A bit of everything

Aids is making many victims here and it will for the quite some time in the future. Being diagnosed and living with HIV has an enormous stigma here; I have heard so often during the house visits that no one might know they are infected; it is a big secret. Sometimes even partners do not know, so they can easily infect others. In this culture it is not uncommon that men can have multiple wives, therefore the rate of infecting others is high. If family members know about some one being infected with HIV, that person runs the risk that he/she will be abandonded completely. Many families have fallen apart because ofHIV/Aids and especially the women and children are the victims. Education that will change the general opinion towards HIV and Aids will be a key to a solution, but that is definitely not an overnight solution. I strongly believe that education is a key to end poverty, a key to knowledge and knowledge is power. According to the doctor who visits the center weekly, there are some programs at school, but the subject is an extremely sensitive one and programs are not very well implemented. A lot of work needs to be done by mostly private organisations; since the government is not doing enough if anything at all.

On a lighter note; one of the clients of PDH, Olivier, who has had the opportunity to follow a vocational training, has now a very well running atelier, where he makes beautiful tailor made clothes for the whole family. Saskia and I went last week to have an outfit tailor made for us. First we selected a model from the two brochures they had and we went to a fabric stall to select pagne, traditional Togolese fabric. Saskia was able to buy the fabric right around the corner, but I selected only a color purple and the style of the fabric. You have to bring your own pagne to the atelier and that was something we had not done. A few days later Olivier came to the center and we had to go to the Grand Marché, the big market here, since he could not find the right color. So in a taxi we went and we selected my fabric for a Togolese style outfit. We are very curious to see the end result; it can be ready any day now....

Another client of PDH with HIV makes beautiful paintings, or at least that was what he did before his family fell apart because of his HIV diagnosis. He is very artistic and I have seen two paintings of him at the wall. We talked about his life and his love for painting during one of the visits and he asked me if I was interested in having him make a painting as a very special souvenir. After thinking it over, I decided to go ahead and have him make a painting of Saskia and Erica. I had taken several pictures with me; since many people here love to see family pictures . As a basis he uses a color picture where facial features are clear. Today during a follow-up visit I saw the work in progress, and also here I am very curious to see the end result. He was far more optimistic today as he was the last time I met him; he was now doing something he loved doing and he was earning money as well.

Since the internet connection is very slow, it is not possible to upload pictures. They will have to wait until we are back home.