Visiting patients around Moroto (Tere Alcón rscj)

Maria Eugenia Herrera rscj, from North Spain, came to Uganda in February for a year’s international experience before going to probation in Rome. She is a nurse and she wanted to work with people with AIDS. Maria Eugenia began at Mbuya, Kamplala, with the Outreach programme in the parish. Then a very brief visit to Moroto touched her heart and she came happily in March to replace Ednah Kandah rsc, as the Focal Person for HIV/AIDS in the diocese, during her studies,.  At the request of Bishop Ssentongo, because of her inexperience in Karamoja and her lack of the local language, Paulina Lopez Ridruejo rscj was asked to work with her. Again, God provides, because the beginning of the rainy season meant that Paulina could leave her village women to cultivate their fields of sorghum and give her time to the sick in and around Moroto.

Maria Eugenia and Paulina began by visiting all the slums and villages to identify those who had been tested and were positive. It was a difficult time, because the hospital had no food, WFP had very little and those on ARV drugs were slowly killing themselves by taking the only nourishment they could find – locally brewed beer. But again, God provides! As news of the predicament reached Spain help began to come, so that by May the most vulnerable cases were getting food packages of maize flour, beans, oil, salt and sugar twice a month. The change it brought about in their appearance was miraculous.  They are now fairly normal-looking. Of course, some have died.  Every week or so another AIDS patient dies, usually leaving a flock of children to be brought up by the grandmother or an aunt or uncle.

Paulina and Itai (Maria Eugenia’s Karimojong name – people can’t get their tongues around Eugenia) visit Moroto Hospital almost daily to check on their people who have been admitted. There, truly, they find the wound in the side of Christ. The sick have to provide their own sheets and their own food, so the very poor lie on uncovered plastic mattresses and cover themselves completely with their ‘nankas’ (sheets) to escape the  mosquitoes at night.  The nurses are overworked, so there is not a very caring atmosphere, though some really do their best. On the side of the sick there is patient fatalism. Often the drugs meant to be given to the patients are not there and they are told to go and buy at the clinics what the hospital lacks. In spite of these drawbacks the hospital certainly saves the lives of many people. Part of the work of Itai and Paulina is to bring to the attention of the hospital administrators cases that they see are desperate and get these patients sent to Matany, the Comboni mission hospital. This hospital is about 45 km. from Moroto. Patients have to pay a small amount unless they are referred cases, because Matany does not get much help from the government. However, the care is excellent, the whole place spotlessly clean and the atmosphere full of hope.

There are many situations in this work that cause Paulina and Itai to feel anger and anguish and frustration, but there are also signs of hope and moments of great joy. By the end of May they had come to the conclusion that the best people to help them in their work were not the catechists but the HIV/AIDS clients themselves. By then they had identified 14 clients with enough strength and sense of responsibility and leadership to undergo training in basic counselling skills. The one-week workshop took place in June and was a great success. There will be further training in November, after which 10 of the participants will be chosen as contact people for their particular areas and receive a small allowance. What the workshop did was to give these people a sense of their own value and dignity and a sense of solidarity with one another. Already they have proved invaluable, notifying when someone is sick, letting the people of their area know when there is a distribution of food, encouraging those who are clearly sick to go for counselling and testing. (And more come forward and are tested every week because they see that help is given) These contact people meet with Itai and Paulina every 2 weeks to share their experiences and pray together and strengthen their sense of solidarity. The pattern is to begin with a reading from Scripture and a faith sharing. Then each one speaks about what has been good in her/his life since the last meeting and what challenges they have faced.  Finally they report on the progress of the HIV/AIDS clients in the village or area for which they are responsible. The meeting ends with prayer after each one has enjoyed 2 big chapattis and a soda. They love these meetings and go off joyful and full of courage and a sense of mission.

Because of help from generous individuals, this emergency situation is now being contained. But the aim is eventually to find a way of making these HIV/AIDS clients self-sufficient, to find some projects that would enable them collectively or as individuals, to earn their living. They are destitute because they no longer have the strength to cultivate or walk long distances in search of water or firewood. Most of them moved away from their villages to one or other of the Moroto slums for that reason. They live from hand to mouth, close to starvation. This is the next problem to be tackled. After that, maybe, how to help the families, especially orphaned children, and how to encourage Behaviour Change programmes in the schools and parish groups.  There is plenty to be done right here in Moroto and plenty more in the rest of the diocese!