We are so excited about a new project at the local clinic! A mobile clinic, complete with nurses, doctor and all the necessary medicine, will be visiting once a month to test, treat and counsel people for HIV/Aids!
Until now, people in the communities around us had to go to the closest town to get tested and treated for HIV/Aids. This town is about 4 hours on a bicycle and more on foot away from us… Imagine being sick and having to make this journey? We often took people back and forth, but even so, with HIV/Aids rampant under the Mwinika, many stayed untested and untreated. We often have deaths resulting from Aids in all the communities around us… It is heart breaking since many that contract Aids are “innocent”, as one friend puts it:
“They say that I should be faithful to my husband and make sure that I don’t contract HIV, and I am. But what can I do? My husband has another wife and I have no control over whom he (or she!) sleeps with.” Unfortunately women and children are often the victims of this horrible disease. How wonderful to have the best possible treatment right “on our doorstep”, not only to treat, but also to educate and inform.
Another friend, a close neighbour, came back from the clinic, beaming! Her husband died from Aids a few years ago. I never realized how afraid she was that she may have the disease too… She couldn’t wait to tell me that she tested NEGATIVE! I am so happy and relieved for her.
Testimonies like that of Shar, one of the Bible teachers who contracted Aids some years ago, got treated and is living a fairly normal live now, is having immense consequences… (You may remember Shar’s story: our partners asked your prayers for him as he was already dying. How faithful is God!). In talking to the doctor he shared that he is amazed about the reception they have in this community, so different from any other they have ever worked with. There seem to be no stigma surrounding testing and people openly went in their hundreds to the clinic to get tested. Being involved with people’s lives over the years effected by HIV/Aids have been one of the hardest things we have done while living here. However, the Lord is faithful and using even these tragedies to now save many others’ lives.
May God really bless the work of these doctors and nurses… may many lives be saved. And may informing people better about HIV/Aids hinder the spread of this virus.