to approach you constantly asking you to buy their products. Girls and women of my age can pretty much wear anything in Delhi, in Dehra dun, being a country place, people are more conservative and expect you to cover up. You cannot expose your shoulders, the top half of your legs and your clothes cannot be suggestive. This is because sexuality is very much an unspoken subject. Women do not ‘flaunt’ what they have- it is seen as unladylike.

I have been fortunate enough to attend two Indian weddings, they are amazing! A spectacle of colour and lights. Indians wear their traditional clothes (Saris, suits, lehanja?)! Indian weddings are celebrated over about 3-4days. Most marriages today are formed by mutual agreement of children and the parents. People are now getting married later in life as education is very important. Indians have big weddings, they invite family, friends, work colleagues, neighbours (if anyone is staying with a neighbour they are invited along). Indian weddings tend to have buffets, so its laid back and relaxed and there is lots of dancing. They are really genuine friendly people! Some of the nicest people I have ever met. They are very fun loving and like to have a good time. Their traditions are fascinating! I have learnt so much about myself and I have even managed to pick up a few Hindi words. Ive started working in 'street smart' so I shall keep you posted next time on my work there!!

Aisling

Jade's Indian Experience

Caitriona — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:50:28 +0000

Well after traveling 23 hours two connecting flights and two Indian bus rides which was an experience!.. We finally arrived in Himachal. The smells and humidity of Delhi and Jaipur will never be forgotten. Trying to sleep in 49 degree heat without A.C and a basic fan blowing the hot air around the room will not be missed!. The scenery of the beautiful back drop of the snowy Himalayan Mountains when you open your door in the morning would take your breath away.

On arrival we settle in and explored Palampur market which is typical traditional market found in rural India towns. Each stall selling the same item and not competing with each other in price relying on their regular customers to make a living would boggle your mind, nothing like you would see at home with different shops promoting 'special offers'. We tasted the typical things Indian is renound for such as the Chai tea, Vegetable Somosa's and Jelly B sweets.

Day two, we visited all the different project sites and had to make the hardest decision of picking one for your period spent here. But the advice given to me was pick the one which made you feel something!, therefore I picked a local school 30meters from Bundla camp (the volunteer house) called Neugal. It is a government school, meaning each child receiving free lunch which ranges from sweet rice ( semolina) or plain rice and additional sauce and the odd few beans scattered within the gravy ( local slang for sauce).
The teacher gave me the previous history of the kids’ education, whether they speak basic english/hindi and let me work from there.

Each morning is an early start getting up for some yoga at 6:30 getting you ready for breakie and a hards day ahead. The breakfast is nothing like you would expect at home consisting of Chappati (Indian bread) spread with Ghee (unclarified butter) and some very sweet jam really waking up your senses in the early hours every now and again you get something westernized thrown in (boiled eggs/ toast). From there the lesson starts. Firstly with an opening song to get everybody involved

Say good morning; say good morning

how are you? How are you?

Lets begin the lesson….lets begin the lesson

NOW NOW NOW’

I really didn’t know where to start with all the kid’s not knowing their names, age or level really landed me in the deep end. I went around the circle asking everybody their name out of 10 only getting 3 answers and 1 being mine, I then knew we had to start with the basics. Now being week 5 and the majority of the class can say the full alphabet and write from A- G, puts the biggest smile on my face seeing the improvement they have achieved, I have grown a really strong bond and connection with each child and after being called ‘Didi’ (meaning older sister) I honestly feel I am.

In the afternoon I carried out two projects one working with the "mentally challenged" which stopped two weeks ago for the summer holidays and the other working with the kids from an Orphanage, each one really opening your eyes to the ‘unseen’ reality of India. The founder of the MCS (mentally challenged school), Damini was an inspiration to each volunteer giving her back round of her younger brother being Down Syndrome was the reason behind her setting up the school, brought a few tears to your eye. The afternoon classes I taught a young boy no older that 13 (In Indian your exact age is unknown) the different colours and fruits. In the 3^rd week I swapped to the Orphanage and began working with young girls with homework support and being a friend, getting to know them more and learning a few things from them also.

After the last few weeks I feel I’ve learned more than anyone can imagine, and met the most amazing people. I still have another week to go and trust me I don’t want to leave. The volunteer house is like one big family each of us supporting each other during the journey. There is nothing I would rather wake up to every morning than the thought of going to teach in Neugal and going to the Orphanage in the evening. So far this is one experience I will NEVER forget.

Peace and Light,

Jade J

Global Awareness Pre Departure: why I can't stop pinching myself...

Aine Carroll — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 11:40:17 +0000

This is my first blogpost ever, one of the many new things I am learning thanks to winning a travel award from EIL. Just one more week now before I depart for Nigeria to complete the second leg of the programme, having just completed the first. I am nervous and excited in equally healthy doses and can't help but feel compelled and inspired by the work that EIL have put into developing this incredible programme - the Global Awareness Programme. Myself, Ciara, Aisling and Danielle are the lucky Global Awareness volunteers 2011 and I'm delighted to be sharing this experience with these enthusiastic, interesting, and kind people. The training period was a great way of getting to know each other and of getting to know the issues around HIV & AIDS. The quality of the training and facilitation throughout the whole process has been outstanding - from the pre-departure workshop, to the media and awareness training at Comhlamh, to the introduction to HIV & AIDS in Development with Dtalk, and the half-day training at Open Heart House, each component has shown a different dimension to the causes, outcomes, and possible solution options around HIV & AIDS. The pre-departure workshop was great craic and really informative. Meeting people like us who were heading off on their travels and returned volunteers was a great opportunity to dispel any nerves and to ask any lurking silly questions that we might have about our unfamiliar destinations. Comhlamh aswell was a window onto the campaigning world and an opportunity to see that when people are well-organised, committed and supportive of each other, anything can happen. I now know that awareness raising is an essential tool for inspiring popular support for political action, which is ultimately what I believe achieving equality is all about.

At Dtalk, we learned about some important nuances that can affect the spread and impact of the disease including gender, development, poverty, sexuality & drug use. We also learned that some sub-Saharan states (e.g. Zambia and Uganda) are 'mainstreaming' gender and HIV & AIDS, meaning that these issues are currently being woven into every aspect of governmental policy and activity, which I found very encouraging. What stood out for me though was how stigma can add unnecessary suffering to a person's life. It's funny how little we question our own prejudices that pop in to the mind unannounced at various stages throughout a persons life, or even just throughout their day. Judging people it seems is a way of life, an instinct, a reflex, and reflexes can be hard to unlearn. Dtalk provided us with the opportunity to begin to unravel our own prejudices, to recognise them, to question them, and ultimately to discard them.

And for anybody interested, the global meets the local at the top of Parnell Square, St. Mary's Place, Dublin 2. Here at Open Heart House, we learned some of the more human and moving dimensions of living with the disease including hope, solidarity, wamth, welcome and acceptance. It sort of knocked my understanding of HIV & AIDS out of it's comfort zone as I am beginning to recognise it as not just something that governments and NGOs talk about, nor is it specifically a problem in a 'development' context either: it is something that affects people's lives in multiple ways on a daily basis right here Ireland, probably in your neighbourhood, or else not too far from that. It is organisations like Open Heart House that provide essential, frontline support to people affected by the disease and I was blown away by the kindness and sensitivity I found there. I will carry this feeling of warmt, welcome and acceptance on my journey with me to Nigeria and beyond.

I have a suspicion that the training was carefully organised to deliver just this precise impact, another reason why I can't recommend EIL highly enough. They haven't asked me to say any of this, but so far every aspect of the programme has been absolutely spot on. It is not only a fantastic opportunity or an amazing experience, but a privilege to be taking part. If you feel you have something to learn and something to contribute, and if you are reading this and wondering whether or not to apply for the Global Awarenss Programme, or any other EIL opportunity, DO IT.

You'll be hearing more from the Global Awareness Team 2011 in the future, wish us
luck!

Áine

EIL Features on Newstalk's Global Village

Kevin Hickey — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 08:47:48 +0000

Global Awareness Programme: my experience

Gill Carter — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:17:55 +0000

I was delighted when I found out that I had successfully secured a position on the Global Awareness Programme with EIL. It was the only travel award that I had applied to and had felt really passionate about all the component of the award. I was excited about going away for eight weeks to South Africa and I knew working in a HIV respite centre and living in a township would open my eyes to various issues and allow me too consider a new culture and way of living. I was apprehensive about a number of things, and my emotions were spontaneous varying from excitement to anxiety of the unknown. It was a thrill to feel I was entering the unknown and to learn about issues and topic I had never before even considered. My eight weeks in South Africa were truly eye opening; I realized what a beautiful country it was, in both the sense of geography, culture and society. I was working in a respite centre and my duties varied from day to day. Some days I was helping the patients, attending support groups, visiting hospitals and clinics, liaising with NGO’s or organising HIV awareness presentations and more! Every day was different and every day was new. The training and information given to me by EIL before my departure was great and really informed me on important issues so I felt reassured and relatively knowledgeable for when I arrived.

The beautiful thing about the Global Awareness Programme is that when you come home your experience does not end, the campaign that is attached to this travel award is great. It really allowed me to get thinking about what I wanted to convey to the Irish public and what I wanted to share about my trip abroad. As part of the campaign I have done a wide range of things varying from writing articles for my University magazine to making an awareness video. As part of the campaign, the four Global Awareness Participants have collected their photos together and made a photo exhibition which has toured the country at this stage! I have also tried to make HIV an important issue on campus in my university, and so; I put together ‘UCC HIV Awareness Week’. For the Awareness week I collaborated with various other related societies such as; SUAS, Atheist Society, Microbiology Society, Film Society and Slainte to hold a rang of talks, information stalls and fundraisers such ‘UCC’s Got Talent’ which was held on World AID’s Day in December and which raised just under €1,000 for two HIV related charities. My awareness campaign is not over yet! I still plan on visiting some secondary schools to give some presentations on my experience and I’m very keen to get involved in more work with EIL in the future!

One remarkable Nigerian women's fight against HIV

Lena — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:38:19 +0000

For twenty years Ibiyemi Fakande has eaten just one meal a day. She does so not out of her own property but out of solidarity with the hardships and deprivation she sees in her South West Nigerian community. It is an act of discipline designed to keep her on the same level as those whom she has dedicated her life towards helping. In a massively patriarchal society, this is one woman who commands a ferocious amount of respect, admiration and even some mild fear. Where women are considered second-class citizens she is known as a force to be reckoned with. This is because in Ilesa, Osun State, few have achieved what Ms Fakande has, that is having improved the circumstances of thousands of people living with HIV/AIDS and having saved countless other from becoming infected. Fakande is the founder and Director of a NGO, which for more that fifteen years has been the sole source of support for people in the area infected and affected by HIV/AIDS.

Fakande is by all accounts an unlikely savior. Sitting in the office she tells of how born in 1942 to a low class Christian family she was one of fifteen children. In a common example of how polygamy contributes to poverty in many Nigerian families her building contractor father supported four wives and to make ends meet Fakande was forced to sell goods on the street in a common practice known as "hawking" from the time she was seven years old. With just a primary school education she married at the age of fifteen. She was tragically widowed just three years later when her husband was killed in a road accident. A single parent to three young children at the age of 18, it would appear as though a natural choice would be for her to marry again. In spite of pressures from those around her she refused, a move highly unusual for a woman in her society particularly at that time. She went back to school with the help of her elder sister and by the age of 24 she was in a Secondary School class with teenagers.

"I always looked young so nobody would have known" she says. "It was difficult because of my children but I knew that I wanted to go to school."

When she completed secondary school Fakande continued her studies to go on to train as a nurse. Her nursing career was still in its infancy in the mid 1980s when she first came across the emerging pandemic, which would soon ravage her country, HIV/AIDS.

"When I was finished my nursing training I was working in a hospital when one day a very ill man came in and the doctor said they didn't have the drugs to help him. 'What is wrong with him?' I asked. They told me he had AIDS" she recalls.

At the time, the life prolonging abilities on anti-retroviral drugs were light years away. People with HIV/AIDS were identifiable by their emaciated frames and faces covered in shadows. Stigma against them, albeit still persistent was then at its peak. In the hospitals they were told that nothing could be done for them. Not content with the premise that living with HIV/AIDS were veritable lost causes Fakande took it upon herself to treat them using traditional remedies often allowing them to stay in her own home. She lights up as she recalls using cashew nuts for a young lady with enduring oral thrush.

"The sores on her mouth started to go. It worked, you could see the change and it made a difference".

She began to visit the homes of people with HIV/AIDS and found a great satisfaction in seeing some of her remedies alleviating some of the pain and discomfort that they were enduring. She used natural herbal remedies such as bitter kola, honey, aloe vera, saint leaves and black soap to reduce any type of infection that they might contract. She became known in the community as the nurse who looked after people with HIV/AIDS and soon she began giving talks. She faced hostility from her colleagues in the hospital who were sending HIV patients away for her insistence in treating them.

"I talked to other health workers a small bit but they didn't want to listen to me or to learn about HIV." She says.

Undeterred, for the next several years, she researched and experimented with alternative medicines and nutritional supplements to build up her knowledge. She qualified as a public health officer in 1991 specializing in sexually transmitted diseases. By 1994, she had shaped her research, experience, and observations into a effective and inexpensive methods of treatment. In the same year, Ibiyemi attended a European Union-funded training program on caring for HIV/AIDS patients. This was the motivation she needed to set up Living Hope Care to pursue the work on a full-time basis and the organization began to specialize in home-based care. Since that time, Living Hope Care has acted like a small plaster on the top of an erupting volcano. They are the sole organization in Osun State, which has a population of four million people working on HIV/AIDS. By Nigerian standards the HIV prevalence in the area is very low at 2% (Benway State by comparison has a 24% positively rate) but enormous challenges fuelled by grave poverty and inaction by policymakers remain.

The role of foreign volunteers in Fakande’s operation is significant. As evidenced by her home, which is peppered with Irish trinkets such as fridge magnets and picture books, twelve Irish people have spent time working for Living Hope Care since 2006 as part of programmes offered by a Cork-based NGO, EIL Intercultural Learning. Most notably two homes for children orphanaged and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS were set up and funded by Irish volunteers.

“The role that these volunteers play is really incredible, their work is saving lives here and really appreciate them” she says.

The organization which is staffed by many who have a personal connection to HIV/AIDS or who are themselves HIV positive works by identifying and educating target groups such as female sex workers. In the Nigerian context, HIV is mostly spread through heterosexual sex thus female sex workers are the most high risk group for HIV and they are a colossal source of the virus being spread. Barefaced poverty is the fuel for Nigeria’s sex industry. The country’s unemployment rate is officially set at 20% but this figure, like most data supplied by the often corrupt government is massively disputed and understood to be around half of the real figure. Thus, the cycle of HIV is invigorated by a situation where by a massively young population (the life expectancy in Nigeria is 47 years-old) is without work, thus young women are drawn into sex work to support themselves and have little chance of alternative employment. Young men who are idle are enticed to use sex workers who are relatively inexpensive.

In Ireland and in the Western World there are no babies born with HIV. The correct medical treatment is available and mother to child transmission is unheard of. A persisting battle for Fakande and her organization is that Nigeria’s maternity centres don’t have access to the drugs needed as they are not provided by the government. Just 7% of the Nigerian women who need it are getting antiretroviral treatment to prevent mother to child transmission and 220,000 of the country’s children are living with HIV. When a HIV positive pregnant woman is registered with Living Hope Care, Fakande’s organization will bring her out of the state to receive the drugs she needs during her pregnancy. They will then keep the drugs until the baby is delivered, as they must be stored in a fridge, a luxury item most of the mothers are unlikely to have access to. When the baby is born, Fakande is notified and there is a rush for her or one of her staff to administer the vital drugs, as the sooner the child is given them the less likely it is for them to become HIV positive.

The face of HIV/AIDS has changed dramatically in time that Fakande has been working in the area. Whereas once her organization was so heavily stigmatized that they had to move premises twelve times because of intimidation tactics, today “people are not against our work. Additionally, antiretroviral treatment becoming available free of charge since 2002 as are result of a policy implemented by the Nigerian government in conjunction with the American funded PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), has had a remarkably improved the welfare of those living with HIV and allowed them to live relatively Norman lives.

“Those that looked sick, sick no longer do, they are healthy and they can live good lives, it is a great achievement” she says.

Yet, the impact of anti-retroviral treatment has been hampered somewhat in that rural areas have been neglected and the expense of travelling means that those who need the drug cannot access them. “I said we should provide transport so that they can get these drugs” she says. A large proportion of the organisation’s funding now goes o n transporting can loads of people in the rural parts of the state to urban clinics in order for them to collect their drugs.

The bitter enduring legacy of the HIV/AIDS pandemic is the number of children it has left orphaned and vulnerable, In Nigeria alone there were 1,200,000 children who were orphaned due to AIDS in 2007. Fakande’s organization has responded to this development with gusto. Living Hope Care ensure that close to 3000 children in 17 communities are being cared for and are attending school. Yet the Assistance and Care for Children Orphaned an at Risk (ACCORD) project funded by USAID to assist these children is set to end in March 2011 and how organizations like Living Hope Care will provide for them is uncertain.

Living Hope Care has found itself time and time again attempting to bridge the gaps left by policymakers. One of the battles Mrs Fakande has had to fight for years is that through her own estimate “only four out of every ten health workers have been trained on HIV/AIDS”. Living Hope Care are attempting to train health worker in the state, to date they have reached 121 health workers in six local government areas. A drop in the ocean but the small water rings may combat stigma in the profession and improve the quality of health care given to people with HIV/AIDS.

Yet at the same time they are the mercy of the unpredictable government. For example in June of this year the state government gave Living Hope Care 800 HIV testing kits to last the month, in July this was reduced to 600 kits, by August they were refused any kits at all. Ever the fighter, Fakande is far from downtrodden by the numerous challenges that she still faces. In fact she is remarkably enthused about the future and the prospect of researchers finding a cure for HIV/AIDS.

“The way that the anti-retroviral drugs have worked for people, the way that people are working on anew treatments I am optimistic that there soon will be a cure, maybe within 20 years. There has to be. Yes I am sure of that” She says.

She is continually discovering new areas for Living Hope Care to tackle. As a response to the death of two of their patients, one blind and one deaf she identified a need for the Ngo to begin working on the link between HIV/AIDS and disabilities. She has begun work in the prisons where those who are HIV positive have no access to treatment. She has also spearheaded a TB network as a response to the surge in co-infections of TB and HIV/AIDS recorded by Living Hope Care from 4% in 2009 to 30% in 2010.

Will she ever retire? “Perhaps when I am 70” She gives a non-committal smile.” “But there is so much to do before then”.

Photivation, human rights captured

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 12:02:51 +0000

Photivation, human rights captured

EIL launches today its first photo competition! Photivation, human rights captured aims at raising awareness of human rights through photography and challenging stereotypes.The winner of the competition will have their photo published in the Irish Times and take part in a workshop with a professional photographer, Edmund Ross, shadowing the work of his studio and also have their portrait taken by him. Read here more details

NYCI Ireland-Zambia exchange for youth workers

noel — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 13:31:39 +0000

Each year the National Youth Council of Ireland organizes a youth worker exchange between Ireland and Zambia. Noel Carroll, EIL member, has been selected to participate and represent the EIL Development Education Management Committee.

Noel will travel to Zambia with three other youth workers from the NYCI, Foroige and YMCA at the beginning of November. Five Zambian youth workers will then visit Ireland in the second half of November. During their visit, the Zambian delegation will join EIL members at the Network Weekend to be held in Cork on the 13th and 14th of November. Read here what Noel wrote prior his departure:

Hi everyone

Feels so long since I last wrote a blog, well just to let you know I am leaving tomorrow for the NYCI Development Education Exchange to Zambia. I am really looking forward to this exchange. However I am a little nervous as I feel it is a lot different to volunteering as it carries with it a lot more responsibility. I am excited about getting to visit so many different youth organisations places such as Junior Achievement Zambia, Young Women in Action and Africa Directions. I will let you know more about the organizations and the places I visit when I visit them. I am also looking forward to showing the Zambia exchange participants what youth work is like in Ireland when they arrive here in two weeks time. Cant say I am looking forward to the eleven hour flight however from the training days and meeting the other volunteers I know I am well prepared and in good company. Will keep you updated as best I can bye.

Read here Noel's second blog.

When Are You Coming Back

Paul Q — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:50:42 +0000

After what was an incredible weekend we came back to the office on Monday for our last week, but there was zero time to get nostalgic about anything. My card teacher’s condition had deteriorated a lot over the weekend and his infection was getting worse, so he was sent to hospital again. But later on, the other client who had been catatonically depressed and hospitalised the week before, walked in with a big smile on his face. The turn around period for some people is quick. A lot of the clients made leaps and bounds in their health during my time at the project.

Most of the week was spent wrapping up the work that we had been doing. Gill and I made an emergency contacts poster, with a list of all the NGOs and services available for people looking for help in Kayamandi. It had names and contact details and other relevant information so we brought copies to all the schools so ‘Life Orientation’ teachers would know what to do and who to go to if they are approached by students like ‘Mary’. We gave them to the other NGO’s as well so they would know who to contact, where to send people and what the other organisations were doing.

Unfortunately during the week we got news from the hospital that one of the clients our ‘cards teacher’ who had come to the respite centre the day I started had died. The support group for people living with HIV in the community that week was particularly sombre, people had lost a friend, and you could see how HIV doesn’t just affect one person but a whole community. Despite that the entire group sang and danced as usual and even did an extra request for me and gill considering it was our last day on the project.

After support group we went to Inkanini, an area of Kayamandi, on home visits. Inkanini is an illegal settlement entirely composed of unofficial dwellings (shacks) where kayamandi spilled over onto private land, there is no electricity, no sanitation, or no running water, but, it could well be the most densely populated part of the township. We visited a lady who Gill has spoken about in her blogs. She had been very ill and her children were taken into care but when we arrived at their home we met a group of health happy kids running around and the lady herself, in good health and clearly doing much better.

The boys I taught English to moved onto book number 3 this week... so they are doing great.

On my last morning in Kayamandi when I was saying goodbye to my family, my host brother asked ‘when are you coming back?’, it was an easy answer though ‘as soon as I can’.

Kayamandi has been amazing my host family, the people, the culture, the food, the other volunteers, everything. It has been a great experience.

Xolisa

Read here Paul's previous blog

Street Party The Township And Petted A Cheetah… What!

Paul Q — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:48:37 +0000

This week started by travelling to a town 2 hours away for a talk on ‘sexual violence’. It was really interesting and there were people from all over the world at it. One of the guys had written a book about HIV and Stigma so he gave both myself and Gill a signed copy which was nice. What was bizarre however was the venue. There were goats, impala, horses and a pot belly pig strolling around the grounds outside, in the car park, on the lawns; everywhere … I kid you not! Bizarre!

A new client arrived, a young guy probably in his early 30’s, he couldn’t speak, stand, move on his own, he was catatonically depressed and the entire back of his body was covered in open bed sores. Although he had been staying with family they didn’t know what to do with him. He was in such a bad way that he had to be transferred to hospital straight away. It was really difficult to see.

On a lighter note, we finally got a venue for our workshop though. Another NGO in the township has an afterschool project with 75 teenagers and asked us if we would do the workshop with them on Friday, clearly we jumped at the chance. It went really well, the group got involved plus we had sweets as incentives which definitely helped participation! It ended up being a long session we were over there from 3 to 8 with organisation and everything, but it went well. It covered everything, we did a power point presentation, activities, a condom demonstration, even how the HIV prick test works.

From there we went directly to an engagement party. There was a huge celebration. We started with a meal, then we moved to another part of the township for the rest of the party and stayed out talking to everyone and dancing in the street with half of Kayamandi until 5.30 in the morning. It was incredible! Half way through the night myself and some of the other volunteers had what we call a ‘make a memory’ moment. We are not only in Africa; we are in a township in Africa. We’re at a street party and its three o clock in the morning!

The next day a group of us went for dinner at a nearby vineyard, we were brought to our table which was in a tree house! (as you do) and later on, I got to visit and pet the Cheetahs on the reserve. I should probably add at this point that they are hand reared and I don’t just go around Africa randomly petting wild animals!!

In other news the exam results from the HIV course at the university are out. I got the second highest result in the class… whoop whoop!! Delighted.

Read here Paul's following blog

Read here Paul's previous blog

Still Striking... Nooo

Paul Q — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:46:17 +0000

Because of the HIV workshop hiatus, myself and Gill have been meeting with some other organisations in Kayamandi this week. There is one that do fairly large scale testing, they went to section J of Kayamandi last week so we just missed out on that, but they’ve asked us to join them on another testing programme next week.

We were talking to them about our own programme for a while and talking about stigma, discrimination and other issues surrounding HIV. You can see how frustrating it must be for them. There is this great free HIV testing and free medication scheme available to everyone. But, a lot of people wont get tested in case somebody sees them and then tells others that they are HIV+, or, because they are afraid that if they start taking medication people will see them at the clinic and know their status. How can the HIV pandemic be tackled if people won’t get tested or won’t start taking ARVs after they find out their status. The fear around HIV is just incredible. At the same time you have got to put yourself in other people shoes. Imagine if you tested positive for HIV, how would you react? It’s an impossible question to answer.

So yea, the strike escalated a bit this week! There were marches and stuff around the township so the staff who continued working at the clinic in the township had to keep their cars on the grounds of our organisation. They put a big cross on the wall outside as well to show that the organisation has some religious affiliation as well and that they weren’t really public sector workers.

My ‘cards teacher’ was moved into hospital as well. It looks like he is developing an infection after his amputation. On top of that the sarcoma is spreading onto the other leg and he has reacted badly to his pain relief medication... its not good. Myself and Gill got the chance to visit him for a while which was great he was delighted to see us. As it turns out he was discharged later that day so he was only kept in hospital for three days. When he arrived back he seemed to be in much better spirits, back to his old self.

Also, just when you think you know someone, I found out that Gill has never had a Mc Donald's apple pie (random point of information I know).

Read here Paul's following blog

Read here Paul's previous blo

His Name Is Xolisa, Don’t Call Him Paul

Paul Q — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:37:47 +0000

A national public sector strike has been announced over the weekend, doctors, nurses, teachers, guards… everyone is on strike. So needless to say the workshops have been put on hiatus for the time being.

I’ve been in the office a lot more this week just helping out with anything and everything that needs to be done in the respite centre. I’ve become friends with one of the clients, he’s been teaching me more Xhosa and every lunch time I’ve been learning new card games. I still can’t shuffle though… my hands just don’t work that fast!! The food we get for lunch here is amazing. It’s all African dishes, not quite as exotic as ‘Smiley’ thankfully!! Mealie Pap, Boerewers, Shishebo (Gills favourite!!), Samp and beans (my favourite!) and Chakalaka... its great, I’ve got to find somewhere at home that does all this stuff now.

I was given a Xhosa name this week by the people at work. Its Xolisa (pronounced C – click – o – lisa), it means peacemaker which is nice. Gill is now called Khutala, pronounced as it reads, meaning busy one. So we’re bona fide Xhosa people now. I might not even come home at this rate!! Joking! But yea, the Xhosa names have completely caught on. My host family now call me Xolisa, kids at the after school, and all the staff at work. Someone missed a few days and called me Paul when they got back, the word had literally just come out of their mouth when three people in the room shouted his name is Xolisa, it was hilarious.

I was able go on some home visits this week. Its basically a way of making sure that people who had been in the centre are in good health, are taking their medications, maintaining a support network for them and that sort of thing. Home visits definitely give you an idea of the size and layout of Kayamandi… huge and erratic! Going between the shacks is outrageous you get the impression that you could get lost in there forever! Luckily I didn’t!! Something I didn’t expect though was the difference in living conditions between people who live in informal dwellings (shacks). Some people have a bed, a mattress that the children share, a couch, a television, some other furniture and maybe even a car. While others just have a one bed/mattress and you wonder where everyone that lives there sleeps. For some reason I hadn’t really thought about the different levels of poverty before. I know South Africa has an unemployment rate of 24% with an estimated 50% of the population living below the poverty line, but even then I hadn’t considered how people’s basic living conditions could vary so much in that situation.

‘Mary’ also visited us at the organisation this week. As it turns out there are a lot more problems there that need to be addressed then we thought before. She was raped when she was a child by a man who was not convicted and still lives in the area, so she sees him from time to time. On top of that there seems to be some domestic abuse as well, although that could be as a result of HIV dementia which makes the situation even more difficult. This girl is amazing, she arrived with a beaming smile on her face, we know that she’s doing great at school, has lots of friends and has the gift of the gab, but she’s going through more then most people could ever even relate to. She has been introduced to all the staff here at the organisation, who’ll give her support, we’ve made an appointment for her to see a rape crisis counsellor, and we’re getting in contact with all the other NGO’s and safe houses in the area to create a wider support network for her as well. Hopefully there’ll be a positive outcome for her.

We finished up the final three days of the HIV course at the university over the weekend. It was really weird leaving, it was an intense couple of days and we had gotten to know a lot of people. They really integrated us into the group which was phenomenal so yea ill miss them. We do still have to sit an exam for the course so I have to get my head in the books over the next week to prepare for that.

Oh, and a group of the volunteers went to ‘Corridor’ the nightclub in the township again, it never fails. And yes, people are still trying to teach me how to dance South African style!!

Read here Paul's following blog

Read here Paul's previous blog

Its All Business Here

Paul Q — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 16:31:33 +0000

So, refreshed from the course at the weekend, we started this week by making a pitch to the ‘Life Orientation’ teachers at the high school, about HIV/AIDS workshops in the school. Thankfully it went well and they’ve asked us to come back next week and do at least six workshops with the older groups, possibly a second session as well. So yea, this week has been spent running around like mad trying to get all the prep work done.

While we were at the school one of the teachers approached us. She started by telling us what a big problem HIV is in Kayamandi and then told us that one of her students, we’ll call her ‘Mary’, a 16 year old girl, had come to her and told her that she was really worried what would happen to her. She’s an only child being brought up by her mother, a woman living with HIV. ‘Mary’ wanted to know what options would be open to her if her mum died, she has some extended family but they had severed all ties since they discovered her mothers HIV status. Not the normal worries a 16 year old should have. Anyway, just as we were sitting there the teacher shouted out the window and told some students to get ‘Mary’ to come to the office. Honestly I had no idea what to do. ‘Mary’ arrived and explained her situation, and all I could say was that I would go back to our organisation and see what we could do to help. I’m not going to lie, it didn’t feel great. Here was a young girl, with serious worries, telling us intensely person stuff and I just didn’t know what we could say or do.

We got back to the organisation and told them about it, so we are in the process of trying to set up a ‘support network’ for her. We’ve made an appointment for her to come to the organisation next week so I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on.

I forgot to tell you in the last blog that myself and Gill were invited (slash invited ourselves!) to join the university’s HIV outreach team in Kayamandi. It’s a project called ‘Vision K’ or ‘Vision Kayamandi’, basically we meet every Tuesday evening after work with a group of teenagers from the township and do activities that get them talking, asking questions and hopefully challenge their ideas about HIV. This week there was a vote with your feet exercise, a controversial statement was read out and the kids had to say whether the agreed, disagreed or were unsure, and explain their reason for standing on each side of the debate, its was great they got involved and were really passionate about it as well!

Kayamandi is amazing; I think everyone should come here. My host family are brilliant; I’ve been designated homework corrector which is funny! I’m getting to learn a lot more Xhosa… and finally after a few weeks practicing I can finally say the name of the language… progress!!! (Xhosa is pronounced C - click - osa).

It is definitely strange to walk out of my house in the morning when there are rows of shacks (informal dwellings) made of wood and corrugated iron right outside my front door. It’s not something I can see myself getting used to any time soon, but the people are great. Everyone and I mean everyone says hello (‘Molo’) and chat to you as you walk around. It does mean that you need to leave 30 minutes to do a 5 minute journey… but its ‘Africa Time’!! I love it. I end up having little conversations loads of people a bit in Xhosa and a bit in English. They laugh a lot when I speak Xhosa so I know it’s not up to scratch just yet, but like I said I’ve got the click down now so I think I’m on my way now!

Read here Paul's following blog

Read here Paul's previous blog

Delivering the message on the dangers of HIV

Caterina Totaro — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 09:27:50 +0000

On the 29th of September Bray People covered the story of Maeve Galvin's Global Awareness Volunteer in Nigeria.

ON A van making a two-hour journey across the Nigerian countryside, more than 20 fast friends share conspiratorial jokes about the bravado of the armed police they see dotting the landscape.

Most of the passengers on the dangerously overcrowded vehicle are HIV positive. Bray woman Maeve Galvin has accompanied them to a clinic far from their rural homes. They waited there for up to eight hours to get the drugs they so badly needed.

Maeve returned from Africa three weeks ago and is still talking about her experience working on a HIV and AIDS awareness programme. “I have traveled a lot,” she said. “But I have never before felt that sense of really seeing things and really living.” And she really saw the vast spectrum of life in the city of Ilesa, from crippling poverty to incredible wealth in stark contrast. “One minute you’re talking to sex workers in a brothel, the next attending a tribal ceremony, or on a private beach with models,” said the Fr. Colohan Terrace resident. A freelance journalist by profession, she holds a degree in Journalism and a Masterns in development Studies. The 24-year-old was awarded the placement as part of EIL’s Global Awareness programme and liaised with an NGO on the ground.

She carried out interviews, spoke to prostitutes and their clients about the use of condoms female condoms, and took a number of vieo clips which will form the basis of a short documentary. In short, Maeve was charged with the task of bringing her story back home. “There is also a need to encourage awareness at home,” she said. “One person is diagnosed with HIV in Ireland every day.”

One of the problems she helped identify in Ilesa was that the female sex workers were using Vaseline in conjunction with condoms. “We explained that the practice was counter-productive and ended up providing them with alternatives.”

They spoke to soldiers, police and traffic wardens t oeducate them on the use of female condoms. “The idea behind that was to empower the woman to make the choice,” she said.

Maeve also passed on her knowledge of post exposure prophylaxis or ‘PEP’ drugs to the local NGO. PEP drugs are used in the aftermath of exposure to the virus, for example by infected blood in a clinic or via rape. “It can stop the virus,” she said. “The treatment wasn’t there but they now have a PEP programme in the NGO.”

Fummi, the NGO accountant, was Maeve’s 27-year-old hostess, and the two formed a close bond, along with 9-year-old Dmmy, a nephew of Fummi’s fiancée who lives in her house. Staying in a basic two-bedroom house, Maeve didn’t want for anything and was very comfortable there. “I was lucky enough to attend a Nigerian wedding during my stay,” she said, adding that they are e much larger affairs there than in Ireland. “A wedding of 200 people would be considered small!”

The reality of death, poverty, illness, prostitution and injustice was a lot of to take in but Maeve was spurred on by what she saw. “It motivates you to say “what can I do?” When a woman just a year older than me was diagnosed with HIV, I said “I need to talk more to sex workers and see what can be done.”

In the seven local brothels, Maeve and another volunteer built up trusting relationships with the girls. “We didn’t go in preaching and lecturing,” she said. “They would play with my hair and we would talk. Some of them were so graceful and beautiful.” Men were asked to keep away during those talks. Most of the clients were young, unemployed, married men, with nothing much else to do. “Unemployment and poverty leads both men and women towards the sex industry which propagates that vicious cycle of HIV/AIDS,” explained Maeve.

Women who have been infect fear for their babies in childbirth . The child could become infected in the womb, during the birth or by breastfeeding and there is a rush to give a new baby formula as soon as it arrives in the world. Maeve was place in the HIV care and support department, but also spent some time with the orphans and vulnerable children. “There were a couple of thousand children there either orphaned or with parents who had been diagnosed positive,” she said. “The tragedy is that the government had failed to deliver on a promise of free education materials for them.” She interviewed the children to make a visual petition for their governor, and Maeve found their articulacy and selflessness remarkable.

“They asked for things for their community, not themselves,” she said. “Children as young as 9 asked for better roads in the area, and more jobs for the adults.”

One of the best memories of Maeve’s adventure was the fun they had on that bus trop back from the clinic, a spark of merriment in the midst of a daunting struggle. To donate money to HIV and AIDS awareness programme or for more information, email maevegalvin5@gmail.com.

GAP volunteer Maeve Galvin discusses her experiences on East Coast FM

Piers Meynell — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 16:28:23 +0000

East Coast FM's Declan Meehan interviewed Maeve Galvin upon her return to Ireland after spending a month in Nigeria volunteering to raise awareness of HIV&AIDS. As part of the Global Awareness Programme Meave will now be raising awarness of HIV&AIDS here in Ireland.

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If you'd like to learn more about Maeve's experiences in Nigeria take a look at her latest blog entry: My Nigerian Experience.

A close-up perspective on Aids in Nigeria

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 13:34:27 +0000

On September 24th, 2010 The Clare Champion covered Emily Price's story. See the article.

It is a fairly common experience for teachers in Ennis to have children in their class from Nigeria and other Sub-Saharan African countries. When I heard I had won a travel award to visit Nigeria, I was pleased to get the opportunity to learn more about the life experiences of some of my pupils. EIL Intercultural Learning, the organisation who gave me the award, is an Irish not for profit organisation, which provides intercultural learning opportunities for about 2,000 people annually.
I set off for Nigeria with very little idea of what to expect. Like most people in Ireland, I was aware of the unrest in Nigeria and my perception was that it could be a dangerous country but nothing could have prepared me for the wonderful warm welcome I received. I was immediately stuck by the eagerness of everyone I met to make my stay in Nigeria worthwhile.
Almost everybody in the country speaks English but Yoruba is the tribal language spoken in the south-west where I stayed. An aspect of Nigerian life, which took some getting used to, is the passion that people display when they communicate. In most conversations people would greet each other warmly, shout at one another, talk animatedly and laugh.
I travelled extensively in the south-west and with other volunteers to Kano in the north of the country. The transport consists of okadas (Chinese-made mixtures of scooters and scramblers that are as noisy as vuvuzelas) and minibuses that are so riddled with rust that a heavy rain may cause them to melt into the mud below. The only time I felt unsafe throughout my visit was when these vehicles danced dangerously around oncoming traffic due to the potholes that engulf half of the road. Believe me, it puts a whole new perspective on complaining about the state of Irish roads.
Since Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, with a population of 154.7 million (UN, 2009), it is an extremely diverse country. The people identify themselves primarily through their tribe, rather than nationality. It is a bit like Irish people closely identifying with their county but on a much larger scale. Ireland’s presence in Nigeria is unmistakable, from the GAA tops donated by Irish charities that adorn the children on the street to the newly constructed HIV/Aids clinics and orphanages and, of course, the Guinness signs which are seen everywhere.
I worked with Living Hope Care, an organisation that provides care and support for people living with HIV and Aids and orphaned and vulnerable children. There were 33.4 million people living with HIV at the end of 2008 (UNAIDS). EIL provided me with training before I travelled, during which time I learnt that being HIV positive, or having HIV disease, is not the same as having AIDS. Many people are HIV positive but don’t get sick for many years. As the HIV disease continues, it slowly wears down the immune system. Without treatment, two-thirds of adults infected with HIV are likely to develop Aids within 10 years of being exposed to HIV. Unfortunately, in Nigeria this period is much shorter, as people are exposed to tuberculosis and parasitic diseases such as malaria.
Antiretroviral (ARV) medication can prolong the time between HIV infection and the onset of Aids. Unfortunately, as I learned in Nigeria, these medicines are not widely available in poorer countries around the world and millions of people who cannot access the medication continue to die. The clear message from the training is as relevant to people in Ireland as those in Nigeria. It is important for people to know their HIV status and to protect themselves and others from this virus. The only reliable way to discover if you are HIV positive is to get a blood test, which can detect infection from a few weeks after the virus first entered the body.
Those of us who have access to information regarding HIV/Aids have a duty to use this information in order to reduce the spread of the disease in Ireland.
This can be such a simple task for Irish people when compared to the experience of Shaio, an amazing volunteer with Living Hope Care. She herself was living positively with HIV and had suffered unbelievable prejudice from the community as a result. When she was pregnant, she was aware of her HIV status and was determined to take precautions to protect her unborn baby from contracting the virus. However, when she was in labour she was refused entry to a maternity clinic because they were aware of her status. She then travelled to another clinic and in order to save her baby’s life, she withheld her status from the mid-wife. Throughout the labour she ensured that the mid-wife took all the necessary precautions to protect herself and the baby. The delivery was successful and a few hours after giving birth, Shaio washed all the surfaces and the bed and equipment with the bleach she had brought in order to protect others from the virus. She later ensured that the midwife received training from Living Hope Care on HIV and Aids.
Others I met travel over an hour, crammed into old buses on treacherous roads, to receive their ARVs, check-ups and to have secondary infections, such as TB, treated, as there is nowhere in their state that provides the drugs. At the hospital, those with TB and other air-borne diseases are required to wait outside in the unbearable heat.
Once, at night, we had to rush to the hospital where a mother lay exhausted, malnourished and frantic for her baby to receive the drugs, which are more effective the sooner they are administered. The baby had been born a few weeks premature and because of the poor conditions of the maternity clinic, was going to have to vacate the bed and building within a few hours.
Another experience that will always stay with me is the time I had to rush to a run-down maternity health clinic to administer drugs to a baby born to a mother who was HIV positive. These drugs are ARV prophylaxis drugs, which means that they attempt to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV. The reason our NGO had to deliver this treatment was that the maternity clinics did not have access to the drugs, as they are not provided by the State. Therefore, it was necessary to travel to a hospital in a neighbouring state to register during pregnancy to receive the drugs. Our NGO kept the drugs until the baby was delivered, as they must be stored in a fridge, something most our clients did not otherwise have access to. In Ireland, this baby would have been in an incubator. However, in Nigeria it was sent away from the overcrowded and understaffed maternity clinic despite its vulnerability.
This experience brought home to me in a very real way the inequalities of access to healthcare. Poor people receive poor treatment. In the Global South, one-third of women have HIV positive babies (UNAIDS). Sadly, it has been recorded that “An estimated 500,000 mothers die from pregnancy-related causes each year; at least eight million suffer life-long health problems linked to pregnancy and childbirth”.
Every two weeks, regardless of how sick our clients were, it was necessary for them to spend an entire day travelling and waiting at the state hospital in the city of Ibadon to receive their drugs. While waiting to see the doctor, I asked a woman if I could take her photograph, after she had spoken to me about her life story.
“Once she said I could, I took my camera out of my bag and immediately chaos ensued as the group of about 30 people sitting with us jumped up and ran out of view. I reassured the group that I would not take any photographs, as aside from this woman, nobody else wanted anyone to learn of their HIV status. This fear was a result of living in a community and a world, which stigmatises those living with HIV/Aids.
Nelson Mandela said, “Many people suffering from Aids are not killed by the disease itself. They are killed by the stigma and discrimination surrounding everybody who has HIV and Aids.”

Emily recommends that anyone interested in overseas voluntary work should check EIL’s website at www.eilireland.org/.

10 weeks in South Africa

Caterina Totaro — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 09:35:50 +0000

The reason for my long overdue report on my time spent in South Africa is due to the difficulty to put into words the impact that the whole experience has had on me since my return to Ireland. I spent 10 weeks of the summer in South Africa: 5 of which were spent volunteering and the remainder were spent travelling. South Africa is an amazing country: crazy and unpredictable at times but never failing to surprise, whether that be a two hour clime up Table Mountain, shark cage diving in Durban or visiting Soweto Township in Johannesburg.

Being a History teacher I have always had an interest in South Africa and have studied quite extensively on the history of the Apartheid era. I thought that this would prepare me for my time in South Africa but it didn’t. I wouldn’t say that I experienced much cultural shock. I didn’t miss home or friends and I certainly settled into the African way of doing things with ease. What did surprise me was the separate communities that still exist in South Africa. You have fairly well off white areas, coloured communities and then black townships. I was volunteering in a coloured community and it took some time to get used to the fact that using the word ‘coloured’ in South Africa to describe someone’s ethnicity is accepted. I think that one vital issue that people thinking about volunteering in South Africa need to be aware of is that even though Apartheid has ended, tensions still exist between the coloured and black communities.

I volunteered in the Christ Divine Educare in the coloured community of Strandfontein which is located about 40km from the city centre. I had wanted to volunteer in a High School in the area but could not do so as all the schools were closed for the World Cup. I was a little apprehensive about volunteering in a crèche as it was outside my comfort zone of being a secondary school teacher. I thought that I would be out of my dept and would not know how to relate to the children. Coupled with the fact that I was going to be the first male volunteer to work there I certainly felt like I was starting off on the wrong foot. At first the kids were suspicious of us and didn’t interact much with us. As time went on though they began to fight for our attention and we were never given a minutes peace. Each day we would walk into the crèche only to be greeted with hugs and smiles. The children were amazing. Sure it was hard work: feeding, playing, trying to get them to have nap time, dealing with runny noses and constant fights but it was worth it. Each day brought something new and we got more and more attached to the kids. The four weeks in the crèche went by so fast and soon enough it was time to say goodbye. We organised a party for our last day. We travelled to Mitchel’s Plain and bough party packs, balloons and face paint. The kids really enjoyed it but it was tough to say goodbye. It surprised us how attached we had become to the kids in such a short time.

The area was classified as ‘middle class’ but by our standards it was very disadvantaged. Very few local amenities exist except for the odd shop and an internet cafe. It was definitely a far cry from home. Transport was very good and we found it easy enough to visit other volunteers (although taxi services stop at around 7pm). My evenings were spent with the family or with other volunteers. We watched T.V, played games or chatted about what life was like both in South Africa and at home. My host family went out of their way to make me feel at home. They took me on visits to other family members and was brought out by my host brother and sister. My host mother was overprotective. She worried about my safety all the time and sent texts to make sure I had arrived at my destination in one piece. Living with a family was probably one of the most enjoyable parts of the project. Not only did you feel part of the family and community but you also got to learn so much about the history and culture of the country. If it is your first time volunteering then Cape Town is a good place to begin. Walking down Long Street or along the Waterfront you might be fooled into thinking that you are in any European city. It’s only when you look beyond the buildings and tourist attractions that you will find real Africa. There is so much to do in Cape Town. We spent five weeks there and didn’t manage to get everything done. If Cape Town is your destination then you definitely won’t be disappointed.

After we had finished volunteering we spent a further five weeks travelling around Southern Africa. We got to be at a World Cup match in Cape Town, walk with Meerkats in the African Plains in Oudsthoorn, do the world’s highest bungy jump off Boulkrans Bridge outside Plettenberg Bay, hike over the Drakensberg mountains and into Lesotho, see the big five at Kruger national Park...the list is endless. Now that I’m home I find myself forgetting half the things that we did on our travels. Oddly enough culture shock only really hit me once I returned home. Even though I was only in South Africa for a short few months I found it hard to adjust to being back at home. Everything seemed so different again. It was strange walking down to the shops or going to work and not seeing random cows or sheep walking in the middle of the road. It was strange not seeing a township out of the corner of my eye everywhere I went.

After a few days friends and family began to tire of listening to my stories about my time in South Africa. I also found it hard to explain what it was like over there and what I had seen. After all how could words or pictures do justice to the sheer poverty I had seen. In the end I gave up telling stories but I will never forget. My time spent in South Africa is something that I will never forget. It is something that in a way has changed me and made me realise just how lucky I am to have had the advantages in life that I have been given.

I will never forget the sights that I saw, the things that I did or more importantly the amazing people that I met. South Africa is an amazing country and a proud nation. They may have come a long way since the end of apartheid but they still have a long road ahead of them....bitterness over what happened still exists, services such as health and education are at breaking point and there is huge inequality within society. All in all it was a very enjoyable experience and one that I would highly recommend to anyone thinking of volunteering abroad.

Access to antiretroviral medication: the hard reality

emily_pemily7 — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 14:02:26 +0000

Prior to my departure I felt that I was very well prepared for working on a HIV and AIDS project, due to support and training given by EIL.

To prepare for volunteering in a local project in Nigeria, I attended training on "Understanding HIV in development and community responses" which gave me an interesting overview into the AIDS epidemic. I learned that HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency and is a virus that results in the progressive deterioration of the immune system. AIDS stands for Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome. A person is diagnosed with AIDS when their immune system is too weak to fight off infections. Being HIV-positive, or having HIV disease, is not the same as having AIDS. Many people are HIV-positive but don't get sick for many years. As HIV disease continues, it slowly wears down the immune system.

Without treatment, two-thirds of adults infected with HIV are likely to develop AIDS within ten years of being exposed to HIV. Unfortunately, in Nigeria this period is much shorter as people are exposed to tuberculosis and parasitic diseases such as malaria. Sadly, it also takes HIV to develop to AIDS is also shorter for children born with the virus.

HIV is found in many body fluids, including blood, semen, vaginal fluids (including menstrual blood) and breast milk. HIV transmission occurs when a sufficient quantity of these fluids get into someone else’s bloodstream. There are various ways a person can become infected with HIV. It is vital that everyone takes precautions to know their HIV status and to protect themselves and others from this virus. The only reliable way to discover if you are HIV positive is to get a blood test which can detect infection from a few weeks after the virus first entered the body.

Antiretroviral medication (ARV) medication can prolong the time between HIV infection and the onset of AIDS. Unfortunately as I learned in Nigeria, these medicines are not widely available in poorer countries around the world, and millions of people who cannot access medication continue to die. I was given an opportunity to accompany some of the Living Hope Care, care receivers to a hospital an hours drive away for them to receive their ARVs, to receive check-ups and to have secondary infections such as TB treated.

On this particular day I learned the patience, strength and stamina required to access the ARVs for these people. It was necessary to travel over an hour, crammed into an old bus on treacherous roads, to reach these free services (as there was nowhere in their State which provided the drugs). Upon arriving at the hospital those with TB and other air-borne diseases were required to wait outside in the unbearable heat. While others could go inside and receive some relief from electrics fans while there was intermittent electricity. Once you begin taking ARVs it is more detrimental to your health to stop taking them, then never to take them at all.

Therefore every two weeks, regardless of how sick our clients were or other plans they had, it was necessary for them to spend an entire day travelling and waiting at the state hospital in the city of Ibadon to receive their drugs. While waiting to see the doctor, I asked a friend if I could take her photograph, after she had spoken to me about her life story. Once she said I could I took my camera out of my bag, and immediately chaos ensued. As the group of about thirty people sitting with us jumped up and ran out of view. I reassured the group that I would not take any photographs, as aside from my friend, nobody else wanted anyone to learn of their HIV status. This fear was a result of living in a community and a world, which stigmatizes those living with HIV/AIDS. This experience really struck me as a concrete example of the reluctance of people to associate themselves with HIV and AIDS due to the stigmatization and discrimination they would meet from others in their community.

Within my first week in Nigeria I rushed to a run-down maternity health clinic to administer drugs to a baby born to a mother who was HIV+. These drugs are ARV prophylaxis drugs, which means that they attempt to prevent mother to child transmission of HIV. The reason our NGO had to deliver this treatment was that the maternity clinics did not have access to the drugs as they are not provided by the State.

Therefore it was necessary to travel to a hospital in a neighbouring state to register during pregnancy to receive the drugs. Our NGO kept the drugs until the baby was delivered, as they must be stored in a fridge, something most our clients did not otherwise have access to. Therefore at nine o’clock, in the pitch black, we rushed to the hospital where a mother lay exhausted, malnourished and frantic for her baby to receive the drugs which are more effective the sooner administered. The baby had been born a few weeks premature and because of the poor conditions of the maternity clinic, was going to have to vacate the bed and building within a few hours. In Ireland, this baby would have been in an incubator, however in Nigeria it was sent away from the overcrowded and understaffed maternity clinic despite the vulnerability of this tiny premature baby.

This horrifying experience taught me that poverty leads some people to receive poor health care. I was forced to recognise that in the Global South one-third of women have HIV+ babies (UNAIDS). Sadly, it has been recorded that “An estimated one-half million mothers die from pregnancy-related causes each year; at least 8 million suffer life long health problems linked to pregnancy and childbirth.”

Worldwide it is estimated that 15 million children under 18 have been orphaned as a result of AIDS. Around 11.6 million of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa. (Population Bulletin, 2005) In Nigeria alone there were 1,200,000 children who were orphaned due to AIDS in 2007. I was given many opportunities to provide vital services to such children and of these services a ‘teens camp’ was organised to provide four days of activities, meals and accommodation to over sixty children registered with the organisation. Sadly these children need special care which is not always provided as many had limited access to education, many were being abused and or suffered psychological trauma as a result of their experience of being orphaned.

My Nigerian Experience

maevegalvin — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 09:36:55 +0000

One of the greatest and most unexpected pleasures that I have derived from my Nigerian experience has been annihilating the misguided myths that people have about the country. At the beginning of June when I told people that I was going to spend two months working on a HIV/AIDS project in Nigeria the reaction was often one of misguided admiration, why would I want to go to such a place? Jokes were made about my alleged saintly nature, concerns were raised about my safety. One rather direct friend said: “God, that sounds horrible”. Phrases such as “Most corrupt country in the world”, “kidnappings” “tribal conflicts”, “HIV pandemic” “hotbed for malaria” were frequently thrown in my direction. In all honesty I wasn’t immune to this kind of thinking. I remained driven and focused, thinking that it would serve as a productive learning experience and that it would be an endurance test, something that I had to do rather than something that I might actually enjoy. No one was more surprised than me that Nigeria turned out to be the greatest adventure and most intoxicating experience that I have had in my life to date and I have relished in telling this to anyone who will listen. I feel that I owe it to the numerous of wonderful Nigerians I met to try and bolster the purely negative image that people have about their country. All of the phrases that were thrown at me were of course true, the progress of the Nigerian people has been hampered incalculably by corruption, tribal strife, HIV/AIDS and diseases that we in the West hardly need to consider such as malaria. But this is just one part of the incredible story that is Nigeria, a story that in my short time there I barely scratched the surface of but its impact is heavily imprinted nonetheless.

Genuine adventure is something that the human soul craves. It is the reason many people read books, watch films and even play video games. As Irish people, thousands upon thousands of us, go travelling every year bankrupting ourselves on a quest to achieve that specific sense of really living rather than simply existing. I can count myself fortunate enough to have really lived in spades in the nine weeks I spent in Ilesa, South-West Nigeria volunteering for the HIV/AIDS NGO, Living Hope Care. Every day was absolutely an adventure and horrendous injustices and frustrations were an integral part of that. But so too were rich traditions, diverse cultural values, a striking green landscape and most importantly some of the most beautiful (in every respect) people I have ever been privileged to encounter.

I was an exceptionally fortunate recipient of Nigerian hospitality given that the family I was placed with genuinely treated me as one of their own. My wonderful young host mother and the remarkable nine year-old boy she takes care of provided me not just with accommodation but with a home and that made the experience all the more special for me.

The sense of community that Irish people of a certain age mourn the loss of is alive and well in Nigeria. Strangers greet each other on the street, invitations to events such as weddings and funerals are extended to even the most distant acquaintances, one could never be short of people willing to give them directions and as a foreigner, a hero’s welcome is extended to you. Colourful traditional wear, music, dancing, rich food and traffic chaos that beggars belief are all a part of everyday life in Nigeria. However, so too is crippling poverty. The sense that it is by sheer accident of birth that we are born in a western democratic developed country has never been more acute in me than it was seeing the impoverished family home of one Nigerian in particular who came to mean a great deal to me. The lack of dignity afforded to these people by their living conditions was appalling to me and yet these warm people who welcomed me as a foreign stranger into their home were shielded from the harsh reality of their situation by not knowing any alternative to their meagre living conditions.

I also had a heightened sense of the vulnerability of women. I was fortunate enough to meet a handful of formidable Nigerian women who would prove a force to be reckoned with in any cultural context. But these were genuine mavericks in a massively patriarchal society. In the HIV/AIDS context, by the sheer biology of the infection, women are three times more susceptible to it, added to that is their additional vulnerability due to lack of education, lack of economic security and greater acceptance of infidelity than in more developed countries.

A large proportion of my work in Nigeria was with female sex workers. In the Nigerian context, HIV is mostly spread through heterosexual sex thus female sex workers are the most high risk group for HIV and they are a colossal source of the virus being spread. Barefaced poverty is the fuel for Nigeria’s sex industry. The country’s unemployment rate is officially set at 20% but this figure, like most data supplied by the often corrupt government is massively disputed and understood to be around half of the real figure. Thus, the cycle of HIV is invigorated by a situation whereby a massively young population (the life expectancy in Nigeria is 57 years-old) is without work, thus young women are drawn into sex work to support themselves and have little chance of alternative employment. Young men who are idle are enticed to use sex workers who are relatively inexpensive. The average Nigerian sex worker is 26 and has a secondary school education. Of the many brothel clients I came into contact with, the majority were in their early twenties and married.

Watching a young sex worker test positive for HIV and accompanying her on the journey to wait another six or so hours for her to register as a HIV patient was excruciating. Favour was her name. Many female sex workers gave us English names which had a Christian resonance such named Blessing, Favour and Joy. Favour was every inch kindly natured and graceful, a year older than me but she had a real placid, childlike quality about her. In such circumstances you can say kind things, you can give her food and try and make her comfortable, you can give her as much information about “positive living” as possible but nothing you do can alleviate the fact that her struggle has been multiplied, she is going through the worst ordeal of an already hideous life and she has to come to terms with the fact that her existence has been dramatically cut short even by the most optimistic estimates.

Favour and I waited at the clinic outside in the clammy heat on a bench with dozens of other patients, many of which were relying solely on our NGO to provide the transport they couldn’t afford to make the two hour journey to get their drugs. As we waited she was strained and non-communicative and I made pathetic attempts at small-talk. One boy was truly frightening ill and vomiting beside us, he was so emaciated he genuinely didn’t look like a real person. The closest physical resemblance I can make is that he looked a little bit like E.T with his head too big for his tiny body to handle. He was just a limp creature waiting for his body to cave in completely. A doctor told me that the boy, who was 18 years-old had a CD4 count of just 45. A person is classed as having developed AIDS once it reaches under 200. His mother had died soon after his birth and the boy had presumably become infected at birth. People in his remote village had rejected conventional medicine, treating him only with traditional remedies. The day I saw him was his first time receiving treatment in a hospital. He had skipped the HIV diagnosis process entirely, it was too late for him to begin anti-retroviral drugs to prolong his life, he was now dying of AIDS. Looking at a person in so much obvious pain almost induces you to physically aching with shock and sympathy. The enormity of the situation is beyond the capacity of mere words. Other patients at the clinic couldn’t help but stare at him fearing that he was an indicator of their own future. Favour was incredibly shaken by him. She stared at him in horror. “Is that boy going to make it?” she asked me. What could I do? I had to tell her that no, he wasn’t.

That same day, one of my most vivid in Nigeria in the midst of tragic circumstances, I also saw a real sense of the human spirit at its best. Myself and Favour and twenty of the other PLWHA (people living with HIV/AIDS) all cramped into the NGO van that could only accommodate 16 people for our two hour journey back to Ilesa after a harrowing day spent at the clinic. Like true satirists they developed a game where we each took bets on how many police checkpoints we would encounter in our journey. In an indicator of the corruption which hampers the nation’s progress, police check points in Nigeria regularly stop and bribe motorists intimidating them with their ever-present AK 47s. But that particular day it was genuinely great fun. We laughed and mocked them incalculably. Blatant abuse of power by authorities was made a source of amusement and generated a camaraderie for a group of remarkable Nigerians who refused to be made world-weary by their unfortunate circumstances.

Mirth within misery, contrasts, contradictions and even hypocrisy were dominant themes of my experience. In the midst of extreme poverty, I also witnessed great wealth and excess in Nigeria. I spent time in a family home of a chief that can best be described as palatial and was situated on a street in the midst of other family homes which can only be described as wooden shacks. I attended an elaborate celebration put on by the state government to empower people with HIV and children orphaned and vulnerable through HIV where the elites including those of us who were white were deliberately offered better quality food than those being honoured. In the same week of witnessing an 18 year old HIV positive mother not being able to afford to buy formula for her new born baby to save her from becoming infected I was brought by speedboat to a luxury house on private beach with the young Nigerian glitterati.

There were days when I felt glaringly, painstakingly white. During the British colonisation, strikingly few Europeans resettled into Nigeria and the tourism industry is virtually non-existent outside of the main cities. A white person, especially within the rural area where I worked is genuinely shocking to see. Certainly there were times when my skin colour was valued much higher than any skills or knowledge I may have and I found myself a white novelty item more times than I care to remember. However, like most things incurred by this experience, you can choose to embrace or resist the pale-faced predicament. I like to think that myself and fellow oyinbos (the Nigerian term for white person) chose the former. If it meant that necessary work could be quickened or a vulnerable person could be helped than we used the bizarre attention created by our colour-challenged coating to our advantage.

There were no average days in Nigeria. One day I could be demonstrating to policemen how to use a female condom, the next I might end up teaching orphaned children how to Irish dance, the day after that I could be trying to convince the state government to give our NGO HIV testing kits. Yet I woke up every morning feeling exhilarated and downright privileged to be there. The people who welcomed me, taught me about their culture and shared their stories with me made my experience.

When a plane touches down in Nigeria’s capital Lagos, visitors are instantly met with a billboard stating “Welcome to Nigeria, the Land of Passionate People”. This is your first impression of the country and it is also the last sign you see when leaving. In the interim, you will find time and time again that in a country which is as unpredictable and contradictory as they come this declaration is a rare constant. I am humbled, honoured and incredibly grateful to EIL to have been given this exceptional opportunity. Thank you.

My time in Nigeria (2)

Brona Higgins — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 13:29:08 +0000

Brona volunteered with EIL in Nepal (2008) and Vietnam (2009). She is now just back from Nigeria where she volunteered for 2 months and she shares with us her experience.

Different perspectives

I once attended a meeting at work, which was also attended by some local politicians and dignitaries. The topic - Impeachment – is a topical and serious issue in Africa. Acts of Impeachment, in Nigeria, have occurred in their hundreds since the inception of the country’s current constitution in the 70s. Such discussions were regularly conducted by the ‘Good Governance and Democracy’ Department in my organization – JDPC (Justice Development and Peace Commission) in a constructive attempt to make politics more accessible and transparent and to give ordinary citizens the opportunity to question their political representatives in person in an informal setting.

Such informative discussions were also conducted by the Media Department at JDPC on a weekly slot at the local radio station, which had listeners calling, and texting their contributions to the debates in their droves. This was, for me, a tangible testament as to extent to which Nigerians do care about the current political climate regardless of the fact that this concern may seldom come to fruition as they are disappointed by their corrupt politicians again and again.

The most interesting and awe-inspiring place we visited was Northern Nigeria. Myself and two other volunteers decided to head north in search of adventure and a taste of the culturally-distictive Islamic North. We were not disappointed. We traveled to Kano, Kaduna and Zaria where we witnessed the truly spectacular Friday prayer at the central Mosque in Kano (one of the other volunteers even got to partake in the ceremony). In Kaduna we watched, and took part in an ethnic Hausa drama and music performance and in Zaria we were escorted on a guided tour of the Emir’s Palace. We feasted on Kilishi and meat pies, clothed ourselves in headscarves, traveled by motorbike, visited camels and die pits, indulged in mountain top city vistas and even spent a night sleeping on a bus that was held up at a dusty road side bus park courtesy of ‘armed bandits’ further ahead on the road. It simply was unforgettable.

Finally, I also visited Lagos, which was a completely different experience. This is where I sampled the opposite end of the spectrum of Nigerian life – the ‘super rich’. Here my host brother treated me and some other volunteers to a private beach party on a private island in our own private beach house complete with private pool. It was definitely the most extravagant party I’ve ever attended or am likely to attend anytime soon. But it was incredible, for one day at least. It was definitely enlightening to experience that other extreme facet of the Nigerian ‘lifestyle’.

Experiences like my Lagos extravaganza do, however, contribute to a certain cynicism of development work in a country like Nigeria where developments appear stagnant if not backwards. I came here to work to improve the state of the human rights system here but daily I either witnessed human rights deficiencies or I heard about them from others and my reaction began to imitate that of the locals – shake my head in disappointment but ultimately remind myself that ‘this is Nigeria – this is how it’s done here’ which I never thought I would ever hear myself say. It’s not a sentiment of apathy in the slightest but rather a resignation that, at least for the foreseeable future, this is how the situation is and is likely to remain. For instance, many wealthier Nigerian families benefit from a practice which many of us here in Ireland would classify as a form of child labour. I was informed at work how this system of child labour operates. The parents inform an agent of the availability of their child for domestic labour, the agent supplies the child to various households and the parents receive a monthly sum for the duration of the child’s occupation. This occupation could begin as early as 6/7 and last until the girl is 20. Often, these girls may have been treated poorly in their own respective homes and may hail from appalling environments so some argue that their fate in their new homes is far and above anything they could ever aspire to otherwise. But I’m a firm believer in the necessity of parental nurturing without which the development of these girls is stunted. But perhaps I’m just fortunate enough never to have been in such a position and as such I don’t have and authority to judge. But it is the unfortunate consensus that there is nothing wrong with this practice, which can leave you exasperated.

"Every Little helps"

Furthermore my organization – JDPC - employs a department devoted to assisting prisoners. It was this Department that I was intended to work with. It provided counseling, advice, provisions and spiritual services for the prisoners of Agodi prison, Ibadan, some of whom have been held in custody for over 10 years before their case was even brought to trial!!!

However on my first visit to the prison I was informed that I would not be permitted to enter the prison without clearing from a higher authority in Abuja. This, I was further informed, was unlikely. The crux of the matter apparently was that I was white and as such, likely to be and informant or spy for a human rights agency such as Amnesty. This, understandably, would have spelled unwanted interference and so I was obliged to step away from the plight of the prisoners and turn my hand to other issues JDPC dealt with. However, I was later presented with the opportunity to assist the prisoners from another angle: through the legal team. I worked with the legal team as they researched their case work and accompanied them to the courts as they defended these prisoners and ensured that some received the justice they were previously denied for many years. This was a hugely rewarding task.

So, like anything else it must be remembered that while you cannot alleviate all the problems of the world, you can always do something towards assisting individual cases. It can be something as simple a giving a forgotten child your love and attention everyday or contributing financially to their own personal advancement in the future perhaps. So too for the prisoners.
It is these baby steps which are so fundamental here and it’s the Tesco consensus of ‘every little helps’ which prevails whether you can visibly witness any results or not.

But let me just say that accompanying these negatives are an bountiful supply of positive aspects; The interminable warmth and friendliness of the people, the readiness of goods (once you get used to the lack of ‘shops’) the openness of people towards the 'foreigner' despite what their history has endured and the absolute ease of accessibility here. I think it is this, which makes it so difficult for an outsider to comprehend Nigeria in the early stages of their visit. This incidence of corruption (which is essentially highly individualistic in nature) is often is executed by the same people who exhibit much of the region’s great aspects – its warmth, friendliness, welcoming hospitality (which exhibit Nigeria’s characteristic emphasis on all things communal). It’s a difficult concept to grasp: here is a land where the meek and gentle flounder. One needs to be tough, foolhardy and determined should they harbor any hopes whatsoever of success. But as it’s an extremely Religious (either Christian or Muslim) -orientated culture, the whole ‘love your neighbour’ attitude and common courtesy to all still prevails here hand in hand with its abruptness. For example I frequently hear my fellow colleagues roaring at each other and barking immediately following morning prayers and hymns. In the beginning I thought they were fighting but I soon learned this is just their means of communicating in a debate – (every debate or discussion here is heated but not necessarily aggressive.)

Religion

And so, in any description of Nigeria, the author must NOT omit a mention of Religion here. Otherwise they have failed to describe an aspect of Nigeria so fundamental to its composition that it would be a different nation without it. Ok, this is complicated. Religion here is a commodity – a badge of identity worn loudly and proudly by every Nigerian– you are either Christian or Muslim and nothing exists in between. (Traditional Yoruba God worship – Voodoo etc still exists in smaller factions but hand in hand with Christianity). Every second 'building' here is a prayer house, a church or a mosque and the name of most businesses have religious connotations - God's Will Hairdressers, Holy Spirit Stores even huge billboards promoting one church or another - selling religion - you get the idea.

Church services can last anywhere between two and four hours and are always highly charged, highly entertaining and flamboyant affairs.

At various points throughout the service, the congregation partake in numerous ‘money-giving’ marches - maybe up to 10 in the one service alone where some family or other marches along the pews for various reasons – birthdays, thanksgivings, anniversaries – collecting huge amounts of money from their fellow worshipers. This money is then handed over to ‘the church’ – the pastors here are extremely wealthy men – akin to mafia bosses in their attire! So you can imagine what goes on. It seems even religion here is also pervious to the tentacles of Nigerian corruption.

In Ibadan Muslims and Christians live peacefully side-by-side. In the west Christianity prevails while in the north Islam prevails but not in a conflicting manner. Both areas are safe for travelers of either region – the only area that is out of bounds to us is the Niger Delta region where white oil workers are regularly abducted for ransom purposes. Having said that none have ever been killed or mal treated and most times the abduction will only last a day or two.

My volunteer work

As for work, I’m thoroughly enjoyed it - not really a huge amount of tangible work for me to do but I learned a vast amount – politically, socially and legally. Although I didn’t get to pursue the work that was originally intended for me, I was giving the opportunity to work with all the other Departments as a result I gained more wide-ranging experience. I worked with the Rural Development Department, the Legal Department, the Good Governance Dept and the Media Department. I traveled to rural villages to conduct workshops on sustainable crop harvesting and to schools to present short films on Christian-Islamic relations and the dangers of Illegal Immigration. I oversaw the broadcasting of the weekly discussion forum radio shows and I assisted the legal team in their research before accompanying them to the courts to witness Nigerian justice in action. I was there when rural dwellers established their own units of local governance in a display of self-development and I visited a bore hole and water tower that was recently erected in one village thanks to support from JDPC. It really was a truly uplifting experience working with such a worthwhile organization that produced tangible and visible developments in a region where such developments are unfortunately few and far between. The other workers all doted on me and even christened me with a traditional Yoruba name - 'Omobowale Aduke’ which means 'our child has returned' and ‘the one that everyone loves’. This is undoubtedly a result of my constant, if sometimes laughable attempts at speaking in Yoruba with them and trying my hand at learning and singing Yoruba songs – my ‘performing monkey’ routine. They were all so surprised and amused by it.

I absolutely loved my time in Nigeria. It was difficult and challenging but incredibly rewarding and satisfying and it has had a huge influence on me. The friends I’ve made there and the things I’ve learned will, I’m sure, remain with me my whole life. I’ve traveled to incredible places and witnessed awe-inspiring events there, sampled its culinary delights and grown to understand its diverse range of cultures. In the words of many of my Nigerian friends: ‘If you can make it in Nigeria, you can make it anywhere’ and that, I suppose, is an achievement not to be sniffed at.

This is the second part of Brona's story read the first part here.

My time in Nigeria (1)

Brona Higgins — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 12:00:54 +0000

Brona volunteered with EIL in Nepal (2008) and Vietnam (2009). She is now just back from Nigeria where she volunteered for 2 months and she shares with us her experience.

Nigeria is a vast land of profound contrasts – of both conflicting and complementary cultures, religions, and perspectives. It’s a country of enormous wealth and choking poverty, of green, vibrant and breathtaking scenery and of monotonous expanses of rusted, dilapidated, but atmospheric cityscapes. It was here that I emerged from the comfortable, safe and modern host-family’s home into a world where the unyielding warmth, friendliness and affection of the locals was to be experienced in a strange juxtaposition with police gun barrels which were often pointed in the direction of an unruly driver who was foolhardy enough to question the inevitable bribe.

So it’s extremely difficult to put into words a true, honest and objective description of this indefinable arena of culture chaos.

The whole experience almost feels like a surreal dream – one of those dreams that leave you wondering about them long after you’ve woken up as you struggle to make sense of it.

The City

My first day there was like as slap in the face to be honest – to begin with; ‘normal’ eurocentric rules of ‘urban life’ do not apply here. In fact the city is non-existent as far as our understanding of cities go. What I mean by that is that there are no ‘city centers’ CBDs, shopping centers, information centers, amenities, any ‘shops’ at all, parks, regulated transport systems or any form of organized infrastructure are evident. What is evident, however, is an expanse of red rusty rooftops, which shield the one-story dwellings of the city’s 2.5 million inhabitants. These inhabitants are, for the most part, sustained in street-economics: buying and selling tit bits, driving taxis or ‘okada’ (motorbike taxis – which were a big hit with me), selling foodstuffs in the markets or ready-to-go/chop food on the street. Such items include fruit-apples oranges, bananas, coconuts etc, meat pies, doughnuts, buns and a deep-fried concoction of pureed beans known locally as muin muin. It is for this reason that Ibadan has been described by some travel writers as being a series of conglomerated villages rather than a city as such.

No official maps exist of this city nor have any bus routes emerged. Rather, the skill of finding your way around town is developed by means of honed intuition as to your whereabouts in relation to which direction you want to go and then grabbing a shared taxi (of which 2 passengers are crammed into the front passenger seat to allow for a total of 5 passengers) or an equally tight ‘bush taxi’ which is, in effect, a beat up minibus. But this is made all the easier by the people here who are ever delighted to help. You merely think your destination and momentarily you will have 20 new best friends vying for the opportunity to help an ‘oyinbo’ (white person).

Let me explain the ‘Oyinbo’. Oyinbo is the term of greeting used by any and EVERY Nigerian towards a white person as that is precisely it’s translation: white person. There are virtually NO tourists here so when they meet us on those few occasions it’s undoubtedly a high octane surprise. The term ‘Oyinbo’ is more akin to an “oh my god” you’d hear as a statement of surprise. It doesn’t emanate animosity but rather is meant as a “welcome”, which indeed is the next greeting that usually follows. Everyone wants to shake our hands and engage us in conversation and everyone is infectiously welcoming. It is this open-hearted attitude towards us that makes me feel so remorseful about the fate that befalls Nigerians once they set foot on ours, or any western, soil for that matter. In Ireland the term ‘black man’ does not have the same friendly and welcoming connotations as ‘oyinbo’. They are used in complete contrast to each other in fact and that’s sad.

The countryside

The countryside is inevitably more navigable and pleasant. Ten minutes drive outside the city limits will have you careering through lush jungle countryside, passing villagers on the road who have emerged from the depths of the jungle from god knows where in an often vain attempt to sell their wares to passing vehicles. Their ‘wares’ consist of packaged ‘sausage rolls’, soft drinks and corn on the cob. Going to the countryside is both literally and metaphorically a breath of fresh air. I visited some rural villages on various field trips with the Rural Development Department at work on which we provided workshops on sustainable development of agriculture, good governance and democracy and self-empowerment. The welcome and hospitality displayed by the villagers was no different to the welcome I received elsewhere – exceptional!

Other places I’ve visited were Oshogbo – where another volunteer was stationed, Ileshe – a spectacularly beautiful area where we bathed in luscious waterfalls and slogged our backsides off (well me at least!) rock climbing in search of other hidden waterfalls. We also visited another ‘city’ - Ife- a culturally important town to the north of Ibadan where we visited the ‘Oba’s” palace. The Oba of any region is its King. Kings operate side-by-side with the ‘democratically-elected’ politicians and are a remnant of the traditional Yoruba culture. In many instances the Kings and chiefs of any given region yield more power, influence and are more revered than the politicians who are seen as not much more than power-and-money-hungry fraudsters by the very people who elected them.

For instance, while visiting an Irish volunteer in another part of the country, we were invited to a member of the local authority’s daughter’s TENTH BIRTHDAY. It was an extremely lavish and flamboyant affair, which began on Saturday morning and undoubtedly continued into the wee hours. Food, drinks, music and guests abound. I was subsequently informed that the same person has been having problems paying his staff’s salaries. Not difficult to see why, when they secrete such amounts of money for their own personal expenditure. Such appears to be the general characterization of many of the countries politicians. I often listened to my co-workers lament the state of the country’s governance albeit with an undeniable air of hope for the future....

This is the first part of Brona's story, if you wnat to read the second part click here.

School talk about HIV and AIDS

emily_pemily7 — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 15:25:20 +0000

Hey all,

I called in to my old secondary school last week and asked if it would be possible to talk to the transition year group about HIV and AIDS with reference to my recent trip to Nigeria. The school were really supportive and organised for me to talk to alll three of the transition year groups the following week, 61 students in total. So I designed a power-point presentation (being conscious of death by power-point), gathered leaflets, posters and my materials and organised statements for a game.

I must admit that it was a bit wierd going back to my old secondary school, but the staff were so supportive and seemed delighted for me to have returned. I'd really reccommend this as a really effective way of being able to reach teeneagers. They were all given opportunities to ask questions and through our 'walking debate' the group engaged in a brief discussion about HIV and AIDS.

I felt that the talks were very successfull and that the teenagers knowledge of HIV and AIDS really increased and their awareness of how this affects some people inernationally and in Ireland really increased. I was really impressed by how receptive the students were to talking about HIV and AIDS. I felt that I had pitched the content of the workshop at a level which engaged them without overwhealming them.

By reccommending different websites where they can get more information I felt that I supported future learning. I felt that this was a really effective way of reaching teenagers in my community and was so touched by how attentive the students wee throughout my talk. It turned out to that the whole experience worked really well and would fully reccommend school talks as a way of reaching teenagers!

The Power of Naija (2)

Caterina Totaro — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 16:10:22 +0000

My experience of Nigerian culture: my host family, food, way of communication and stereotypes!

While work took up most of my time in Osogbo, my host family afforded me a large amount of freedom in my spare time and truly took me in as one of their own. My host brother Kehinde and I went out socialising regularly and my host sister, Taiwo, ensured that I was well looked after in the house. My host mother was the tribal Chief and leader of all women in the region. She was able to educate me about the intricacies of Yoruba life as well as the work of the NGO as she is the Executive Director of WADEM. I was also treated to every variety of local food for breakfast, lunch and supper which usually focussed around yams (pounded, fried or boiled) or rice with a fantastic spicy sauce to accompany it. The yam and cassava dishes are eaten by hand while cutlery is used for the rice but all dishes are delicious if you enjoy spicy food. Now that I am back in Ireland I especially miss jolof rice, dodo, amala, eba, ewede, egusi, akara and moi moi (the Yoruba names for the foods).

Yoruba is the tribal language spoken predominantly in the south west of Nigeria but almost everybody in the country speaks English. While we may ostensibly speak the same language, the accent barrier created a few strange encounters. I was deemed to be entirely incomprehensible by many within Osogbo in my first week and much of my conversation became non-verbal as I worked on a Nigerian accent. This did not eliminate some misunderstandings. For example, one day at the market my host sister looked at me pointedly and, to my alarm, said “Serious...Conflict”. I had spent little time in Nigeria at this stage and immediately panicked because of my preconceptions of the country. Upon seeing my distress, Taiwo confusedly pointed to the offending object and repeated: “Cereal...Cornflakes”.

While caution must certainly be used when travelling in any country, I encountered no major security problems during my time in Nigeria. I travelled with other volunteers independently to the north of the country to Kano, Kaduna and Zaria as well as moving extensively around in the south west. The transport consists of okadas (Chinese-made mixtures of scooters and scramblers that are as ubiquitous and noisy and vuvuzelas) and minibuses that are so riddled with rust that a heavy rain may cause them to melt into the mud below. I mention transport when talking about security as the only times when I perhaps felt insecure was when these vehicles inadvertently play chicken with oncoming traffic due to a pothole that engulfs half of the road. This is not to say that corruption and violence do not take place in Nigeria but that I did not encounter them personally.

There was a fitting encounter upon leaving Osogbo when I announced to the children in my street that I was leaving. Amongst the various hugs and protestations that had been providing me with a huge ego for the previous two months, one little girl seemed especially distraught. She seemed inconsolable for around 30 seconds before stepping back and wiping her face which then transformed into a beaming smile. With a little leap and a curtsey she chirped “Ok then, goodbye” and skipped off down the street.

It is an odd paradox in Nigeria that the intensity of emotions takes place with the speed of a drunken phone call on an overindulgent Saturday night while the pace of life remains utterly relaxed. Often in conversation, smiling, shouting and laughing can occur simultaneously in a complexity of emotions that I was never able to fully understand. Instead I often responded with the most Irish of responses to extreme emotion: politely nodding in agreement. In Nigeria every emotion is exaggerated, especially kindness.

The majority of this article was written while on my way to the airport to leave Nigeria. The bus bounced and cajoled its way from Osogbo to Lagos as I sat with my head out the window, as far as common sense would permit. Dust battered my face as the sun set over the forests of palms trees and the reckless driver veered between potholes and oncoming tankers as if the two were equal obstacles. This, for me, was Nigeria. A complete barrage on the senses but in an utterly addictive way.

I found that it was immediately impossible to put the experience into a concise article as ‘Nigeria’ itself refuses to be categorised. The people identify themselves primarily through their tribe rather than nationality, the international press fails to account for the complexity of the country and any therefore any stereotype of Nigeria is doomed to be extremely limited if not entirely false. While this may be partially down to the nature of stereotypes, the sheer geographical and demographic scale of Nigeria makes such reductionisms especially useless. That is not so say that this categorisation is restricted to outsiders. Nigerians were always quick to inform me that any problems in the country were the fault of ‘Lagos’ or ‘Abuja’ which in conversation assume the role of abstract constructs that house all of the ills of Nigeria. The reality is that by refusing to assess the problem beyond mere taglines such as ‘corruption’ or ‘Abuja’, we are therefore ignoring the solutions. These solutions will not come as the consequence of a grand ideal but instead need to be undertaken using small steps and achievable goals. These small steps can be seen across Nigeria from the GAA tops donated by Irish charities that adorn the children on the street to the newly constructed HIV/AIDS clinics and orphanages.

Jack Hamilton (Jack, from co.Down, volunteered in Nigeria during the summer 2010)

This is the second part of Jack's story, read the first part here

The Power of Naija (1)

Caterina Totaro — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:58:47 +0000

This is the first and only report which I have written on my time in Nigeria. The primary reason for this is the lack of internet access or indeed stable electricity in most of the country but it is also because of the difficulty of putting the experience into words. When attempting to define Nigeria a few common themes emerge. A common conversation with a Nigerian will lead to a few questions about the international reputation of the country and Nigeria is mentioned in the news it tends to be associated with buzz words such as ‘corruption’ and ‘conflict’. The fact of the matter is that Nigeria is an incredibly vast and complex nation, most of which is not represented by newsworthy stories that seep from the problematic Oil Delta Region and in more recent times, the Middle Belt. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and these problems do not exist in the south-west, the region that I was in. I was instead treated with the utmost hospitality and friendliness and never felt myself to be limited in my work or leisure time.

My project

My volunteer project in Nigeria took on several forms centred on the topics of human rights and HIV/AIDS. This involved working with orphans and vulnerable children as well as those living with the virus. The NGO, called WADEM, provided me with a variety of tasks ranging from the organisation of ‘empowerment’ campaigns for those who had been victimised by stigmatisation and discrimination due to their HIV/AIDS status to conducting HIV/AIDS tests to writing a 20,000 word research report on the relationship between social factors and the virus in the state. We also toured the schools in the local government areas to talk to the principles about dangers of discrimination and stigmatisation in the school environment and conduct surveys that could be used for research purposes.

Due to the scarce number of white people in Osogbo (in a city of around 200,000 people I never encountered another white person with the exception of other EIL volunteers coming to visit) I stuck out in the media and became a guest on radio shows as well as a fixture on local TV at times. After giving a speech at a conference on HIV/AIDS it was not uncommon to see myself on the evening news. It is quite a strange phenomenon to become a minor celebrity solely on the basis of skin colour but it can be used to help promote the message of the NGO, plus it does provide quite a large ego boost! The media can help draw attention to simple problems such as not having enough tests to continue with HIV/AIDS testing or alerting people to the problems associated with stigmatisation and discrimination.

The ostracising of people believed to be living with HIV/AIDS not only causes individual hardships but discourages people from taking the tests and helps to perpetuate myths about contraction.

The vast majority of people living with HIV/AIDS are in developing countries. Some 90% of HIV positive cases are in the developing world and this number continues to increase. Countries such as Nigeria only receive around 12% of the resources for research and prevention despite having approximately 95% of the cases. Socioeconomic factors contributing to the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS in these countries include poverty, illiteracy, gender inequality, increased mobility of populations within and between countries, rapid industrialization and the breakdown of traditional values. HIV/AIDS is becoming increasingly concentrated in young women who are often mothers meaning that it has an immense impact upon life expectancy, exacerbates inequality (for example, surviving orphans) and increases the burden upon health systems. Governance, development and human rights are therefore interdependent in this field.

Altogether, there are now 16 countries in Africa in which more than one tenth of the adult population aged 15-49 is infected with HIV. While West Africa is less affected by HIV infection than the southern cone of the continent, the prevalence rates in some of the larger countries are shooting up. Côte d’Ivoire is already among the 15 worst affected countries in the world and in Nigeria, by far the most populous nation in sub-Saharan Africa, over 5% of adults now have HIV. These rises are not inexorable. Uganda has brought its prevalence rate down to around 8% from a peak of nearly 14% in the early 1990s and there are signs that such success is being repeated across the continent. A large increase in condom use probably contributed to these lower rates of infection as well as the decline in teenage pregnancy.....Read the second part of this story: The Power of Naija (2)

There are no innocent victims of HIV and AIDS.

emily_pemily7 — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 09:22:42 +0000

I once read that "there are no innocent victims of HIV and AIDS because there are no guilty ones"(Personally Speaking, 2007). I have safely returned to Ireland- despite being heartbroken leaving the beautiful Nigeria. HIV and AIDS was at the heart of all of my experiences in Nigeria, in terms of the focus of my work for the NGO, Living Hope Care and most of my discussions with friends. However, as I reflect on these experiences I am struck by the vulnerability of certain groups in our society. From my limited experience in Nigeria and my upbringing in Ireland, I believe that women and young girls are most susceptible to discrimination, violence and poverty. I feel that this is as a result of gender stereotyping, expectation and discrimination which favours neither sex.

It is only while reflecting on some of my experiences with friends and family that I am struck by some of the harsh realties of the detrimental effects of poverty, abuse and gender based discrimination. On examination of the core of many global issues I believe that we can always find common issues which we need to tackle together.

Each person living with HIV also has to cope with the harshness of the stigma associated with this virus. I believe that HIV related stigma emerges from a fear and lack of education regarding HIV/AIDS. I feel that whoever has access to information should use and access it wisely, in order to learn how people can protect themselves and live positively. Through education fear and consequently stigmatization will be reduced. It is vital that we recognize our position of privilege in an unequal world and become informed about this devastating epidemic and that we learn our HIV status. In the global community there are over 39.5 million people living with HIV.

I recognise that HIV related stigma is manifested in different ways, such as rejection by family members, difficulties developing and maintaining relationships, maintaining employment, managing health or financial services, and also gender based violence. I accept as true, the argument that stigmatization and discrimination emerge from the fear of individuals. To quote the powerful words of Father Michael Kelly, the former Professor of Education of the University of Zambia, ‘HIV and AIDS do not stigmatize. People do. It is an assault on human dignity and worth.’

From my amazing, life-changing experiences in Nigeria I am eager to become involved in the struggle to break the silence on HIV related stigma. I urge anyone who takes the times to read this to please take the time to further your understanding of HIV/AIDS in order to protect yourself and those around you.

I will always be grateful to EIL and the wonderful people I met throughout my stay in Nigeria, for enriching my life experience. I was so privileged to have been welcomed and allowed to share laughter and the challenge of the work with some of the most committed people I have ever met.

The Betrayal of Tea

Gill Carter — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:55:46 +0000

People at home have stopped asking if I would like a cup of tea, simply because they know my reply will be yes! All my family, friends and even most acquintances know how much I love my tea! Before I left for South Africa my mom asked if I was going to bring tea bags with me and when I replied no, she was shocked. I had decided the space in my rucksack was already limited and when it came down to it, I couldn't justify leaving some much needed clothes just for some teabags. Besides, I didn't want to be like one of those people off a BARRY's advert, how embarrassing!

However once I landed in South Africa, I came to learn that they do it fact have normal tea, just like home... I was saved! However, I do have a confession; I, Gillian Carter, Irish lover of plain old milky, one sugar tea has fallen in love with South African Rooibos tea. Normal tea, it's not you, it's me! I haven't had a cup of Plain English Tea in days now, I am officially a Rooibos convert!

This got me thinking, I have got so adjusted to drinking Rooibos tea now that it's normal, I don't consider it strange or weird any more like I did at the start. And is this how it goes for everything? Do we come to "underdeveloped" countries and start off by being horrified by what we see and then slowly get used to it and then kind of consider it normal? Can we become complacent, do we forget about what we were previosly shocked by and gradually just accept it? And if this is the case does our passion to help, our eagerness to change and contribute and our drive diminish also? I hope not, and I'm determined not to accept the mentality of 'that's life', things can change. Lets be optimistic no folks!

As a gentleman in the support group of my project said; "I'm HIV positive so I'll be positive in life as well".

Cape Town and The Cape: Orientation Overdrive

Paul Q — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 08:37:37 +0000

My first week here in South Africa was hectic. It started as it meant to go on as well! After being in Cape Town for a few hours, and just meeting my orientation group, we all decided to hike to the top of Table Mountain for our first day. It was a bit surreal to be honest especially since I had been standing in the pouring rain a few hours earlier waiting to get to the airport. The weather was amazing, the views from the top were unbelievable and the atmosphere was great. We got talking to people from all over the world and sat for hours in the sun looking out over Cape Town.

The following day we went to the office of our receiving organisation and learned a bit about South African culture and what to expect on our programmes. We had a walking tour of Cape Town which was cool, we saw pretty much all the local landmarks, the markets, our guide even showed us were to get the best food and were to go on nights out, from there we visited a museum that had an incredible ‘Rock Art’ exhibition, with ancient drawings found on the walls of caves and rock faces all over the continent of Africa. Another tour was organised for the following three days... which was EPIC! It included a boat tour to a seal colony, whale watching, a penguin colony, a National Park, a picnic at the Cape of Good Hope... another surreal experience! and wine tasting at two vineyards. So yea we were looked after well!

One of the highlights of the week for me though was shark diving. I was the only one from the orientation group to take the plunge but it was beyond words. We dived in Gansbaai at Shark Alley, the place with the highest concentration of sharks in the world, and I got to see 10 Great Whites Sharks up very close and personal... it was a bit of an adrenaline rush!!

We also went on another walking tour as well, this time around the Township of Kayamandi, where I would be living and working for the duration of my placement. It was my first time in a township and I won’t pretend that it wasn’t shocking. We were shown residential hostels, which were tiny spaces where families were living, we walked between shacks or ‘informal dwellings’ as they’re supposed to be called, and were told how many neither have running water nor sanitation, so raw sewage ran down along the side of the road, which has the added side effect of making local children really sick... we all know that kids can’t resist jumping in puddles, it’s just a bit more dangerous when they do it here.

Our orientation finished up on the Friday with a last session at the office and then we moved to our host families... but thats for the next blog!!

In Good Hands at the HIV centre in Kayamandi

Gill Carter — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 11:13:37 +0000

I’m into week three at this stage, which means I'm starting to get used to the place. By no means would I say that I know the ins and out of Kayamandi, the shacks are like mazes with only tiny routes going through them all. My mental GPS is quite confused still when it comes to navigating around the shacks, shack E157 could be right in front of you and then, shack D89 beside it. So it's safe to say I'm still getting the hang of things.

The Legacy Centre has been a place of constant learning for me, everyday I see new things, hear new stories and learn that little bit more about life in Kayamandi, HIV, the people, the culture, it's never ending. Before I arrived, I had an expectation or mental image in my head about what the HIV centre in Kayamandi would be like and now that I'm here its a totally different picture to what I had expected. When you think HIV respite centre, you often think of a formal, reserved, hospital like scenario. However this Centre doesn't fit that description in my opinion. In my opinion it's not even a centre, I look at it as being as a house. A house where people come for rest, medication, food, and the Legacy staff speciality: care. I don’t look at Legacy as being a centre, it's more like a house and without sounding too cheesy it's a house with a family inside, a family made up of; sick people, carers, volunteers, gardeners, house keepers, nurses and more. It's not impersonal or over formal, it's a house where people are constantly talking, laughing, people are always in and out just to drop in and say hi. It's like any normal house, and clients see that, it has character, a personality which is happy, and peaceful and most of all; relaxed. It's a great place for people to rest and get better in. When you or I get sick, where is the place you want to go? Home, right? And HIV centre in Kayamandi is giving the best of both worlds by providing a home for people to get better in as well as care, medication, warmth, heat and friendship.

Times can be tough, people don't always get better and unfortunately some do pass away. Just last week, a young man came in but it was too late for a recovery, however, a few days later that young man's brother came in too say how thankful he was that his brother had come to the Legacy House. He had said he had been able to go to work knowing his brother was in good hands and wasn't in a cold shack, or by himself in a hospital, that man went to work knowing his brother was being looked after and was being cared for. So, is the HIV centre in Kayamandi making a difference? Most certainly, and I'm extremely happy to be a part of it.

Iyakubonana (goodbye in Xhosa!)

Gill

Count down

emily_pemily7 — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 08:55:48 +0000

Hi everyone! Hope you are all well! Nigeria is still a delightful muddle to me:) I feel like a count down has begun today as I was reminded of the date by one of the students in my computer class. Up until now I have been concentrating on the days of the week to forget the return to Ireland. Work is still so interesting!

In the past few weeks I feel that I have been given a few opportunities to see the treatment offered to some of the most vulnerable people in the area who are affected by HIV/AIDS.
I went to a city, Ibadan, about an hours drive away with people who were going to receive treatments or routine check ups. At the hospital I was taught how to carry out HIV tests, I learned the counseling service that is provided and I got a general insight into the care offered. I also went to visit the home of a patient with an psychiatric disability. This woman is being provided care by Living Hope Care (LIHOC) as she was raped and now has a very young baby. While some of these experiences sound harrowing, they are all set against the background of beautiful Nigerian mountains and the cahotic welcoming society.

So far I have been most struck by the difficulties faced by women who are positive and are pregnant. I have very privileged to have struck up a friendship with a young woman who recently gave birth to a beautiful little girl. From talking with this woman I have gained an insight into the economic difficullties which she faces. I have also been horrified by the stigmatization faced by peolpe living with HIV/AIDs, in this case, the stigmatization and abuse delivered by family members. It has been very frustrating to have to see a vulnerable new born baby be faced with the prospect of becoming infected because the cost of baby formula is too much. It is nothing short of a tragedy that ALL the donars donating baby formula to the state hospital in Ibadan have cut all funding for the project. There was no explanation given for this cutting of funds and the small stock the hospital had is quickly diminishing. It is so sad to witness how vulnerable babies are not afforded the 'luxury' of baby formula simply because they live in sub Saharan Africa. If a pregnant woman decides to breast feed her baby there, without taking ARV's correctly or at all, there is a one in three chance that the baby will transmit the virus. Even if she takes the ARV's the liklihood can be increased greatly if her nipples become cracked or infected. Without education on how to breast feed correctly this is very likely to occur.

Furthermore, having visited state hospitals and maternity clinics (free of charge) to deliver ARV's to new born babies and their mothers, I have seen some atrocious conditions in which some people have to accept medical care. I have really struggled with seeing these conditions and been overwhelmed by the personal stories of those who are delivering care- despite the enormous obstacles they face.

I have begun working on a training, that I will deliver early next week, on Child's Rights. This will be delivered to field officers and volunteers who work directly with children and will hopefull enable them to utilise more effective strategies to correct a child's behaviour rather than physically abusing children.

From these experiences I have learned that having access to information and education is an amazing gift (such teacher talk) and that we should never take this for granted. I am urging everyone to learn their HIV status and become educated on how they can either begin living positively (through diet, deciding whether or not to take ARV's) or protect themselves in order to remain negative. By becoming educating we are reducing the stigma attached to HIV/AIDs. This is the most disabling aspect of the virus and leaves the most vulnerable people in society even more vulnerable. This is true in Nigeria and from my brief introduction to HIV/AIDs in Ireland it is unfortunately true there too.

Before I begin the journey home I have (as usual) a million projects on the go. One of these is an information pamphlet for women who are positive and prgenant. Another is a very exciting vacation camp for orphans and vulnerable children (OVC's). This camp will be on for four days and there will be sixty teenagers attending. We are all going to be staying at a Church nearby and we've got loads of activites! Wohoo! Fingers crossed that it all works out really well.

Hope that you are all really well. I'm sorry for the lack of contact- my mobile phone is broken and internet access is a luxury and a test of patience. It will (brace yourselves) mean that I will be bombarding you all with a million and one stories of this adventure of a lifetime when I return.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank EIL for this amazing experience. I feel so honored to have been given the chance to have travelled all the way to Nigeria and to have been trusted by them to have worked in this dynamic and challenging setting.

Le gach dea-ghuí,

Emily

South Africa : Chicken feet for dinner?! Kayamandi so far..!

Gill Carter — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 13:39:52 +0000

Once I had got to the volunteer hostel in Cape Town I met lots of other volunteers,and ofcourse the generic volunteer conversation was had, this little almost interview like chat is generally to break the ice and to find out the core details. It goes along the lines of your name, where your from, how long you are here from and then; what project you are working on. Generally, I managed to get by the first 3 parts with no problems, I can say that most of the time, I succesfully managed to tell people my name, nationality and length of stay with absolutely no problems! Then when it got to the part aout my project and area, well, thats where things got difficult. All volunteers get a guilded tour around Kayamandi on their orientation week, its a township located one hour outside Cape Town and it hosts 33,000 people, many of whom are living in tin shacks. I told the fellow volunteers, most of whom had been in Cape Town for many weeks or months that I would be working in The Legacy Centre in Kayamandi. And so, when I announced to the volunteers that I would be working and living there, they were not only shocked but almost aired a sense of concern for me. Now, as you can guess, I was starting to freak out, all the other volunteers had seen Kayamandi and had passed on their comments about the poor conditions and poverty. I was the only volunteer in my group to be working out there too. To add to my situation I had heard that my host mother is known to sell and eat chicken feet. What had I got myself into!?

Im in Kayamandi over a week now, and I can say that all my fretting was over nothing. I love this place. My host family is so welcoming and friendly, I've made two new best friends with my host sister and host cousin; Lalita and Latita (although admitedly I do get their names mixed up sometimes!) I'm staying in a house which has running water and electricity, however next door isnt as lucky with only a tin shack as a house. Although it's not nice to see such poverty on a day to day basis it is nice to know that I'm seeing the reality of the situation. I dont have to go searching for what life in a poor township is really like because its right next door. Although I had my reservations to begin with, I know that living here in Kayamandi township is the greatest hing I could have done, it's encouraged me to make up my own mind and opinion, sometimes you just have to pay no attention to others.

When I arrived at the Centre there was so much going on, a woman had been bought in who was a past HIV positive client at the centre. She had been found after she had defaulted and had stopped taking her medication. Her shack was in beyond poor conditions with rain water running through the shack because there wasn't a proper floor. However, it wasnt just this one woman living in this small decreped shack, there was 5 children as young as 5 months too. Their clothes were torn and full of holes, they had no shoes and they were covered head to toe in dirt. Once they got to the centre they had to bathed 3 times to try get them clean, their father had gone and left them. Now, the children are living with members of their family such as aunts and uncles as their mother stays in the centre to go back onto her ARV's and to get some rest.

Our first reaction can sometimes be to blame the mother, accuse her that the children wernt being taken care of. However if we stand back and look at the situation what would each one of us do? What would you do if your partner had left you, you had no money, you lived in a shack, was HIV positive and had 5 children to try provide for even though you had no income, what could anyone do? We must try not to blame or think negatively but understand the situation and sympathise and try encourage. The mother is now in the legacy centre getting some care and some well deserved rest. She is back on her medication and hopefully in time will build up more strength and a better life for her andher children.

So, one week in, Im so glad I'm in Kayamandi.. and theres no sign of chicken feet on the menu yet!

Gill :)

Having the time of my life in Nigeria.

maevegalvin — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:32:39 +0000

I'm in the third week on the global awareness programme in Nigeria,Where to start? The area we are in and the country as a whole is like a cultural oasis. So many things like the food (incredibly spicy and eaten without cutlery), the customs (using your left hand for many things is rude), the transport (the main way of getting around is by motorcycle taxi and helmets are non-existent) and the conditions (electricity goes several times a day) are unlike anything we are used to. Yet we have become practically Nigerians in such a short time frame, neither of us want to leave in four weeks.

Our project is working in the HIV and AIDS NGO Living Hope Care in Ilesa which is the only source of support,care and information for thousands of people here. Work is tough in that hours are long and it can be frustrating working without resources and with a lot of delays but at the same time every day is different. I work in the HIV Care and Support Department and Emily works in the Orphans and Vulnerable Children Department. I've been giving talks to groups such as such as students and policemen. My work is also to develop a programme to work with female sex workers and educate them about HIV. We are trying to build up a trust with the women and we've ended up giving lectures and female condom demos in front of their customers, whom we found were mostly young guys, studenty types. Stigma against people who are postive and sheer lack of education about HIV are some the most severe obstacles, I did a talk just this evening to a group of teachers, when I was finished, one lady asked me whethere HIV was airborn. As well the difficullty people who are positive face accessing drugs. Twice a week our organisation brings those who need to collect their drugs on a two hour journey to pick them up because that is the nearest place to get them and most can't afford transport. The bus cannot be marked with the HIV logo and it leaves at 6am so that others cannot see them because of stigma. Stigma and ignorance among health care workers is one of the most uncomfortable things we have witnessed. They aren't given any training on HIV and many refuse to treat people including pregnant women who are postive.

So that's a brief update on Nigeria. Outside of work, the culure is incredible and the people have been overwhelmingly welcoming. Everyday I am excited to be here and the way of lifelife is going to be seriously diffiult to recover from. Watch this space.

Keep on Blogging!!!

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 09:05:09 +0000

I have been TOLD to keep on blogging! So I have set up another blog for while I am in SA and working on my thesis on HIV & AIDS and Nutrition....here is the link...http://bit.ly/9S9he7...

Volunteer Pre-departure workshop June 2010

Caterina Totaro — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:24:11 +0000

On Saturday the 19th of June, 30 new outgoing volunteers participated in the EIL pre-departure workshop.

The volunteers were welcomed by Maria and Louise, past volunteers in Mexico and Guatemala, and EIL staff, Anton and Caterina.

During the workshop the volunteers had the opportunity to increase their knowledge and understanding of the interconnectedness of the world locally and globally . The workshop also included contributions from returned volunteers (Marie, Louise and Aedin) sharing their experiences on living with a host family and how to deal with culture shock and other fun activities that helped prepare participants for their programmes.

The EIL staff wish you all good luck with your project!

A chat with Paul Quinn, one of the Global Awareness Volunteer on his way to South Africa

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:45:29 +0000

Hi Paul, first of all, can you introduce yourself, where you are from, what you do?

My name is Paul Quinn, I’m 25, I’m from Cavan but I’ve been living in Dublin for about eight years. At the moment I’m doing my PhD in UCD, studying Politics and International Relations.

Next month you're going to South Africa as part of the Global Awareness Programme. Are you excited about that? Is that your first volunteer abroad experience?

Yea I can’t wait, its going to be an amazing experience. The programme provides a great opportunity to work on the ground on a developmental project, to learn a lot more about the affects of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, while being completely immersed in a new culture. I’m really looking forward to integrating into the community as much as I can, experiencing the food and culture, and hopefully learning a little bit of Xhosa as well, although I think it might take me a while to get the clicks!

I travelled to Nigeria with EIL last year, where I volunteered on a human rights project. The whole experience was unbelievable. My main role involved researching and preparing a report on “The Human Rights Issues of People Living with HIV/AIDS” in Osogbo City which meant visiting hospitals, clinics and support groups, listening to peoples experiences and interviewing others. It’s difficult to even begin to comprehend the issues people in those communities face, but they’re still incredibly grateful for everything they have. I also got the chance to help on an educational needs assessment programme for military wives and a programme for Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC’s). I learned a lot from my experience in Nigeria but I know I barely even scratched the surface of the issues people face in the global south.

Why did you decide to apply for this programme and what are you expecting from this volunteer experience?

While I was in Nigeria and after I returned I spoke with last years global awareness participants, it seemed like they had a great experience. They were all really passionate about the programmes they worked on and learned loads. I became more involved with EIL and the development education committee as well. I think when you see how passionate other people are, it’s a bit infectious, that’s probably why I’ve ended up going on the programme this year.

It’s hard to know what to expect, even though I volunteered on a human rights project last year, South Africa will be completely different, culturally, linguistically and every other way. We have done some training on ‘Understanding HIV in Development and Community Responses’ in preparation for our work which has already taught me more and its given a new perspective on a lot of issues. I think the whole experience will make me more informed so when return I will be able to share my experience and help inform others, that’s my aim anyway.

On your return to Ireland, you will be leading an Awareness Raising Campaign. What do you think about making your community more aware of HIV&AIDS issues? How important do you think public action is?

I think the awareness raising part of the programme is probably the most important. While we can definitely make a positive contribution to the project in two months, in the long term awareness raising creates something sustainable. It gives us the opportunity to share our experience and challenge the misconceptions that are out there. Making people more informed is probably the best way to tackle stigma and discrimination and promote better understanding.

Predicament

Lynda Piper-Roche — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 09:10:08 +0000

A few days ago I was talking nutritional therapy with a guy who told me that he never gets sick, bar a strange case of swollen glands etc. that wiped him out for a few days....if he is positive he may not get any other symptoms for approximately 10 years. Initial stage (acute retroviral syndrome) Acute retroviral syndrome is an illness with symptoms like mononucleosis. It often develops within a few days of infection, but it may occur several weeks after the person is infected. Symptoms may include: Abdominal cramps, nausea, or vomiting. Diarrhea. Enlarged lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, and groin. Fever. Headache. Muscle aches and joint pain. Skin rash. Sore throat. Weight loss. Do I (A) suggest to him that he go get tested for HIV or (B) not say anything? Source: www.webmd.com

Teacher to work on Nigerian Aids programme

Caterina Totaro — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:40:23 +0000

On June 4th, 2010 The Clare Champion covered Emily Price's story in the article "Teacher to work on Nigerian Aids programme". Emily is one of the winners of EIL Travel Awards 2010 an will travel to Nigeria as part of EIL’s Global Awareness Programme.

ENNIS primary school teacher, Emily Price will be travelling to Nigeria in three weeks with another volunteer to work on a HIV and Aids awareness programme.

During her eight-week stay in Nigeria, she will be living with a local host family and will be facilitated by local community projects to carry out diverse HIV and Aids work.
“I will be based in the city of Ilesa in the south-west of Nigeria and will be working with local NGOs and in a HIV clinic,” said Emily, who has been teaching at Kilmurry National School, near Sixmilebridge.
“I was awarded the place as part of EIL’s Global Awareness Programme. EIL Intercultural Learning is an Irish not-for-profit organisation, which provides intercultural learning opportunities for about 2,000 people annually. EIL aims to enrich lives and to inspire global citizenship,” said explained.
While abroad, she hopes to collect personal stories from the people she meets and to learn about people’s experience of living with HIV or Aids.
“From my training to date, I have learned that education and action are necessary to achieve positive changes for people living with HIV and Aids.
“In gaining this first-hand experience, I will be enabled to share my stories with others on my return and encourage people to take action and to challenge the stigma and stereotypes, which face people living with HIV and Aids,” she said.
“I have no doubt that I will hear many touching and harrowing life stories while in Nigeria and hope that in recounting these stories, people will realise the extent of social consequences, as well as medical, facing people living with HIV and Aids. In addition, I can’t wait to experience the rich diverseness of Nigerian life and, above all, to connect with the people I meet there.”
Emily is extremely excited about the prospect of becoming involved with the awareness-raising campaign.
“I feel that this will be the most worthwhile aspect of my volunteering experience. It seems to me that greatest challenge facing people living with HIV and Aids in Ireland at present is stigma, which they face from the general public and institutions.
“Upon return, I hope to attempt to eliminate the stigma and the associated misconceptions about HIV and Aids among those I meet,” she said.
Emily feels people can, and should, show solidarity towards the millions living with HIV and Aids in the world by becoming informed.
“Education is key in challenging the stigma associated with HIV and Aids and also in reducing the transmission of the virus. I believe that we have a duty to use our voice to influence government policies, to inform our friends and to treat our brothers and sisters all over the world with the dignity and respect that we wish for ourselves.
“I hope to work towards a future where we can create an environment of hope and acceptance for people living with HIV and Aids,” she said.
Emily leaves for Nigeria on June 22.

A chat with Emily Price, Global Awareness Volunteer 2010 on her way to Nigeria

Caterina Totaro — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:27:10 +0000

Hi Emily! First of all, can you introduce yourself, where you are from, what you do?

Hey! My name is Emily. I’m from Clare, but I’m off to Nigeria in 21 days! I’m working as a primary school teacher and can’t wait to share this experience with everyone when I come home!

Next month you're going to Nigeria as part of the Global Awareness Programme. Are you excited about that? Is that your first volunteer abroad experience?

I’m so excited about the amazing experience I’ve been offered! I was lucky enough to volunteer in India several years ago, and can’t wait to have, what I’m sure will be, another humbling and eye-opening experience. I feel really lucky to have been chosen to become involved with EIL. I’m really excited about the work which I will become involved with on return. I feel that my commitment to the organization will focus all my energy and make this opportunity really worthwhile.

Why did you decide to apply for this programme and what are you expecting from this volunteer experience?

I believe that education and action are vital elements to carry about positive global changes for people living with HIV and AIDS. I feel that the opportunity to travel to Nigeria will both educate me in this global issue and, provide me with a first step in taking action. In gaining this first hand experience, I will be enabled to share my stories with others on return and encourage people to take action and to challenge the stigma and stereotypes which face people living with HIV and AIDS.

I think it is more about global change than personal. I have no doubt that I will hear many touching and harrowing life stories while abroad. I also look forward to learning from local people, how they are working together to deal with this epidemic. I hope that in sharing these stories that people will realize the social as well as the medical, consequences facing people living with HIV and AIDS. I can’t wait to experience the rich diverseness of Nigerian life and above all to connect with the people I meet there!

I am extremely excited about the prospect of becoming involved with the awareness raising campaign. I feel that this will be the most worthwhile aspect of my volunteering experience. It seems to me that one of the greatest challenge facing people living with HIV and AIDS in Ireland at present is the stigma which they face from the general public. Upon my return, I intend to use the knowledge I’ve gained from my trip to work to eliminate the stigma and the associated misconceptions about HIV & AIDS among those I meet through education.

I feel that we can and should show solidarity towards the millions living with HIV and AIDS in the world by becoming informed. Education is key in challenging the stigma associated with HIV and AIDS, and also in reducing the transmission of the virus. I believe that we have a duty to use our voice to influence government policies, to inform our friends and to treat our brothers and sisters all over the world with the dignity and respect that we wish for ourselves. I hope to work towards a future where we can create an environment of hope and acceptance for people living with HIV and AIDS.

GAP volunteer Maeve Galvin interviewed on East Coast FM

Piers Meynell — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:07:14 +0000

East Coast FM's Declan Meehan interviewed Maeve Galvin discussing her thoughts and expectations on taking part in EIL's Global Awareness Programme. After training here in Ireland Maeve will be travelling to Nigeria in late June to work on the ground with local NGOs. On her return to she'll spread awareness of HIV&AIDS issues here in Ireland.

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A chat with Gill Carter, one of the Global Awareness Volunteer on her way to South Africa

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 31 May 2010 17:42:27 +0000

Hi Gill, first of all, can you introduce yourself, where you are from, what you do?

Hi there! I’m Gill, I’m 20 and I’m one of the lucky ones heading to South Africa. I’m originally from a village just outside Mullingar but have fled the coop and am currently studying down in UCC, Cork. I absolutely love everything about the place and am studying International Development and Food Policy. I’m just finished my first year and have had an excellent time studying a course based around the world of development.

Next month you're going to South Africa as part of the Global Awareness Programme. Are you excited about that? Is that your first volunteer abroad experience?

Excitement is an understatement! I still can’t believe it! It’s not even just the 9 weeks volunteering that I’m excited about though, I can’t wait to start the awareness part and to get thrown into to it all, it’s going to be a great experience and I truly cannot wait for it to begin! I’ve had some volunteer experience before, two years ago I went to rural Romania with a youth group to work in a disability centre and community project, it was great but was really only a taster of volunteering because it was for a short period, I find it good to have a little experience behind me so I have some knowledge on what to expect but I cant wait to go to South Africa simply because the project is so unbelievably interesting and worthwhile. I can’t wait to get out there and get stuck into it all!

Why did you decide to apply for this programme and what are you expecting from this volunteer experience?

After a year studying about development issues it makes you realise that the only way to combat poverty and its related issues is to take action. I decided that I wanted to get first hand experience; I wanted to understand how people live in undeveloped countries, I had done so much reading and research so when I saw the Global Awareness programme I knew it would be the best opportunity to experience everything I had studied. I also wanted to make the most of my summer, I wanted to feel accomplishment and satisfaction that I had done something for the summer.

I’m expecting to learn and to be educated, I expect to experience a totally new and different culture and to be honest, I can’t wait! I really expect to be a little changed on my return, hopefully more realistic and experienced as a person. I look forward to learning and getting stuck in which will hopefully make me even more passionate about my studies and other elements of my life. In short, I anticipate to be challenged, to grow and eventually encourage others to do the same.

I am so excited about the awareness raising element of this programme, I feel it will be just as rewarding as the volunteering in South Africa because it so relevant in our own culture too. I anticipate to do a lot of awareness raising about HIV&AIDS around my college, I think this is important and will be a great success as student are often quite open-minded and eager to get involved with campaigns. If we can try eliminate stigma and the associated misconceptions about HIV & AIDS when people are at college it can make for a more unprejudiced and understanding society in the future.

The importance for public action is beyond words, people need to unite, and power is in numbers after all and so the more people taking action the better. Public action is so important in order to break down the barriers that already exist and to build a society which see’s the real situation of HIV/AIDS. People joining together and doing something no matter how big or small is a step in the right direction to realise that HIV/AIDS is not only an issue in the developing world, it is an issue for the here and now, the me and you.

A chat with Maeve Galvin, Global Awareness Volunteer 2010 on her way to Nigeria

Caterina Totaro — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:59:53 +0000

Hi Meave! First of all, can you introduce yourself, where you are from, what you do?

My name is Maeve Galvin, I’m 24 years-old and from the lovely seaside town of Bray Co. Wicklow. At the moment I’m doing a Masters in Development Studies in DCU. I also work part time as a News Reporter for the Evening Herald.

Next month you're going to Nigeria as part of the Global Awareness Programme. Are you excited about that? Is that your first volunteer abroad experience?

Excited beyond belief! I have gotten my hands on a load of books and I’m doing best to learn everything I can about Nigeria before I go. I feel incredibly fortunate to have gotten a place on this programme. I’m literally counting the days. Although I’ve done a lot of volunteer work in Ireland, I’ve really wanted to volunteer abroad for years. I never had the opportunity until now which makes it all the more exciting for me.

Why did you decide to apply for this programme and what are you expecting from this volunteer experience?

My main reason for applying for this programme was I felt a huge draw to the fact that it focuses on awareness. I really wanted to find an opportunity to use my skills as a journalist for something that I feel utterly passionate about. It’s been said that the most effective weapon we have at our disposal to fight HIV and AIDS is education and awareness creation. I really believe in communication as a catalyst for change and this programme is a wonderful opportunity to use it to its full potential.

I’ve no doubt that the volunteer experience will be challenging at times but my aim is for the challenging aspects of it to be what motivates me and pushes me to work incredibly hard while there and also to maximise awareness about HIV and AIDS at home. I also think that it will be an incredible adventure. I am someone who really enjoys immersing themselves in a new culture. I’m really excited to experience food, weather, customs and culture completely different from what I’m used to. Although it can be daunting I think that it’s a great thing to be put out of your comfort zone and to be encouraged to try new things. I’m expecting to learn and experience a great deal, to use to my skills to best of my ability and to hopefully make a strong contribution to the ongoing fight against HIV and AIDS.

I think that it is absolutely crucial to raise awareness about HIV and AIDS within my community. I’ve been engaging with people on the subject in advance of going to Nigeria and I really feel that it is frightening that the issue is dominated by so much stigma, misinformation and just plain lack of awareness. There is a vital need to bring the issue to people’s attention again as it seems to have somehow fallen off the media and political agenda here. Collective action is incredibly important as a reminder that HIV and AIDS is not simply Africa’s problem. At least one person is now diagnosed HIV positive in Ireland every day. At the moment people are really shocked when they hear this but I really feel that this needs to be made common knowledge so that we can fight against the rising number of HIV and AIDS in this country.

Aside from the increasing figures, stigma is an enormous obstacle for those living with HIV and AIDS. This, along with misinformation is an ongoing problem in this country. For example, last year an Equality Tribunal found that a HIV positive man wasn’t given basic treatment because of his illness. Such discrimination is utterly irrational and the best way for us to stamp it out is with proper communication and education in our communities. Now more than ever, is an especially pressing time to raise awareness in the community. HIV and AIDS services are said to be under severe pressure because of cutbacks. I think public action is the most effective way of ensuring their survival and before we do that we need to make people aware of the dire need for these services. Public action is also the best way of encouraging our government to continue to provide incentives and funding for programmes including that of medical researchers working on treatments for the disease.

Volunteering on an individual programme in New Delhi, Aedin Clynes

Caterina Totaro — Thu, 13 May 2010 09:41:00 +0000

After finishing university, I had some time on my hands and decided to look into some teaching work in India. With the help of Anton and the EIL team, I set off to New Delhi to volunteer in a school for disadvantaged, disabled children.

The school is in Vasant Kunj, a wealthy suburb of Delhi. The children are anything but wealthy; they come from large, low-income families. The “Special Wing” caters for children with serious learning difficulties and also has a class for deaf children. The rest of the school has children from nursery level right up to 17 year-olds, many of whom are in wheelchairs or have leg-braces due to polio. Polio remains a serious problem in only 4 countries in the World and is a completely preventable disease, which made the experience all the more heart-breaking. The children were beautiful. They were friendly and welcoming to me, kind and patient with each other. They were excited to learn and, despite all odds, they were the happiest children I’ve ever come across. They never complained about their physical or financial situations, and while reading the Mr. Men books I brought over, the children identified most with the character of Mr. Happy!

I took several grades for English classes and helped the Maths teacher in Grade 2 and I really enjoyed the teaching. Every morning I literally jumped out of bed, eager to start the day – which, believe me, is completely out-of-character! I wanted to spend all my time at the school, with the children and the other volunteers - if I’d been asked to work a 6 day week, I would have gladly accepted. After a few weeks, I also started working with smaller groups of students who needed some extra help with their reading and writing. This was fun and rewarding for both me and the students and within a few days their English and confidence had improved hugely. They had never received individual academic attention, and several of them had previously un-noticed dyslexia, which was obviously holding them back. I think of these children every day because we formed such a close bond those afternoons spent playing English learning games.

India’s capital, New Delhi was as most people describe it: busy, crowded and polluted. However, for me it was home, and I grew very fond of the city. True, there were some hair-raising, near-death experiences (usually involving the crazy auto-drivers!), and obviously, the class differences were a huge shock to the system, but overall it was a great place to be! I stayed with a host family, with Mrs. Singh. She took great care of me throughout the programme, and I felt very at home. It was nice to have someone looking out for you and making sure that you were home safely every evening. Afternoons and weekends were spent haggling in the vibrant bustling markets, sampling the sizzling street food, relaxing in the quiet parks and gardens, visiting ancient Temples, Mosques, galleries and museums. We had our fortunes told, our henna done, our souls blessed - there was so much to see and do, never a dull moment in Delhi! Everyone I met was friendly and welcoming – both acquaintances and strangers alike. Out and about in the city, people did stare, but it was out of curiosity and I never felt threatened or unsafe.

Living and volunteering in India was the best experience of my life so far. It was exciting, rewarding, eye-opening, vibrant, fun and challenging. I will hold and cherish the memory of the enthusiastic happy faces of the children in my heart forever. My one regret was not staying longer!

I'm getting on great here in Vietnam!

Caterina Totaro — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:48:45 +0000

Fiona Kelly is currently on a 8 weeks volunteering programme in Vietnam. She wrote us to share her experience with us.

I'm getting on great here in Vietnam! I'm working in a government run orphanage for children with special needs. There are approx 400 children in the orphanage and I work with about 30 of them.

All of the children I work with have cerebral palsy; some more severe than others. Only one child can walk (with assistance) and the majority of the children are unable to sit up themselves and so spend almost all day lying in their cots. My daily routine involves feeding the children both in the morning and again in the afternoon. I spend the rest of the time playing with them.

The carers who look after them are very overworked and they have no time to play with the children. I try to take the children outside to play every day as it gives them a chance to get out of their cots. We throw a ball around, draw pictures, listen to music, read books together and play in the playground!

Every day is a lot of fun as the children absolutely love getting time to play and get so hyper and excited as soon as I take them out of their cots! I'm really enjoying getting to know these amazing children and it's so great to see how much they like us being there - I'm greeted every morning by claps and cheers from the children as soon as I walk into the room!!

Life in Vietnam outside the orphanage is also going well. It did take a while for me to adapt but I'm really settled in now. We are living in a volunteer house just outside the city centre. The house is located in a very local community so the presence of foreigners is a huge novelty and we get a lot of attention from the locals all the time! The local people are great; very friendly and helpful and very eager to become friends with us! The house is quite nice, it's similar to a youth hostel; common area, kitchen and 4 people sharing a bedroom. The house is very well located; 30 minutes away from the orphanage (15 min walk to bus and 15/20 mins on bus) and we're about 20/25 mins away from the city centre by bus. It's a really busy neighbourhood and there are also lots of shops and restaurants close by.

As my time here is coming to an end I'm in the process of writing up profiles on each of the children for future volunteers. I'm putting together details such as how to communicate with the children, tips for feeding them and what games they like to play. It has been a lot of fun preparing these profiles as I've realised how well I've gotten to know them over the last 2 months and the children have really enjoyed getting their profile pictures taken as well!

I'm attaching a few photos from the orphanage and of our house.

Fiona.

I'm half way through the programme already!?

Caterina Totaro — Thu, 06 May 2010 14:29:27 +0000

Martin Campion form Co Cork is on a 12 weeks programme in Vietnam and is sharing is experience with us:

Things are going good here, I can’t believe I'm half way through the programme already, the volunteers are all doing well.

The volunteer house in Ho Chi Minh City is located about 3 km from downtown, It is a large 3 storey residence with 1 bedroom that sleeps 4 and a bathroom with a shower on each floor, we usually dine together and chat about what happened that day, there's a nice easy going vibe here, I'm sure life gets a tad uncomfortable when it's full but none of us have experienced that yet, you get to know you're way around the locality so going out for whatever you need is easy and enjoyable a lot of the time. Occasionally we share a taxi and go out for dinner, It’s good to meet up with other volunteers and of course sometimes the local Vietnamese volunteers join us.

I have great admiration for the local Vietnamese volunteers, it's good of them to give up some free time for such a good cause and they are so cheerful and friendly, I'm looking forward to catching up with a bunch of them the next night they arrange a night out and they are very helpful in the orphanage as they can translate what the nurses want to convey and of course share what they know already know themselves.

Ho Chi MInh City is a very busy city and the natives never seem to stop working, They are very friendly too, calling out to you as you pass by as there isn’t too many westerners in this area,school kids get a great kick when you say hello.

The orphanages are about a half hour bus and walk from the hostels, traffic is crazy, it's actually kind of amusing, the Pagoda called Ky Quang is quiet beautiful really, fairly elaborate with fountains and lots of Buddha statues, nice view of the surrounding area as it's 6 floors high, the care centres for the kids are just off the Pagoda, it's a very nice setting, a lot of the kids like to get out and walk around.

The greatest admiration goes to the nurses I meet looking after the children at the Ky Quang Pagoda as they live on the premises and work virtually 7 days a week for such a small wage, how they keep sane I don’t know, unfortunately we can’t communicate so well with the language barrier so there's a lot of pointing and gesturing going on.

I give English lessons 3 mornings a week in Tan Binh district, at a shelter for abandoned or orphaned boys, A local volunteer collects me and assists me in the classroom. There are 12 in the class ranging from 5 to 18, they're a rowdy bunch but they're fantastic really, some of them are extremely bright and some have a great sense of humour. The other mornings and afternoons I visit the monk run Ky Quang pagoda to play with and feed mentally and physically handicapped children, I seem to have been designated one individual boy since I started volunteering there,his name is Khi,he's 17 years old and has been at the pagoda since he was 7, he doesn’t speak and doesn’t communicate much but I think he's a lot smarter than he lets on, We usually walk around outside first for some exercise where he will pick up shiny pieces of candy wrappers if he can find some, occasionally a big smile spreads across his face and he might laugh a little for an instant, he isn’t bothered when other children get rough with him and take whatever shiny items he's found outside, he loves his food and is easy to feed, he prefers to look away than make eye contact but when he does you can see something special. Of course there's some other great characters who are more playful and others who will hug and hold you others that like to play jigsaw games and others that you can’t get to know as they have severe disabilities but it's a fantastic experience for me.

I haven’t met anyone that regretted visiting Vietnam as a volunteer, there's been emotional farewells here as you will become attached to the children, it's good to know that with donations over the years improvements have been made at this pagoda, simple things like beds, toys, medicine and a washing machine have made life a bit easier for all concerned but especially the nurses who live on the premises and work 7 days a week.

I would recommend any volunteer coming here to be open minded, to be prepared for the humidity and the chaotic traffic, to be mindful of the different culture, to accept customs and the way the Vietnamese live, they will have a great time, there is much to enjoy with these hard working, friendly, resilient people. I would recommend this programme to everyone, while it may seem you're not having much of an impact you're presence to interact and feed the children takes pressure off the staff and you feel appreciated.

Perhaps some lines in this message will be useful to people considering taking up a voluntary programme with you guys at EIL, all the best for now, Slainte and suas Corcaigh!

EIL Network Weekend

Caterina Totaro — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 17:36:29 +0000

The weekend began when we all arrived to the YMCA on Aungier Street from the various outposts of Ireland such as Cork, Tralee or Trinity in the case of a few to start the Network Weekend. The April network is always hectic as it is Travel Awards season. We barely had time for a quick hello with old friends and a friendly chat to new faces when the candidates arrived and the welcome began. Quick diving into our groups and we were on our way. Each group started with activities and icebreakers then we broke for a quick lunch and chat over some super sandwiches in rather elegant boxes and then back to the interview stage. For the first-time interviewers its difficult trying to choose candidates for the older hands, its only just that little bit easier and sometime you wish you could give more awards than we have to give. Then we did the feel good bit, were we all sat in some hippy circle, I am sure it was because they had put the chairs way and we announced the winners of each award. Once the winners were announced and it was ‘out, out, out’ as we scrambled to get our room keys and dinner orders and it was off to the hostel and then to dinner.

After dinner, we headed to Trinity, were poor Mark had been slaving away behind the scenes to get the film all set up. We had a choice of two films and opted for Born into Brothers, a heart-rending film about the children of prostitutes in Calcutta’s Red-light District. We saw the stories of several children face abject poverty with little to no chance of escaping the stigma of their mothers work. After the film, it was off to bed!

After an incredibly early start, we headed to Trinity for the workshops. As soon as the coffee kicked in we began. We had two excellent speakers, each of whom treated the issues of Human Trafficking and sexual exploitation sensitively, and informatively. We discussed the ideas around trafficking, heard stories about VoT’s (Victims of Trafficking) and there was a real engagement amongst the network on concepts such as legalising prostitution, closing borders to stop trafficking or what we though how one could address the roots causes of trafficking and exploitation. Inspired from the workshop we begin to prepare for our traditional street action. The street action drew plenty attention with our blindfolded participants spelling out STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING.

After the street action, we headed for a lovely lunch at the Drury Court Hotel where I had the most delicious meatballs in my life… well maybe after the vegetarian dinner the night before at Juice, I just craved meat! After being fed and watered, the inevitable happened, time for hugs and goodbyes. As the EIL staff rushed for the cork train, the rest of the group petered out, happy from another successful EIL Weekend.

Yahoooooooooo!!

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:13:32 +0000

I have just booked my flights to Cape Town!! So happy!! July the 8th I head off, I think the World Cup final is on the 11th....

As part of my research I plan to shadow nutritionists from the:

Treatment Action Campaign,

Desmond Tutu Foundation,

Medecins sans Frontieres,

Red Cross South Africa

and the local clinics and hospitals in and around Cape Town...

...and then spend a month in Lusikisiki with Friends in Ireland. John Clark and Marion Finucane recommended a really great book 'Three Letter Plague: A young man's journey though a great epidemic' by Jonny Steinberg, an eye opener into understanding why people might not get tested in order to know their status, it is a powerful read and is based on real people in Lusikisiki, it will be fantastic to get to experience rural South Africa.

The next blog I write WILL be my last :) but I will send a link to my new blog...if I decide to create one!

What a difference a year makes

Ciara Cunningham — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 14:39:57 +0000

I haven’t been very good for posting blogs. Lynda’s are so informative and interesting I sit back and let her do all the work! I have learned so much from her over the past few months and I am so grateful to EIL for being paired with such a passionate and knowledgeable travel partner.

What a difference a year makes. When I think back to this time last year I was working in a job in Dublin that I hated with little knowledge of anything to do with HIV / AIDS. Being honest, I couldn’t distinguish between the two back then! It was only after I visited the Irish Aid centre that I heard about the Global Awareness Programme and started researching for the essay that I ignited an interest in the area. The subject of HIV /AIDS is so broad and complex that every time you read something, you learn something new and it’s like a snowball effect – the more you learn, the more you want to learn.

From our initial training with Aine Costigan of Dtalk I knew it was subject that I would have an interest in for a long time to come. To think that there are so many misinformed opinions about an illness, which is by all accounts now a chronic illness, is heart breaking. I recently read a book by an Irish woman who documented her life from before she contracted HIV to the present day. It was a very brave and truthful account of the stigma and discrimination she and her children endured in Ireland. It was painful to read of the downright ignorance of many people in Ireland. We boast of our educated workforce and how far we have come yet it many ways we really know very little and have a very long way to go…especially in the fight against HIV / AIDS.

Like Lynda, I am hoping to continue working in this area…be it as a career or just as a volunteer in local organisations. We are both in the process of completing a certificate in Understanding HIV / AIDS, something I never thought would happen this time last year. The experience I had in South Africa was truly life changing, from visiting local communities (townships), to experiencing living with local people to caring for the most helpless and adorable children. I learned so much about other cultures and about HIV / AIDS.

I wish all the 2010 GAP applicants the very best of luck. It doesn’t matter what your background is, or how much you know now, once you are interested and a passionate you can do so much to help. The next year will be the greatest learning curve for the lucky winners.

* The aforementioned book is “Still Standing” by Liz Martin and is available from AIDS West

Marion Finucane

Lynda Piper-Roche — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 20:18:04 +0000

I met Marion Finucane and John Clark for lunch last week, they run an organisation called Friends in Ireland (www.friendsinireland.ie) and they are very passionate and do incredible work in the Eastern Cape with positive children and children affected by HIV. I am thinking about going and working with them for a year or two, which would be an incredible experience, living in rural South Africa.

Certificate in HIV & AIDS!

Lynda Piper-Roche — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:21:12 +0000

Just last week, Ciara and I began a HIV & AIDS Certificate. AIDS West (Galway) are facilitating it and a team from the Terrence Higgins Trust are delivering it. It is a three month course and will give me my very first qualification in the area. Like the HIV & AIDS training the GAP participants received from Dtalk last June before we went to Africa, I loved every second of it, I NEVER talk in class but you could not shut me up!!

It was incredible to observe from the beginning of the course how little some people knew about HIV & AIDS and how their attitudes and opinions changed even after learning a few basic facts about HIV in the first session. It also increased their understanding of the power that the stigma has on 'positive' people. So, in my usual naive way, I recommend that everyone learn a little about HIV, the difference that it would make because the stigma is the biggest issue surrounding HIV & AIDS could be instrumental in tackling the pandemic.

I met some 'positive' people last week, and I learned of the stigma and discrimination that they experience in the developed world, the developing world has a looooooooooooooooooong way to go!

Travel Award Deadline Fast Approaching

Brendan Kelleher — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:14:12 +0000

The deadline for submitting your application form for this years Travel Awards is fast approaching. 5pm March 26th. Mark the date in your diary and don't miss out on what could be an experience that might change your life. Good luck to everybody. For more information click here

Mmm...

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:47:51 +0000

I am a great believer in alternative medicines. Anyone that knows me, knows my stance on the pharmaceutical industry. I am a nutritional therapy student, who believes in homeopathy, herbal remedies... I could go on. However, the introduction of ARVs has been instrumental in the treatment of HIV & AIDS.

Unfortunately though, not enough people have access to the medications.

Within my current Master's in Humanitarian Action (in UCD), I am considering undertaking my thesis on the effects that certain foods have on the immune system, in an effort to not only help the people with access to medication, but also, and especially, for those who do not. I do believe that there is a lot that a healthy diet can do for a HIV+ person's CD4 count....and by healthy I mean cutting out things like sugar and animal protein - immune suppressing foods (I am following this myself by the way - how can I recommend such changes if I have not made them/experienced them for myself?).

Problem: The one issue I have come across in my nutrition studies is that 50% of sick people will do anything (eat whatever I recommend etc. in order to get well) and the other 50% just could not be bothered...how to overcome that is something I would love to know!

Problem two: Food security in developing countries.

Another problem: I do not want to be seen as another 'Dr. Beetroot' (Manto - ex South African health minister). She recommended garlic, lemons and beetroot as an alternative to ARVs and as a result scores of people came off their medication and subsequently died. But I do believe that nutritional changes can help people before they need medication and while they are on it.

There are a lot of people out there doing really positive things in the area of HIV & AIDS research, in fact they have devoted themselves and they may not be taken seriously (in my humble opinion) because of the unwielding power of the pharmaceutical industry. Look at Dr. Roger Short or Jim Humble to name but a few....I have a lot more research to do, but I intend to use my expertise and research to HELP HIV+ people to live as well as they can for as long as they can. Witnessing a person die from AIDS is devastating and if I can help to relieve or delay that...

I am going back to SA this summer to do an internship and to write my thesis (and hopefully take a HIV & AIDS course in UWC). In a few weeks I will also be undertaking a Certificate in HIV & AIDS with AIDS West and Ciara is going to join me - and if it is anything like the training that Aine Costigan gave us via Dtalk, which was excellent and totally inspiring, then I cannot wait.

Did you know...

Lynda Piper-Roche — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:27:41 +0000

...that there is a connection between HIV and other STIs/STDs*? That your risk of contracting HIV is higher if you have an STI/STD...

Some STIs e.g. syphilis and herpes can cause irritation, breaks or sores of the skin. These can provide a route for HIV to enter the body during sexual contact.

There is also a risk for transmission even when an STI e.g. chlamydia or gonorrhea causes no breaks or open sores. These infections can stimulate an immune response in the genital area that can make HIV transmission more likely.

In addition, if an HIV-infected person is also infected with another STI that person is 3 to 5 times more likely than other HIV-infected people to transmit HIV to others through sexual contact.

STIs/STDs are on the increase in Ireland. And it is estimated that there could be 2000 people living with HIV in Ireland who do not know they are infected. So it is advisable to get checked for any STIs/STDs....

STI - sexually transmitted infection

STD - sexually transmitted disease

Anyone heard about the Ray Brothers....?

Lynda Piper-Roche — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:28:25 +0000

Ricky (1977-1992), Robert (1978-2000) and Randy (1979) were three brothers from Arcadia, Florida. All three were haemophiliacs who were diagnosed with HIV in 1986. It is thought that the boys had been exposed to the virus through the transfusion of blood products administered to treat their haemophilia.

In 1986, the brothers were prohibited from attending class, after the local school board had been notified of their condition. The Rays had then sued, citing doctors who said the boys posed no threat to other children. Almost a year later, a federal judge ordered the boys be readmitted to school.

After the Ray family won the court case, a week of bomb and death threats ensued. Although the Rays were victorious in their legal battle, the Ray home was burned down a week after the 1987 decision, forcing the family to leave their hometown.

Ricky died in 1992, aged 15. Robert was 22 when he passed away in 2000. Their father, Clifford Ray, attempted suicide after succumbing to the ordeal but is doing fine now. Randy Ray, who will be 29 this year, lives in Orlando, and manages his HIV through medication. His younger sister Candy, 26, also lives in Orlando.

The "Ricky Ray Haemophilia Relief Fund Act" was established to offer compensation to people with haemophilia who were infected with HIV through contaminated blood products between 1982-1987.

The media coverage following the burning and activism of the Ray family is often considered a signal event in the history of HIV & AIDS in the USA.

Promiscuity, the polio vaccine and HIV

Lynda Piper-Roche — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:37:37 +0000

When I chat with people about the prevelance of HIV & AIDS in Africa, usually their first response is to suggest that Africans are more promiscuous than Westerners. Columnist Kevin Myers, in the Irish Independent newspaper, described Africa as “almost an entire continent of sexually hyperactive indigents..." however, research highlighted by Helen Epstein in her comprehensive account of HIV & AIDS "The Invisible Cure" demonstrates that over the course of their lifetimes; the 'average' African has no more sexual partners than the 'average' Westerner.

Myers also stated that:"Africa is giving nothing to anyone – apart from AIDS ”. There are many theories on the original source of the virus, and while this may never be discovered, the reasons for its spread are necessary in order to combat the stigma surrounding HIV & AIDS.

The polio vaccine theory as the primary cause of HIV was first brought to light in a 1992 Rolling Stone article and was then expanded by former BBC journalist Edward Hooper in a 1999 book, titled "The River: A Journey Back to the Source of HIV and AIDS."

Evidence has shown that the original vaccine was not the primary cause of HIV but it has not ruled out that it may have fuelled the rapid spread of HIV. Tens of thousands of Africans were injected with the polio vaccine in the 1950s, a time when the same needle would have been used over and over again, without being cleaned. This may help to explain why HIV has infected so many people in Africa at such a fast pace. The "extensive use of reusable needles and syringes in mass-vaccination campaigns may also have played a part" in spreading the virus (Connor, London Independent).

Tackling HIV and AIDS and Hunger in our World: Barry and his pupils

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:23:43 +0000

Barry is one of the four volunteers who participated to the Global Awareness programme in 2009.

After his volunteer experience in Nigeria, Barry decided to promote awareness of HIV&AIDS firstly in his own school,

5th Class, Tyrrelstown Educate Together National School. First, Barry introduced the 8 Millennium Development Goals to his pupils and had a Nigeria Day to celebrate the culture of Nigeria.

On World AIDS Day they had a workshop and explore HIV&AIDS in Nigeria as one of the Millenium Goals.

Barry's school also participated on the Irish Aid programme for primary pupils on the eight Millennium Development Goal.

"This year Irish Aid programme was Hunger in our World, so I took the angle of the importance of proper nutritious food as well as ARV drugs to live positively with HIV and AIDS" - Barry said.

The pupils also wrote letters to political leaders (Peter Power, President Obama, Didier Drogba and Ronaldo soccer ambassadors for HIV and AIDS for Unicef.

Pre-departure Workshop

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:11:35 +0000

This participative workshop gave volunteers the opportunity to meet face to face and discuss some key global issues and practicalities before embarking on their volunteer programme.

The participants also met with some returned volunteers Paul who was in Nigeria, Neil and Clare who were in India.

The workshop was facilitated by Anton and Caterina (EIL's staff) with the help of Laura and Paul, EIL returned participants and volunteers in Ireland with EIL.

A participant to the workshop said "I found the workshop very interesting. Also it was useful being able to share advice, expectations and dispelling myths with other volunteers and past participants".

Another participant said" It was good to meet with other volunteers to get to hear other people's fears and expectations"

Some good news this time!!

Lynda Piper-Roche — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 12:03:54 +0000

A few months ago, there seemed to be noone willing or able to look after I and as for L, it was thought that he would be in hospital for years.... but now...

L...the two and a half year old who was admitted to the Chest hospital with drug resistant TB is being discharged and going back to ThembaCare! Initially we were told he would be there for a possible two years. He has responded very well to the treatment and will continue on his TB medication. Hopefully he will go back to ThembaCare for a just few weeks and then one of his aunts might take him...fingers crossed. Leo had been visiting L on my request, but now visits him once a week because he is mad about him :)

And I, the one and a half year old, has just been discharged from ThembaCare and is living in the Eastern Cape (Cape Town is in the Western Cape) with his grandmother. I have been in contact with his father who is now living just an hour away from him. The last day I saw I, his dad was moving away, now I am delighted that I has a grandmother to take care of him and his father living very close by. I am posting over some clothes and toys to him and have already sent stuff to L (his first pair of shoes!) and am so glad that I can contribute in some way (even though I would secretly love to take both boys home with me!).

International Volunteer Day! EIL thanks all of our volunteers

Caterina Totaro — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 17:35:40 +0000

EIL takes this opportunity to thank all of our volunteers that contributed their support to local projects across the world. Also a special thank you to those who give their time and energy to volunteer for EIL here in Ireland and to those who follow up their overseas experience campaigning ...with us to promote global justice. To celebrate this Day comment here on what volunteering means to you.

WORLD AIDS DAY

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:56:16 +0000

The 1st December was WORLD AIDS DAY.

Theme for WORLD AIDS DAY 2009: universal access to prevention, treatment and care for HIV & AIDS. For more information, have a look at this video by AVERT on their website at: http://www.avert.org/world-aids-day.htm.

On Thursday 10th December 2009, Barry, Karen, Ciara and myself (the four GAP volunteers) are holding an awareness raiser in Krystle www.krystlenightclub.com from 8pm, so if you want to learn more about HIV & AIDS and can spare and hour or two we would be delighted to see you there!

Out of Africa

Ina Dassbach — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 12:14:38 +0000

On October 7th, 2009 The Bray People covered Lynda Piper-Roche's story in the article Out of Africa. Lynda is one of the winners of EIL Travel Awards 2009 and travelled to South Africa as part of EIL’s Global Awareness Programme.

Lynda Piper-Roche was heartbroken recently when she had to say her last goodbyes to an 11year-old boy who died of AIDS.

Lynda spent nine weeks this summer in South Africa doing voluntary work with children living with HIV and AIDS. She grew very close to some of her young charges and wrote a moving blog of an experience she described as 'exhausting, challenging, heartbreaking and incredibly difficult.'

It was also, however, 'enlightening, mind opening and enriching.'

She explained that she had become attached to the deceased boy, known only as 'K'. 'His massive brown eyes, his skinny, emaciated frame, the desire he had to be well and play and go to school like a healthy child.'

Both of the youngster's parents had died from AIDS. 'Who knows how he contracted it,' said Lynda. 'He was too old to have been born with it. It breaks my heart to know what he had seen in his short life.'

He was the only child she encountered during her eight-week internship, she said, who actually 'looked' sick.

She travelled to South Africa with EIL, an Irish non-profit organisation with a global awareness programme that seeks to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS in Africa here in Ireland.

Lynda was based in ThembaCare, Cape Town – a care centre for babies and children with HIV and AIDS. There, she learned of the tragic histories of the babies being cared for in the project. 'So many of them were abandoned by their parents, or their parents were simply too sick to take care of them. So many beautiful babies live there, with not one person to love them.'

The children there range in age from newborns to toddlers, as well as 11-year-old 'K' and other kids of 5 and 6.

She explained that the anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) the children must take come with debilitating side effects, several of them in and out of hospital frequently. 'They cope so well with what his happening to them,' she said, however Lynda worries about what will become of them.

'Where will they end up?' she wondered. 'How long will they live? Who will take care of them when ThembaCare has nursed them back to optimal health?' K's mother moved back to her own mother's house when she got very ill. She was afraid to tell her mother she

had HIV for fear of being cast out, which is common practice in South Africa.

It wasn't until her death that K's grandmother realised what was wrong and sought help. Sadly it was too late for him by then and he was just weeks away from death.

As well as mothers turning against their daughters for disclosing HIV status, men who have infected a young woman have been known to beat them and accuse them of being unfaithful.

As a result, young pregnant girls are too scared to tell the people they love the most that they are sick, therefore putting off treatment until they are beyond help. 'The stigma stops people from finding out their status, accessing help and telling the people they need to tell.'

L's HIV+ mother abandoned him. His father is an alcoholic who left him home alone so was deemed an unfit guardian. The 2.5 year old was well enough to go to an aunt until he caught TB from another child in the centre.

'If you thought Irish hospitals were dirty – think again,' said Lynda. L was in a public hospital just outside Cape Town for weeks. Lynda and her colleague Ciara were his only visitors. TB is the leading cause of death in HIV and AIDS sufferers.

The 29-year-old was shocked to see the thick medical files some of the children had. 'Mine is still just a single page,' she reflected.

B is a twin, aged 2 years and 4 months. His healthy brother is living at home in a shack in one of South Africa's townships, with his mother and grandfather. B is living at ThembaCare.

Abandoned by his mum, B looks about 1 year old, much smaller than his twin and with very little hair. A twin herself, this struck a chord with Lynda. 'I would never have been able to forgive my mother if she had done that to my twin,' she said.

Hopefully B will be able to go home soon. His mother and brother will come to live with him for a while at ThembaCare, where she will learn to look after him properly.

Reluctant to use the phrase 'making a difference,' Linda rather remembers her task as working 'with' people on the ground, 'seeing the changes that we can make for the better every single day.'

Now back home in Ireland, Lynda has returned to her work as Development Officer for Homelink Bray, a free telephone service for people living alone, including a daily call to the home of a member to check if they are ok. For more information on that service, call (01) 2014473.

GAP participants interviewed on Newstalk's Global Village

Piers Meynell — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 17:37:50 +0000

On the 24th October 2009 Ciara Cunningham, Karen Reidy and Lynda Piper Roche were interviewed on Newstalk's Global Village, where they discused there experiences on EIL's Global Awareness Progamme. You can listen to the interview here:

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www.vir.us

Lynda Piper-Roche — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:15:18 +0000

I was told about a really good HIV & AIDS website today... www.vir.us. it is a fun website dedicated to teaching about HIV & AIDS.

I took the 'protected' test on www.vir.us, at the moment there are only 7 'protected' people in the whole of Ireland.

Please take a look at the website and take the quiz (and watch the clips!), it only takes a couple of seconds...

More about the STIGMA surrounding HIV & AIDS

Lynda Piper-Roche — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:12:17 +0000

I was chatting to a good friend of mine the other day about HIV & AIDS and it occurred to me that if I was HIV+ I would be more worried about telling people of my status than upset about actually discovering that I was infected!! What a wierd thing to say!! But it is true!

I am not afraid of HIV, at all, it is just a virus. A virus that is very manageable. The phrase is, LIVING WITH HIV!! Just like someone lives with a disability or lives with diabetes or lives with some other chronic illness.

So why would I not want to tell people of my status? Well, they might wonder how I caught the virus and attach their own ideas to that and also because of MISinformation about the virus, people would probably not want to be close to me, to drink out of the same cup as me, hug me and so on...to suffer that kind of treatment needlessly is something I would find more difficult to deal with than living with a virus.

Welcome Back Day 2009

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:44:56 +0000

This was a great opportunity for the volunteers to meet with other EIL Network members. It also offered them the possibility to reflect on their experience of volunteering overseas and share it with other volunteers as well as exploring what they can do here in Ireland to make a difference. Nogugu, Katie, Aisling and Brona have been volunteering in the past and this year they helped EIL staff in facilitating the workshop. A special thanks to them!

This is what some volunteers thought about the day:

“It was great talking with people who had had similar experiences”

“It was excellent, the opportunity to talk about my experience and meet other volunteers was great!”

“It was really useful to hear everyone else thoughts and experiences and realise my own”

“ It was very interesting and worthwhile”

“It was informative and gave a lots of practical ideas for continuing work as a volunteer after your trip”

“I enjoyed it. It was important for reminding us of the importance of not stopping our commitment now”

“It wasn’t long enough. A weekend workshop would be wonderful”

Nigeria 2 months on

Barry Morrissey — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 13:08:05 +0000

Nigeria, 2 months on, a crazy, harrowing, intense, enlightening and wonderful experience. Nothing can prepare you for the depth of this experience, from working on the ground with people living and dealing with HIV/AIDS, to trying to help with the myriad of other problems that poverty and non-access to basic infrastucture and state support leads to. What will leave a lasting impression with me and Karen and the other volunteers, is despite the hardship, the resilience and warmth of the Nigerian people.While some Nigerian writers and commentators have been critical of this stoicism and belief that religion would solve all problems, what shone through for us were the many acts of kindness we received.

The most enlightening part of my time there was working on the ground in Living Hope Care with direct issues around HIV/AIDS and sometimes issues that were connected with it. Living Hope Care was initially founded by Mrs. Fakande, our boss, and a retired nurse. A person living with HIV/AIDS presented themselves to her and she cared for this person in her own house. This was the origins of Living Hope Care. It has now expanded to try and meet the physical and emotional needs for 3,000 OVC’s, (Orphans and Vulnerable Children) in the greater Ilesa area. Approximately 10% of these children would have lost parents directly due to death from HIV/AIDS.

These children would now be cared for by ageing grandparents or a nominated carer, maybe some other relation. While registering these children in schools, we saw many wonderful examples of relations in extended families taking on the role of caring for the children. The reasons the children were being registered by Living Hope Care was they offer them nutritional,emotional and educational support, Michael a former EIL participant and fellow Kilkenny Cat, has been very involved in this in the last few years. We brought some kind of corn, with nutritional value, to about 200 children once a week and gave them copybooks and pencils for the new school year. Karen and myself were also involved in kids clubs after school, where they learnt games and activities in a positive and encouraging environment.

We also had direct experiences with people living with HIV/AIDS. One of my first assignments was to talk to people living with HIV/AIDS and their experiences. What came across almost immediately was the lack of education and awareness about how the virus had been transmitted, only about 2 in 10 realised that it could have been transmitted by sexual intercourse before they got the virus. The big issues of stigma and discrimination were a huge strain on their lives, most people might have been able to tell one or two people, family or friends, but very few could be open about it to everyone, in some cases the person was unable to tell anyone and they had a large family themselves. There have been positive developments with regard to the treatment of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, the Nigerian government in conjunction with PEPFAR(the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), American funded, has made available free antiretroviral drugs. In the majority of cases people took this medication diligently and were living normal lives. The complex link between HIV/AIDS and poverty however can threaten this, as many people had contracted other illnesses due to their supressed immune system such as malaria, and couldn’t afford to pay for malaria drugs and there is no state funding for this.

Living Hope Care work extends far out into the communities in the small villages and towns in the greater Ilesa/Osugbo area. We met with Pastors, church leaders and other community groups and leaders to try and drive initiatives that would offer support to families of OVC’s especially. Living Hope Care also has an important role as an educator,especially in the role of prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. We visited commercial sex workers in the brothels in Ilesa and gave them condoms at a very reduced rate and showed them how to use them properly. In one brothel, we were talking to the sex workers, in a kind of a bar, with a guy with a shotgun beside us, turns out he was a local policeman being paid to guard the place. There were a good few other men listening to the talk and laughing at first, but after a while they started listening and then started enquiring about getting tested themselves. We got out alive anyway! The ultimate aim of the project is to offer the sex workers retraining on a work skill programme, and they would get financial assistance to start up their own business.

The many challenges that Living Hope Care face and which is probarbly replicated by similar NGO’s is access to, and lack of resources to provide adequate support. While interviewing the Nurse in Living Hope Care, who deals with people living with HIV/AIDS, her only instrument in the surgery apart from the testing kits was a weighing scales. Access to proper surgical delivery kits and surgical gloves is also a huge problem for treating pregnant women. Manpower is also a huge issue, there is a wonderful and dedicated staff in Living Hope Care, but in order for training and education programmes to be carried out in the surrounding towns and villages, health workers have to be trained and they’re starting from a very low base, Living Hope Care is basically trying to fill the huge gap that’s left by minimal state intervention, and is fighting an uphill struggle.

Our awareness raising programme in Ireland will have a few different parts to it. One part will be to fund-raise to try and support some of the vital resources mentioned above that are needed, we hope to have a 50K or 100k cycle, Karen, Lynda and Ciara and myself to raise awareness and funds. I hope to have a music or cultural event myself to do the same.I teach in a multi-cultural school and I’m working on a number of projects at the moment related to this with the children. They’re working on a project on Nigeria, studying customs, cultures, music, food, storytelling, history, languages and some of the Nigerian parents are getting involved also. In conjunction with this they’re learning about the Millenium Goals.

At the end of this I’m going to introduce HIV/AIDS as one of the Millenium Goals and our experiences, and have a workshop type day. I feel it’s important that they have a background or context to put this into, as some of the children are very aware that Africa is depicted very negatively by the Western Media, I didn’t want the issues of HIV/AIDS to be seen as an extension of this, but that Nigeria has also a very rich and vibrant cultural identity. They will write a letter to the local Community Voice newspaper, outlining what things can be done to help with the issues and enter their project to the Irish Aid Awards. I will also write an article for the Community Voice about my experiences.

In spite of these relentless daily challenges, the Nigerian people are an incredibly hospitable, warm and good-natured people.The weddings and birthdays were such an expression of joy, the bride and groom dance into the church, and the whole wedding party dances behind them. At a child’s tenth birthday party Grandma and Great Grandma had a dance off as they were the two best dancers there, I can safely say my dancing improved, it was so bad, some of the elder people took me aside and offered me lessons! There was so much madness and fun as well as everything in the five weeks, and I met so many great people, my fellow cat, Sister Karen, and all the other volunteers and the great staff in Living Hope Care who treated us as if we were relations of theirs. It was great for me to return to my sort of roots, as my father had worked as a teacher in Abeokuta and my mother as a nurse in the 1960’s and they had got married in Ibadan. O se Nigeria and EIL!

119 people die every hour from AIDS, 31 of those are children. WHAT YOU CAN DO!

Lynda Piper-Roche — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:47:06 +0000

HIV is now a chronic illness and not a death sentence, since the introduction of ARVs (HIV medication). These drugs have done for HIV what insulin did for diabetes in the 1950s. The international community must do two things: CREATE WIDER ACCESS TO HIV MEDICATIONS and DISPEL THE STIGMA AROUND HIV & AIDS in order to combat this pandemic.

ACCESS TO TREATMENT: Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) recently launched an e-mail campaign calling on nine of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies to release their patents on specific HIV medications into a collective pool that will increase access and affordability to treatment in developing countries.

The STIGMA - the fact that people will not get tested for fear of being excluded by their friends, families and partners, that many people will not adhere to their medication for fear that friends or colleagues may see them take their medication (must be taken around the same times every day) is detrimental to fighting this pandemic.

Many years ago people who suffered with cancer were stigmatised against! So there IS hope that HIV & AIDS will lose its stigma. As Martin Meredith wrote ‘Do not point fingers at people with AIDS – Anyone can get AIDS, even YOU’ (The State of Africa, 2006). Can you safely say that you have never been in a position that if you were in the 'wrong place at the wrong time' that you could now have the virus? Just imagine being stigmatised against now....just by being unlucky... In Africa, most HIV transmission occurs between HETEROSEXUALS and MOTHER-TO-CHILD transmission and not through prostitution or intravenous drug use... essentially people contract HIV through 'normal' behaviour...

I have previously talked about myths surrounding HIV & AIDS. One issue that I would like to mention was that in our HIV & AIDS training with Aine Costigan of Dtalk (fantastic training) there were two men who have been working in Africa for the past eight years. Both were worried that they could contract the virus just by shaking hands with a HIV+ person or being near them when they sneezed...But they no longer think that because they decided to take the step and inform themselves. This showed me the depth of our ignorance and lack of awareness, which only serves to deepen the stigma... we have no excuse not to make ourselves aware of global issues, we have an excellent education system, access to the internet and books and wikipedia too!!

Log onto www.avert.org and learn something!!

OIsin Brogan on the Irish Independent

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:56:49 +0000

Oisin Brogan, volunteered in Nigeria for 5 months. As part of an article titled "The Great Escape" on the Monday 19th October edition of the "Irish Independent" he was interviewd about his experience. A excerpt of which follows:

Eighteen-year-old Oisin Brogan's parents were certainly concerned when he announced his travel plans last year. The now first year Trinity College engineering student told them he wanted to volunteer in Nigeria after his Leaving Cert.

"My parents were a bit nervous about me going there. Mom got so worried that she very nearly decided that I shouldn't go," explains Oisin.

"Going to Nigeria did come with some heavy warnings. Africa isn't the safest of places all the time. I was pretty sure I was going to be safe and my parents were convinced in the end because I wasn't going into a war zone," says the young Kerryman.

"I went with EIL (an Irish not-for-profit group) for six months. I did a lot of searching over the internet and they were the closest to what I wanted to do," he adds.

In preparation, EIL did a specific workshop for Oisin's trip but he feels that common sense is as important.

"If anything went wrong, like losing a plane ticket or passport, I had to go to the family I was staying with first. If they couldn't sort it out then I had to go to the EIL representative in Nigeria.

"Emails were up and down because the electricity supply was not reliable but mobile phones were easily accessible. The last thing you should do is contact your parents because they will only panic and there is nothing they can do being so far away," he says.

Everything didn't go according to plan and he did experience some health difficulties.

"While I had all of my vaccinations I ended up getting malaria while I was there. Over a six-month period the anti-malaria tablets don't work all the time. Most people end up getting it; it's pretty hard to avoid."

Even though Oisin's parents had concerns about him going to Africa, they encouraged him to take a year out to travel. The footloose teenager began his odyssey in South America.

"I started my gap year with three months backpacking in South America. I organised it over the internet and went with a group of Americans around the same age as me. The organisation I travelled with arranged the schedule and the flights but it was up to us what we did when we got there.

"When we would arrive in a city they would let us off to find accommodation ourselves but if we couldn't get anything they would have a back-up plan," says Oisin.

The one piece of advice Oisin offers prospective volunteers is to anticipate having their expectations broken. This is something Ann Reilly, manager of the Comhlaibh Volunteering Programme, agrees with.

Why has South Africa been SO badly affected by HIV?

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:59:28 +0000

Global HIV experts believe that a combination of: 1. POLITICAL UNREST 2. POOR GOVERNMENT SUPPORT 3. POLITICAL DENIAL has fueled the HIV & AIDS epidemic in South Africa.

The HIV & AIDS epidemic emerged in South Africa in the early 1980s. The country was in the midst of apartheid and so HIV was placed on the back burner. While this political unrest was taking place, HIV rates began to rise and by the the mid-1990s, HIV rates had increased by 60 percent, and the government was still slow in its response.

In 2000, the South African Department of Health outlined a five-year HIV & AIDS plan, but got little support from the then President Thabo Mbeki. After consulting a group of HIV denialists headed by Dr. Peter Duesberg, Mbeki rejected conventional HIV science and instead blamed the growing AIDS epidemic on poverty. Without government support, the five-year plan did not get off the ground. Dr. Tshabalala-Msimang served as Minister of Health from 1999 to 2008 under Mbeki. She recommended treating the AIDS epidemic with garlic and beetroot, rather than with ARVs. This led to her being nicknamed Dr. Beetroot!

In the meantime, HIV among pregnant South African women soared from eight-tenths of one percent in 1990 to 30 percent 10 years later and now there are 600, 000 AIDS orphans in the country :(

There are a plethora of organisations in South Africa dedicated to educating people about HIV in an attempt to prevent the further spread of the virus and they range from organisations established to promote; safe sex, abstinence, monogamy and testing etc.

However, CHOICES condoms are available for FREE in South Africa, but they have a reputation of splitting, so for the people that do decide to use protection it fails for them...

There is a lot of work to be done...

In 2006, Jacob Zuma told the Johannesburg High Court that he took a shower - after having sex with a HIV positive woman without a condom - as he believed this minimised his risk of contracting the disease. In 2009 he became President of South Africa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Uh oh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watch this space...

HIV & AIDS in South Africa

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 10:17:41 +0000

Some facts about HIV & AIDS in South Africa:

It is estimated that 5.5 million people are living with HIV, over 10% of the population
1/4 people aged between 15 and 50 years are HIV positive
Every day more than 1,700 people die AIDS-related deaths
Currently it is estimated that there are 600,000 AIDS orphans
A 2004 survey reported that South Africans spend more time at funerals than weddings, haircuts, or grocery shopping

STAND UP AGAINST POVERTY NOW!

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 09:32:32 +0000

This Friday 17th of October is your chance to Stand Up and Act against global poverty.

Join hundreds of people across Ireland, and millions of people around the world, who have decided to make a stand. Watch the video

Here’s what you can do:

1. Fax your local TD on “Fax It Friday”
- 16 Oct, fax a note to your TD to call on them to protect overseas aid.

If we want to protect the aid budget, we need to convince politicians. And politicians respond to pressure from their constituencies.
This Friday, phone, email or fax your TD to call on them to do their utmost to ensure that Ireland honours its aid promise.

2. Join the We Do Care campaign on Dublin’s Sth. King’s Street
- 17 Oct., 2-3.30pm, St. King’s Street (off Grafton St), Dublin 2
We will have poetry, music, speakers, cameras and action.
Please come and Stand With Us.

3. Join the Commemoration at Dublin’s Famine Memorial
– 17 Oct., 11h30, Famine Memorial, Custom House Quay

4. Listen to the Ballymun Gospel Choir singing Poverty farewell
– 17 Oct., 8 pm, St. Anne’s Church, Dublin 2

5. Attend the Gorta World Food Day conference
- 16 Oct., 9am-1pm, Dublin 1.

7. Join Christian Aid in their “Poverty Over” event.
- 16 Oct, 9am, Newry.

8. Visit Café Fresh’s exhibition about Food and Development
- 16-18 Oct., Powerscourt Townhouse, Dublin 2

9. Tune in to local and national radio stations
A good number of Irish radio stations will be playing the Get Up Stand Up song, any time from 16-18 October.

10. Help us mark World Mission Day (WEDOCARE.IE)
Sunday 18 Oct.

Tell me another story!

Caterina Totaro — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:56:25 +0000

My husband and I set off on our adventure to Chaing Mai in mid-May.We were not sure what was expected of us as volunteers but we were heading off full of excitment and enthusiasm for the task at hand. Three flights later we arrived in Chaing Mai tired and hot.We were met at the airport by Wad, who we soon learnt would help us in any way he could and was there to answer any questions we had . Our accomodation was fantastic with much needed and appreciated fans in the bedrooms and we were aslo spoilt wth Pilah's amazing cooking.We were staying in a volunteer house with four other volunteers, we all got on fantastically and headed off on tours together at the weekends.
My husband was working with a migrant learning centre in the mornings, which provides free English, Thai and Computer Skills classes to Burmese Migrants. In the afternoons he helped out in the workshop of an organisation which dedicates itself to providing free mobility aids, wheelchairs and home visit therapy to young and old people living in poor rural and remote areas of Northern Thailand. He also helped the Thai staff of this organisation to improve their Computer Skills.
I was working with EIL’s partner organisation in Thailand, giving workshops to different groups. I had been in touch with the organisation before I went over with an idea for a project. I was suprised at how fast everthing started to move from the minute I walked into the office.

The project was to create a small story book comprising of fables and stories from the Shan people from Burma now living in Chiang mai. The Project had 5 main objectives:

1.   To celebrate and preserve the heritage, culture and stories of the Shan people
2.   To design a beautiful and unique storybook which could be sold for profit in coffee shops, markets and relevant tourist outlets.
3.   The book could be used as a teaching tool as the stories were in three diffrent lanuages - Shan, Thai and English.
4.   To create fun and interesting workshops where the students told the stories and created the illustrations for the book.
5.   On returning to Ireland to do similar project in schools and introduce the Shan book to students in Ireland and tell them about the way of life for some kids in Northern Thailand. Hopefully this would raise awarnesss and funding to send back to relevant organisations

The EIL partner organisation in Thailand put me in contact with a non-government funded, non-profit school. It was set up to assist displaced burmese families in Chiang Mai. Many Burmese families who come to Thailand are denied citzen status, basic human ritghs and education. Many Burmese families who come to Thailand are at the mercy of their employers, who place the entire family on construction site camps with limited access to water, no plumbling and little electricity. Workers are expected to work a ten hour day for as little as $1.

The workshops in this school were great fun and every one got stuck in from the start.The students at Freedom house ranged in age from six up to twenty. They all enjoyed the collecting of the stories for the book, which came from their own heritage. More stories were brought in throughout the making of the book but it was too late, time was too short to add the new stories to the book. The whole project got the group asking parents, relatives and friends about Shan stories and brought their stories back to life. They all worked hard on the project and created beautiful images for the book and, most importantly, had fun.

Staff in the organisation were fantastic throughout the project and organised the translation of the book from Shan into Thai and English.

I have just recieved news that the books are printed and ready for sale.
I am in contact with some teachers in schools in Cork who are willing to work on the project with me over here and I am also in the process of apply for funding for the project. So all things going well we should be bringing the Shan Stories into some Irish schools for a few hours and working on some new stories with the students of these schools.

I was also working with a group who help support children with cerebal Palsy. I did four different art workshops with this group which were great fun and very rewarding. The workshops were with 3 young boys who very happy to see us arrive with our paints and brushs and building blocks every friday afternoon.

I had an amazing time in Chiang Mai and my only regret is that I hadn't more time.

De-mything the Myths

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 21:41:42 +0000

Last week I was speaking to a gentleman who recently volunteered with an organisation that builds houses in Africa. He returned from his experience convinced that sharing a bottle of water with a HIV+ person spreads the virus. IT DOES NO SUCH THING!!!! A person CANNOT become infected with HIV by shaking a HIV+ person's hand, by hugging them, by using the toilet after them or drinking from the same glass, OR by being exposed to coughing or sneezing. Saliva carries a negligible viral load, so even open-mouthed kissing is considered a low risk. However, if the infected partner, or both, have blood in their mouth due to cuts, open sores, or gum disease, the risk is higher.

More FACTS:

HIV is not transmitted by mosquitoes! Although mosquitoes bite, they do not inject the blood of a previous victim into the next person. They do inject their saliva, which may carry dengue fever or malaria.
Heterosexuals are the most at risk group!!
A person with an STD (sexually transmitted disease) is more at risk of contracting the virus if they have sexual intercourse (protected less risk) with a HIV+ person than a person who does not have an STD.
A woman who knows about her HIV infection early in pregnancy and is treated appropriately has about a 2% chance of delivering a baby with HIV. Without treatment, the risk is about 25%.
HIV can be transmitted via semen, vaginal fluids, blood and breast milk.

The list of misconceptions goes on and on...

It scares me that someone (or thousands of people in this case) might return from such an experience harbouring more misconceptions about the virus than they left with!

WHAT IS POST-EXPOSURE PROPHYLAXIS?

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:40:12 +0000

Prophylaxis means disease prevention. Post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) for HIV involves taking antiretroviral medications (ARVs) as soon as possible after exposure to HIV, in order to prevent HIV infection. PEP has reduced the rate of HIV infection from workplace exposures by 79%. The treatment should ideally begin within 1-2 hours after exposure to HIV but certainly within 72 hours. Treatment with 2 or 3 ARVs should continue for 4 weeks, if tolerated (harsh side effects). PEP is only available with a prescription. It basically blocks an enzyme that is necessary for seroconversion* to take place.

Initially, PEP was only available to people who experienced HIV exposure at work and would usually be considered a one-time accident. PEP has been standard procedure since 1996 for healthcare workers and was only made available to the public in 2002! Other HIV exposures may be due to unsafe behaviours that can occur many times. Because of this they were not made widely available for fear that the availability of PEP might encourage this unsafe behaviour, if people were to think that PEP is an easy way to avoid HIV infection.

I for one do not believe that the Morning After Pill is misused and I believe PEP for HIV would not be either.

Either way, still not enough people are aware that PEP exists...the fact that it is most effective within 1-2 hours of exposure means people need to know about it, rape victims, victims of violence who cross blood with their attacker, people who are threatened with or come into contact with used syringes, none of these are any different from the HIV exposure at work that is considered a 'one-time accident'.

*Seroconversion is a part of the immune response. When people develop antibodies to HIV, they "seroconvert" from antibody-negative to antibody-positive. In other words seroconversion has occurred. It may take from as little as 1 week to several months or more after infection with HIV for antibodies to the virus to develop. After antibodies to HIV appear in the blood, a person will test positive on antibody tests.

EIL at the Volunteering Information Fair - Irish Aid Centre, Dublin - Sept 26th

Anton — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:38:53 +0000

EIL Intercultural Learning will be attending the Volunteer Fair on the 26th of Sept in the Irish Aid Centre. Past volunteers will be there to share their experience with the visitors.

More info on the fair: http://www.irishaid.gov.ie/centre/events_detail.asp?eventID=305

We look forward to meeting with you!

The sad plight of an AIDS orphan

Ciara Cunningham — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 23:00:00 +0000

On September 18, 2009 The Roscommon People covered Ciara Cunningham's story in the article The sad plight of an AIDS orphan. Ciara is one of the winners of EIL Travel Awards 2009. She have travelled to South Africa for nine weeks as part of EIL’s Global Awareness Programme, to volunteer with people living with HIV and AIDS.

Cape Town Diary

by Ciara Cunningham

In Africa there are 13 million AIDS orphans. “A generation of human beings who have never known a mother’s loving cuddle or a father’s guiding hand. These children will learn life skills in institutions rather than imbibe them from their parents” – Richard Dowden, ‘AFRICA: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.’

I will never understand how it feels for a child to be abandoned by his family, not knowing when he will see a familiar face again, if ever.

From my first day at ThembaCare I noticed how needy Toliy* was. He constantly wanted to be held. If I sat still for one minute he would climb up onto my lap looking for a hug. Sometimes he would cuddle into my chest and just sob. It was not until I read his file that I realised what he has been through in his short two and a half years on earth.

Before Toliy was admitted to hospital he was cared for by his father. However, the level of care he received was questionable. Toliy was often found alone in his shack or left behind in local shebeens (illegal pubs) that his father frequented. He was admitted to hospital together with his mother, who was also sick. When she discharged herself she was never seen at the hospital or at her home again.

Toliy was admitted to ThembaCare two months ago with just his name and the clothes on his back. Initially his parents could not be traced and he constantly cried out for GoGo, a person who the social workers at ThembaCare were also trying to contact. His mother was recently found in a clinic in the Eastern Cape, hundreds of miles from Cape Town. She is quite ill herself and does not want anything to do with her son. Toliy’s father and GoGo have yet to be found.

The staff and volunteers at ThembaCare gave Toliy a great deal of love and attention and while we could never replace the love of a mother or father, I noticed that in the past few weeks he was much happier and relaxed. Unfortunately, the sense of stability given to Toliy at ThembaCare was greatly disrupted last week when he was admitted to hospital with TB.

HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) is an aggressive virus that destroys the immune system resulting in sufferers being unable to fight off any disease. Consequently, HIV patients are susceptible to tuberculosis, malaria and numerous other diseases and infections. It is widely documented that TB is the most common disease and the leading cause of death in people living with HIV and AIDS.

Due to Toliy’s strain of TB (it is drug resistant) he will not return to ThembaCare and, upon his discharge from hospital, he will go to a TB clinic for approximately two years. This is a huge setback for him and it is impossible to determine how it will impact on his mental and physical development.

Lynda and I have been to visit him in his isolation unit in hospital and he gets so excited when he sees us. He spends most of his time giving us long kisses on the outside of the face masks that we are required to wear. It is likely that we are the only people that have been to visit him. It is so sad that a child of such a young age has to live with HIV and various other diseases without any support from his family. I hope that some day he gets the love and stability in his life that he so greatly deserves.

Most Friday nights they light a fire in a big drum outside and we sit around chatting and listening to music. Lynda brought a CD of Kila with her and they love playing it and getting us up to Irish Dance! I do not think that Michael Flatley would be too impressed with our efforts but they have not seemed to notice that we do not know what we are doing!

The occupational therapist in ThembaCare has been requesting a trampoline for a long time and I was delighted to be able to purchase it last week with your donations. The children love it and as many of them have very weak muscles it is a fun way for them to exercise. The toddlers also love sitting on it while myself and Lynda jump behind them so our fitness is really being tested!

Some more blogs to follow...

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:10:44 +0000

Amid the saga of numerous leaders continually failing their nation (Mandela, Mbeki and PROBABLY Zuma) and allowing such a huge epidemic to afflict half of the population, comes such care and love for and from the babies. That they are a completely innocent product of government denial, a severe lack of education and extreme poverty (massive economic inequality) breaks my heart. However, the glimmers of sunlight that shone through, whether it was a loving look from a child, or a carefree giggle, makes me glad that I spent this summer in such a broken but amazing place.

P.S. I am going to write a couple more blogs, covering PEP: post-exposure prophylaxis (because not enough people know about it and should) the reasons why so many people in South Africa are HIV+ and about the Global Awareness Volunteers' Awareness Raising Campaign (Barry, Ciara, Karen and myself).

Oops, I think I left my heart behind...

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:08:10 +0000

I came home from 9 weeks in South Africa on Saturday morning. 9 weeks that felt more like 6 months. I started back at work (www.homelinkbray.ie) today, Tuesday. And now it feels like I never left Ireland. Except for the fact that my heart is still sitting on a chair in the playroom in ThembaCare, Athlone.

I will never forget I and L's tears when I was saying goodbye to them.

Last Friday was the day Ciara and I had to say goodbye to everybody at ThembaCare. I did not get to shower I with the usual zillion hugs and kisses that day because his father was there, a man who only saw his son every other month. I asked him could I possibly take a photograph of him and I together, he quickly agreed, and then asked me to post him the photographs of his son because he was leaving Cape Town too, in order to find work. So for that precious little baby, he had to say goodbye to his volunteer 'mama' (as they all called me) and his daddy on the same day :(.

Two days before I left, I visited L in Brooklyn Chest Hospital (for TB treatment). He will be there for a long time, along with so many other babies for their lonely 6 month, 12 month or 2 year stints... Each time I think of him I remember how I was his only visitor and now that I am gone he has no visitors at all :(. The last time I went to see him he was playing outdoors and as soon as he saw me he ran to me as fast as his little legs could carry him. A beautiful, energetic, fun loving little boy with no one to hug and kiss him - I gave him a lifetime's worth in my last few visits to him.

Contrary to what people might think, HIV is a very difficult virus to transmit. Initially, I thought people with HIV could not gain entry into Ireland, like Australia, which is absolutely DESPICABLE. But it seems that I was wrong (have to do more research but see: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/no-screening-as-hiv-on-rise-4952...). It would be incredible for Irish/Western families to adopt these children, to give them a chance at a happy life, for however long they may live, they are so brave and inspiring to be around. They get so sick sometimes but they just get on with it, and keep smiling. Just one day spent at ThembaCare provides more than enough time to fall in love with at least one of them!

We do care! Keep Ireland's aid promise - 2012

Caterina Totaro — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:55:17 +0000

The Irish Government has made a commitment to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people – to spend 0.7% of our national income on overseas aid by 2012. That’s just 70cent in every €100 by 2012.

Despite this promise, Ireland’s overseas aid budget has been cut by €222 million, a cut of 24%. We are now in real danger of breaking our promise.

These cuts drastically affect the lives and livelihoods of many vulnerable people around the world and the cuts are already having an impact.

Even in these difficult times, we don’t care any less about people living in poverty around the world. We must honour our commitment to reach 0.7% by 2012.

This Wednesday, 222 people (one for every €1 million slashed off the 2009 aid budget) will gather outside the Department of Finance.
These 222 people will send a clear message to the Government that, even in these difficult economic times, we don't care any less about people living in poverty and we don't care any less about keeping our promise to spend 0.7% of our national income on overseas aid by 2012. That's just 70cent in every 100 euro. For more info

What you can do?

Dochas, the umbrella group for Irish NGOs, have set up wedocare.ie for you to show your support.

Please send a message to our Government, calling on them to keep Ireland’s aid promise. Find the message here

Oisin Brogan from Tralee Co. Kerry spent 6 months volunteering in Nigeria and shares his story with us.

Anton — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 09:10:43 +0000

I suppose I should start from the start.

Sometime in late 2007, I decided 14 years will be enough. After this year, it was time for a break, time for a change. Time to do something else with my life.

The change I sought was away from the classroom. I was about to enter 6th year, and college was the obvious next step for someone in my shoes. Well, I decided, not for me. I wanted to try a different way of learning, another form of education. Get out, see the world, learn by doing and all the other cliques.

You might think I was a bit young for such a change. Thankfully, my parents didn't agree with you, and with their support I started to plan what was to become my "Sozialesjahr". (Mum's German.)

So, for the guts of nine months, I lived outside Ireland. Outside Europe. I bag-packed around Peru and Ecuador for three months with a group of North Americans, marveling at everything I saw. These were a wonderful 12 weeks, but looking back now, they were train

ing for the main event.

After Christmas with the family, I packed my bags again for Nigeria. (This proved to be my first mistake. I packed the same items as for South America, and let me tell you, volunteering requires different things then trekking) I was heading off with EIL, whom I had found through an internet search of "volunteer abroad".

Why did I choose Nigeria? There were a number of different reasons. I had always wanted to go to Africa, and when else would I get a better opportunity then this? The projects EIL offered in Nigeria also seemed more in my line of interest, which was working with children in a sort of play environment. More practically, I had spent weeks trying to learn Spanish in South American. I didn't want to spend a similar time learning a native African language or worse, French.

I spent the plane journey over to Nigeria worrying. I was terrified. Not about a new country, or about the plane crashing or anything like that. (Though I'll never forget the burnt out planes left by Lagos Airport's runway to greet people to Nigeria) No, I was desperately worried about volunteering. Or, more to the point, my preparation for my five months of work ahead. What had I done? I had a list of nursery rhymes, and a few games to play with kids. What was I going to do?

These feelings were given brief respite during orientation, when I had to deal with new sights, feeling and people. The local staff did their job well, taking it easy on the facts and language course, knowing we'd still be getting used to everything. The city tour they arranged for us was spot on, giving a taste of what being out and about an Nigeria city was going to feel like, while still letting us "do the tourist" for awhile.

However, once I got to my actual placement, the feelings returned. Don't get me wrong. The people of Ilesa and Living Hope Care (the NGO I worked five months with, LIHOC for short) were all wonderful and welcoming. Everyone went out of their way to try make my transition easier.

One of those kindnesses, however, was the thing that really scared the pants off me. Ms. Fakande, both my host Mummy (as she was called by all her staff) and boss, sat me down on my first night in her home and outlined what LIHOC did, and how I might be able to help in those endeavors. During the talk, she kept using phrases like "if you wanted you could ..." and "it's up to you ..."

Unfortunately, this was exactly what I didn't want to hear. Feeling ill prepared, I was hoping for a set task, laying out exactly what was expected of me, so I could learn and eventually (with luck) excel at that job. Instead, Mummy told me I could help "in any way I can." To make matters worse, LIHOC was very different from my expectations. In my mind's eye I saw myself working in an orphanage. As Sanya, college and friend told me later, that's not how things are done in Nigeria. LIHOC acted more as a facilitator and service provider for the children they worked with. Feeling at a total loss, I smiled and went to bed.

Tossing and turning, I left culture shock for the first time in my life. It was all do big, all too difficult, all too different. I longed for that classroom. At least I knew I was good at that.

A long story short, I managed to deal with that feeling. There were highs and lows along the way. For the first three weeks at LIHOC, I was left with little to do, not being offered any long term job, as promised. Those three weeks, looking back, were just the right thing for me. At the time, I was frustrated and scared, that this would how it would be for the rest of my stay. In reality, Ms. Fakande and LIHOC were giving me time to find my feet and my own way to go.

My breakthrough came in the form of Kidz Klub. This was a once a month meeting held in nine different sites across Osun state. It was one of the few times LIHOC staff had direct contact with the children, and involved skill building and informal learning, plus a few games. Over the five months, I ended up adopting the running of one of the Klubs, and tool an interest in all of them. I was often, towards the end of my stay, jokingly referred to as the "KK adviser."

Of course, once a month meetings aren't enough to keep one occupied. With the date of the Klubs circled in my calendar, I started to look for work around LIHOC.

I joined the Project Management Team, which oversaw all of LIHOC's activities. This meant I knew all of what was going on, and even got to have a say in some of it. I became the local computer expert, which led to my later task of digitalising our database of the children. I generally tool up any work I thought I could handle, including interviewing caregivers of the children for microcredit loans, among other things.

This "do work as it comes" attitude obviously leads to occasional lapses. Some weeks were slow, some weeks flew by. I needed a daily job. This came in the form of a teaching assistant. I worked in Ife Oluwa (Love of the Lord) a local primary school as a general helper to the teacher of Primary Four. I taught mostly Maths, but also dabbled English, Home Economics, Science and even Religion, which I thought a bit ironic given my own views on the subject.

The people at the school were wonderful. Not only did this give me my chance for daily interaction with children, they were the most flexible employers imaginable. Work at the office tool preference and, as I said, came and went. Sometimes I wouldn't be able to come to school at all. When I returned, apologies ready, they wouldn't even bat an eyelid. Merely ask what I had brought back from my travels for them.

As I'm starting to go a bit over limit again, I guess I should write about the two most important things I found out in Nigeria. I could write about countless other things, such as goats and chickens, Premier League soccer matches, the weather, stomach ulcers or Michael. Maybe I will, another day. But right now, I should stick (loosely) to the "few paragraphs" limit I was set.

Unsurprisingly, of the two, one was about Nigeria, and one was about myself. When I arrived to the country, I had a picture in my head what a 3rd world country should not only look like, but feel like. It should look dusty and run down, with lots of shanty towns and rusted iron. It should feel poor and hopeless, as though every day was a struggle. There should little if any happiness and certainly no optimism.

However, that's what I found. In spite of my "geography textbook view" of the country, optimism was in abundance. I learned quickly not to call Nigeria a "poor country". Acknowledging it had problems, that was okay. But no Nigerian I met accepted that Nigeria was poor. If only the government sorted itself out, everything would be fine. It sounded like anything you heard back at home. Even the poorest of the poor, the kind that needed LIHOC's help, didn't regard their life as a struggle. They have problems, a malfunctioning health system, meeting fees to keep their children in bad schools, finding work. But still they had a spring in their step.

The eye opener for me was when I met Kuti, a farm laborer, interviewing her for a micro credit loan. I realised, halfway through the conversation, that she was one of the farmer you hear so much about through Fair Trade, etching out a living on less then $1 a day. Yet she seemed so happy. She spoke positively about her planned catering business, telling us "school kids already came to her for kuli kuli." After the interview, she even offered us some fruit she had picked while farming that day.

The discovery was a more gradual process. It dawned on me, towards the end of the trip, that I had occasionally, throughout my stay, taken the initiative on things. I had taken on the running of a Kidz Klub. I founded a soccer club in the local primary school (one of the things I couldn't write about) I had gone out of my way to visit people. Me! Visit people, with no invitation. Something I wouldn't have thought of in Ireland. I have never considered myself a go getter, as they say, someone to get up and do something. Set me a task, I'll do that for you. but taking the initiative ... Nigeria forced that out of me. Now, it wasn't a complete turn around. I haven't started my own Ngo upon my return to Ireland. But before I left for home, someone who did (set up an Ngo, and now spends most of his time in Nigeria) commented that I had been "one of the most active volunteers who came to Ilesa." That show I'm making some progress, at least.

And, when I did get home, to no summer job (again) I somehow ended up volunteering in an Enable Ireland charity shop.

Volunteering, it seems, is a hard thing to shake off.

P.S. This is my second attempt. On my first try, I realised I had gone far over Anton's "a few paragraphs" suggestion, and I was still writing about orientation. I will send along that version later. (if I ever finish it ;)

P.P.S. I will be in Dublin for the EIL gathering on the 19th of this month. Looking forward to seeing you. You don't know where I could get yam in Dublin by chance?

Just a quick note to say...

Lynda Piper-Roche — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 14:46:42 +0000

While my time working here has been exhausting, challenging, heartbreaking, and incredibly difficult, it has also been amazing. enlightening, mind opening, and incredibly enriching, an experience I am so happy to have had, and I look forward to having similar again. By being here, I am not 'making a difference' (I reaaaally dislike that phrase!), but working WITH people on the ground and seeing the changes that we can make for the better every single day. I cannot imagine not having come here and meeting those incredibly brave and heartwarming children.

One of the things that I read about Africans is that they will always look you in the eye, even just passing them on the street, something that does not really happen in Dublin anymore. Working in the community and living with a host family is a fantastic way to learn about the culture and the way of life here, even in just 9 short weeks. The people that Ciara and I have met here in South Africa have been so warm, welcoming, kind and helpful. And our host family made us feel at home in a few short minutes and have taken great care of us during our stay! Just 2 weeks left now :( I will absolutely continue to help ThembaCare when I get home and for as long as I can. Thanks EIL ;)

Brotherly love!

Ciara Cunningham — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:30:13 +0000

I’m not a twin so I don’t know the connection they share. However, I am a sister and if it is anything like the relationship between siblings, then it is a very special bond. This is what makes Toban’s* situation so unfortunate.

Toban is two and a half years old with severe developmental delay as a result of his HIV status. He cannot walk, he struggles to stand (even with an aid) and he has very weak legs and pelvis. He was admitted to ThembaCare from Red Cross Hospital, one of the local hospitals here in Cape Town. It is a requirement at Red Cross that all sick children are accompanied by a family member at all times and should never be left alone. Unfortunately after a few days, Toban’s mother disappeared from the hospital and Toban was admitted to ThembaCare as an “abandoned child”.

His mother was traced by the social workers at ThembaCare who also learned that Toban has a twin brother who is not living with HIV. As Lynda accurately describes in her blog entry “Twins born to HIV infected mothers” it is not uncommon for one twin to be born HIV positive and the other to be born negative. Another harsh reality of this virus. As the first twin born, Toban contracted HIV during delivery. If his brother Topant* was to contract the disease it would have been from the uterus. All very confusing to me as a non-scientist!

Toban’s mother and twin brother were recently brought to ThembaCare to visit Toban. It was surreal and very sad to see a set of twins so far apart on their physical development. As I described above, Toban is very frail. He has to be carried everywhere and struggles to crawl. He moves slowly and generally is very cautious in his movement. Then on the other hand you have his twin Topant who is minutes younger than him acting like any normal two and a half year old; running around, jumping on people, making lots of noise….and a mess!

The support and care from a loved one is very important for anyone living with HIV, particularly children, as they rely on their carer to give them their medication. Like most medication, it is vital that their timelines and dosages are adhered to. In Africa there are three lines of a combination of drugs that can be used to treat patients (ARV’s). If the first line isn’t succeeding, the second line is used and so on. If a HIV patient does not follow their medication they can default and, as a result, their medication no longer works and they have to move on to the next line. As you can appreciate, with only three lines available it is imperative that patients take their medication correctly.

Unfortunately in Toban’s short years his mother has been very unreliable at giving him his ARV’s and as a result Toban defaulted from his first line. Toban is now on his second line (HAART) and with only once chance remaining after this, it is crucial that his mother understands the importance of his medication. Regrettably, his mother has taken little interest in Toban’s health and has only been to visit him once in the past six weeks.

One of the main responsibilities of the volunteers at ThembaCare is to drive. It varies from driving children to hospital appointments to collecting donations. Occasionally we drive the social workers out into the local community (which I’ve been told most white African people and Irish people inaccurately refer to as townships). I accompanied one of the social workers to Toban’s house with the hope of persuading his mother to come and visit her son and learn more about his medication. Their home is a small shack on the side of a dirt track in one of the biggest communities in Cape Town. It is partitioned into three sections by galvanized steel walls with a curtain separating two of the rooms. Six people share this small space that is certainly no bigger than my own small bedroom!

As I have no Xhosa (one of South Africa's 11 languages), they lost me at molo! (hello in Xhosa). As they conversed in Xhosa I played with Topant (Toban’s twin). Although he is far more advanced than Toban they share the exact same features and mannerisms. They have the same dark, dancing eyes. They smile the same and both tilt their head back as they do so. They also laugh with the same soft tone. I only played with him for 20 minutes but he cried when we left, obviously lonely for company and grateful for the attention I had given him. I can only imagine the fun he could have with his twin.

I cannot begin to understand their mother’s situation and I don’t want to sound like I am passing judgment but I hope she doesn’t deprive those twins of each other any longer.

*The names of the children have been changed to protect their privacy

This blog was drafted a few days ago and I am happy to report that, as I write, Toban is sitting on his mother’s knee in the playroom. She has spent the last two days with her son, feeding and playing with him and more importantly giving him his medication. I hope it is a sign of things to come! I think it also highlights the wonderful work that is done here a ThembaCare because if it wasn’t for the social workers she most definitely wouldn’t be here. It’s good to report something positive for a change!!

The babies' appearance

Lynda Piper-Roche — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 16:41:55 +0000

One thing I never mentioned about the babies here at ThembaCare; while most might come in underweight and malnourished, K, the 11 year old who passed away during my first week is the only child I have seen, since I came here, that actually looked sick. As I write this blog, I (one of the two babies that I wish I could take home with me) is sitting on my lap, laughing and giggling, making funny noises, chewing my jumper and making a mess of the desk I am sitting at, just like any other baby. He is plump and healthy looking and really a very happy child! He stood entirely on his own for the first time today (he lasted 3 seconds!) and today he also mastered the kissing noise AND he just said my name!!!!

For the most part, the only tell-tale signs that any of these babies are sick are that -

1. Some of the babies' noses constantly run,

2. The babies with TB (tuberculosis) have quite bloated stomachs and breathe very heavily with a rattling sound,

3. Some have rashes as a side effect of their medication.

I suppose what I am trying to say is that K, has been the AIDS sufferer that I have ever met that actually looked like he had AIDS.

P.S. It is against ThembaCare's and South Africa's policy to take photographs of HIV+ children, so that is why I have not posted any on the blog :(

Twins born to HIV-infected mothers

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:16:13 +0000

I am spending quite a lot of time with a twin here in South Africa, but it is not my twin/twolet, Julie, :( !! B is a boy and he is 2 years & 4 months old. He is the older twin (born first), and while B is HIV+, K, his twin brother is not.

While K, the healthy twin is thriving and living at home (in a shack in one of SA's townships) with his mother and grandfather, B is living at ThembaCare.

He was admitted to ThembaCare for three reasons:

Mother abandoned child: B's mother never came to fetch her child on discharge from hospital (according to his mother and grandfather: because he was not walking and was too much to handle in terms of providing nutritious food and giving him his medication on time).
Child on HAART: His mother did not adhere to his treatment, therefore, he is on HAART because he built up resistance to the first ARVS. People can thrive on their medication if they adhere to taking it on time for 90% of the time. His CD4 count is 19%, in children their CD4 count is not measured in terms of a number as such, but a percentage. In a HIV- child, their percentage would read at 100%. In otherwords, B's is just less than 20% than the CD4 count of a healthy child of the same age.
Developmental delay: B looks about 1 years old. He is much, much smaller than his twin and has very little hair. He also has development delay and when he was admitted to the centre, on the 29th of July 2009, he was still not walking or talking (however, since coming to ThembaCare he is crawling, standing and walking with the aid of a baby walker).

The most difficult part for me in this situation as a child of a multiple birth, is the fact that if my mother was infected with HIV, that I would be the healthy child, the child that would have received all of the love and affection from my mother and Julie would have been abandoned. I would never have been able to forgive my mother if she had done that to my twin, and in my opinion, B's mother will probably lose the love from her other son when he is old enough to realise what she has done to his big brother.

The staff here at ThembaCare are trying to organise help for this family. The hope for them is that B's mother (and twin) will come to live at ThembaCare for a few months until B is well enough to be discharged and his mother has been trained and counselled and can be trusted to take him home and care for him properly (the fact she defaulted on his medication puts him at a higher risk of dying) otherwise fostering him out will be the only other option.

Quick Lesson: A prospective study of 115 twin pairs born to infected mothers found a higher rate of transmission among the first born twins than among the second born. The study concluded that HIV infection of first born twins occurs predominantly intrapartum (occurring during childbirth or during delivery) whereas infection in second born twins occurs predominantly in utero (in the uterus "the child was infected in utero from the mother"). (Women, Families, and HIV/AIDS: A Sociological Perspective on the Epidemic in America by Suzanne Maman.

Appreciate your nagging mother!!

Ciara Cunningham — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:54:24 +0000

In Africa there are 13 million AIDS orphans. "A generation of human beings who have never known a mother's loving cuddle or a father's guiding hand. These children will learn life skills in institutions rather than imbibe them from their parents." Richard Dowden - AFRICA: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.

I will never understand how it feels for a child to be abandoned by his family, not knowing when he will see a familiar face again, if ever.

Before Toliy was admitted to hospital he was cared for by his father. However, the level of care he received was questionable. Toliy was often found alone in his shack or left behind in local shebeens (illegal pubs) that his father frequented. He was admitted to hospital together with his mother who was also sick. When she discharged herself she was never seen at the hospital or at her home again.

Due to Toliy's strain of TB (it is drug resistant) he will not return to ThembaCare and, upon his discharge from hospital, he will go to a TB clinic for approximately two years. This is a huge setback for him and it is impossible to determine how it will impact on his mental and physical development.

While work can be very intense we are very lucky that we have a great host family to come home to in the evenings. Lynda and I are the 81st and 82nd guests to stay with them and they have been most welcoming. Most Friday nights they light a fire in a big drum outside and we sit around chatting and listening to music. Lynda brought a CD of Kila with her and they love playing it and getting us up to Irish Dance! We both feel so at home with our family so with only three weeks left we're going to make the most of our time with them.

*The names of the children have been changed to protect their privacy.

A little bit about those ARVS

Lynda Piper-Roche — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 13:50:48 +0000

Without any medication, a HIV+ child will most certainly die by their 5th birthday...

The babies are woken up every morning at 06.30 where they receive three 'soft' oral syringes of fruit flavoured syrup (which disguises the horrid taste of the ARVs) and again at 18.30. They must take their medication at the exact same time every single day, something they will have to do for the rest of their lives...and if they do not adhere to this, resistance to the drugs can occur...

Once a month (one visit per child) we have to go to the hospital and wait around for approximately 3 hours to collect their ARVs. Sometimes we need a box to hold all of the drugs that just one child needs to take, because there are simply too many bottles... And to see the size of their medical files, it is heartbreaking, some are 5 inches thick - mine at age 29 is a single page.

Antiretroviral drugs are medications used for the treatment of HIV. When several of these drugs (3/4) are taken in combination, this is known as highly active antiretroviral therapy/HAART. The more active copies of the virus, the greater the possibility that one resistant to ARVs will be made, so ARV combination therapy defends against such resistance by suppressing HIV replication as much as possible. In the West there are 9 lines of drugs (i.e. 9 different combinations = chances of having medications that will work for any individual) but in developing countries there are just 3. So, in other words, we have a better chance at life with HIV where the prevalence of the disease is much, much, much less...

The average life expectancy of an HIV infected individual is said to be 32 years from the time of infection - if treatment commences when the CD4 count is 350 (some say 200).

However, because ARVs were first given to children from 2004, it is too early to tell exactly how long any of these babies will live.............................................but when ARVs were introduced 5 years ago the rate of babies dying from AIDS here at ThembaCare fell by over 90%. Where the text would have read RIP in 2002/3/4, it now mostly reads 'discharged'!

Roscommon, Cape Town and a boy called Chkwan

Ciara Cunningham — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 09:33:26 +0000

On August 14, 2009 The Roscommon People covered Ciara Cunningham's story in the article Roscommon, Cape Town and a boy called Chkwan . Ciara is one of the winners of EIL Travel Awards 2009. She have travelled to South Africa for nine weeks as part of EIL’s Global Awareness Programme, to volunteer with people living with HIV and AIDS.

Firstly I would like to thank everyone in Roscommon who donated so generously to this project. A fund-raising coffee morning I held was a great success and I hope over the next few weeks I can describe to you the situation and conditions here – and how your donations are being spent.

I have travelled to South Africa for nine weeks as part of EIL’s Global Awareness Programme, to volunteer with people living with HIV and AIDS. The Global Awareness Programme (GAP) seeks to combat the huge stigma that is attached to HIV and AIDS. During my time here I hope to gain a broader understanding of HIV and AIDS, with the intention of raising awareness of the illness in Ireland upon my return. I have been accompanied by one other GAP participant: Lynda Piper-Roche from Dun Laoghaire, Co. Dublin.

I have been in Cape Town for the past two weeks now and, so far, it has been an amazing and eye-opening experience. I spent my first week on orientation with ten other volunteers from across the world who are all working on various projects around Cape Town. Our first week was great fun and very informative, however, nothing could have prepared me for my first week on my project at ThembaCare.

ThembaCare is a care centre for babies and children living with HIV and AIDS. Patients are admitted from hospitals across Cape Town and are cared for at the Centre until they are strong enough either to go home to their family or to be placed in foster care. Currently most of the patients there are babies and toddlers under the age of two.

We started work last Monday week and were greeted at the Centre by smiling, loving toddlers who were all clamouring for our attention. The Centre is a bright and colourful place. There are two bedrooms that can accommodate nine patients each and a large playroom where the patients spend most of their day. Although the children are sick, there is a great atmosphere in the Centre, created by the positive and friendly staff. It is quite easy to forget that these children are living with HIV and the many side-effects that this disease brings.

We spent our first morning at a ward meeting where all the staff members and volunteers discussed the condition of each patient. It was great to get background information on all of the children and while each case was very different, each one was equally as disturbing.

Many of the children are waiting for foster homes; some because their parents have passed away, others because their parents are simply too sick to look after them. Some children have been abandoned and in some fortunate cases the children have their mothers there with them, caring for them with the assistance of ThembaCare.

One of the older children, Chkwan*, had arrived at the Centre a week before we arrived in a very malnourished condition. When we met him he was completely emaciated. His cheekbones were sunken. His big, dark brown eyes looked fearful. He moved slow and cautiously. He whispered occasionally, struggling to talk. At the ward meeting on our first morning we learned his parents had passed away from AIDS and he hadn’t ever been visited during his time in ThembaCare.

As he was the oldest child by seven years, he looked lonely and bored, so, with the help of your donations, Lynda and I were able to buy jigsaws, colouring pencils and stickers to help him occupy his time.

Lynda noticed that there were no shoes in the Centre that fit him and, thanks to the many donations, bought him a new pair of runners. It brought him such joy and he was very quick to point out when his runners weren’t firmly on his feet!

Our time is divided between playing and feeding the children, driving them to hospital appointments, collecting donations and dropping social workers out to the communities. On one occasion Lynda and I brought Chkwan with us for a drive. It was great for him to get out of the Centre for a few hours and he got to explore a vast amount of the landscapes in Cape Town thanks to our poor navigation skills!

Many children come to ThembaCare in a very malnourished condition and, through the love and care that is provided there, they come out fighting fit. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case with Chkwan and he passed away in the early hours of Thursday morning. He was only 11 years old. Lynda and I never expected to witness a young child passing away during our time here and the gravity of the HIV situation hit us both.

Lynda devoted a lot of her time to Chkwan and together with the generous donations from people at home in Roscommon we were able to provide a little comfort and enjoyment to him in his final days.

Thanks again to you all.

* The names of the children have been changed to protect their privacy.

PERSPECTIVE

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:40:37 +0000

How lucky so many of us are, blessed actually, to have a family who loves us - or who puts up with us at the very least ;). They look out for us, take care of us when we are sick, will be there for us even when we may not feel it - so many of us take our situations for...granted.

Now consider L - a (BEAUTIFUL and) very 'healthy' HIV+ 2.5 year old, according to his file; with a 'good CD4 count' and 'perfect' skin.

L's family, are not here. His mother has AIDS and is now in a clinic since she abandoned him. His father is an alcoholic who frequents Shebeens (illegal pubs) and often left L at home on his own and was deemed an unfit guardian. An aunt has recently been tracked down (July 27th) in the Eastern Cape. He was in fact well enough to go home to them, that is until he contracted TB* (tuberculosis) in ThembaCare.

The fear for L right now is that his TB is drug resistant which means he will be moved to a special clinic (Brooklyn Chest Hospital in Milnerton) for two years. ANOTHER two years without ANYONE to teach him all of the things that committed parents teach their children and to love him unconditionally. For every month a child spends in a care setting, his/her development is set back by three months.

L is in a public hospital (Red Cross Children's Hospital) just outside of Cape Town and if you thought Irish hospitals were dirty - think again :(. He has been there for over a week and so far - and most definitely for the duration of his time there - Ciara and myself will be his only visitors. Two white people from thousands of miles away.

- In Africa there are 13 million AIDS orphans. "A generation of human beings who have never known a mother's loving cuddle or a father's guiding hand. These children will learn life skills in institutions rather than imbibe them from their parents." Richard Dowden - AFRICA: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles.

*Quick Lesson:
Interaction of TB and HIV and AIDS

TB is the most common disease and the leading cause of death in people living with HIV & AIDS.
It is caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis, also known as TB bacilli.
HIV, by attacking the immune system, makes a person who is infected with TB bacilli more likely to get sick with TB.
TB can occur at any time, but often occurs early in the course of HIV disease.
TB probably accelerates the progression of HIV disease.
In the absence of HIV infection, only about 10% of people infected with TB bacilli get sick with TB during their lifetime. In people who are infected with HIV, about 50% may get sick with TB.
About 40% of TB patients in South Africa are infected with HIV and this proportion is increasing rapidly.
TB can be prevented in people living with HIV and AIDS using isoniazid prophylaxis.
TB can be cured, whether a patient is infected with HIV or not, using Directly Observed Treatment, Short-Course (DOTS), with the same drugs for the same amount of time.

Us and Them...

Lynda Piper-Roche — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:27:47 +0000

"When something is 'over there', you think it is going to remain over there. And when you wake up one day and it is right here, it is a black blood flowing in your veins." Stephanie Nolen - 28 Stories of AIDS in Africa. In Ireland, one person a day is diagnosed as being HIV+.