Today I worked in the young adult clinic where patients range from 11 to 26 years old. I saw three patients who were newly diagnosed with HIV. When talking about their reaction to the news, each of them was apparently unmoved, almost dismissive. One woman even said to me, "Its what you expect living here." I asked the clinician I was working with about it, not sure if their guarded reactions were simply because they were talking to me, an outsider. Sadly, though, that is the reality and part of why prevention efforts are so difficult. Too many young people have grown up with AIDS being an ever-present (and untreatable) part of life and can't really see a way to avoid it - there is almost a collective depression around the topic, which is why clinics like this one are so important. Most of their community outreach workers are recruited from among their clients - volunteer kids who are unable to afford going to school (school is only paid for by government through sixth grade) and go out every day to set up VCT (voluntary counseling and testing sites) tents in their neighborhoods. They are very effective at convincing their friends to get tested - this one little clinic runs over 1000 rapid HIV tests per month. What's amazing, though, is how little education on prevention there is - very few clinics are allowed into schools (for legal reasons, I am told... the parents wouldn't approve) and though there is some education in school it is apparently quite minimal.
The saddest of all though are the young children - 11 through 15 who have been living with AIDS for their whole life. So many of the kids have been through so much - stigma, multiple illnesses, loss of their parents - that by the time they are in their early teens they just seem stunned. Most of them are very small for their age, don't do well in school, and many are orphans. There are definitely lots of services out there to help them but seeing them and talking to them is a sad testament to how much damage has been done to a whole generation of kids by this disease.
FACES clinic
for more info on the clinic http://www.faces-kenya.org/index.php
Map of Kenya
Kisumu is on the lower left near Lake Victoria
2 comments:
What are the cultural obstacles to education about aids? Is it grounded in religious piety as it is in the US? Why is it acceptable to test and not to educate about prevention? What did the young people have to say about being careful about spreading the disease? Can't imagine what its like to have these conversations Liz. But then I never fully understood how you handled the cases you saw in SF.
I would also like to humbly request the following pictures:
1. Something with you in the frame
2. Matatu in the Mud
3. Marketplace in the rain
4. Hippo
Yeah. I want to see a picture of you doing something.
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