EIL Intercultural Learning

Lynda Piper-Roche is one of the winners of EIL Travel Awards 2009 and will spend two months in South Africa as part of the Global Awareness Programme. We asked her some questions about her expectations, motivation and ger feelings before she leaves this month. This is what Lynda told us during the interview.

"My name is Lynda Piper-Roche, I live in Dun Laoghaire in Co. Dublin. I work as a development officer in a charity that helps older people to stay at home instead of going to a nursing home www.homelinkbray.ie and I love my job. I have been there since its inception and have seen it grow from just one Member to over 240 since May 2008! I am also currently studying nutritional therapy, I have an Honours Degree in BESS (Business and Politics) from Trinity College Dublin (graduated in 2007) and last year I also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Relations.
My interests are surfing, yoga, pilates and reading."

Next month you're going to South Africa for the Global Awareness Programme. Are you excited about that? Is that your first volunteer abroad experience?
"This is my first volunteer experience. I have wanted to go to Africa for a long time now and EIL has helped me to do this. I am really excited, I cannot wait to go over, I have never been to a developing country/to the global south so this will be a real eye opener for me, you can only read so much in books, I want to actually experience it."

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

"I attended SUAS Global Issues Seminars (two sets of them) and Dr. Samuel McConkey from the Royal College of Surgeons and Janice Gaffey spoke at two seminars on HIV&AIDS. I was fascinated at how much there is to know about this issue, about how little we in Ireland know about it, how it is almost “invisible” here due to the success of ARVs. I did these classes and also read extensively on the issue and when I saw the EIL Global Awareness Programme advertised I knew I had to apply but did not think I was in with a chance of winning a travel award!"

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?
"It is quite scary how little people around me actually know about HIV&AIDS, to be honest, in the past when I would hear about HIV&AIDS, my mind would kind of shut down – because of fear, but looking back it was probably a mix of fear and ignorance, because now that I know so much more about it, I am much less afraid. And I think that might be true of the community at large. Most people are unaware that heterosexuals are the key transmitters of the virus, that mosquitoes do not transmit it, that we are most contagious in the first 2 months of catching it and that ARVs have almost done for HIV what insulin did for diabetes type I in the 1950s. There is a lot that needs to be done to raise awareness about the disease, to get rid of the stigma attached and urge people to be more careful when engaging in risky activities that may make them more vulnerable to becoming infected.

"For example: 6.6 million people in South Africa are suffering with HIV and AIDS at present and only half of those have access to ARVs. In Ireland 4-5000 people are suffering with same and all have access to medical care, and I think it is the duty of the International Community, with every individual required to play a part, in ensuring medical care to all, especially because being treated with ARVs makes a patient much less infectious, so that would play a role in lowering infection rates."