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PrintBringing it home: caring for people living with HIV
Throughout the world, around 40 million people are living with HIV; about 75 per cent of them live in southern Africa. Most AIDS-related deaths are among adults in the prime of their lives. They are the people who farm, tend livestock, put food on the table, and care for children. Without them, many countries are falling deeper and deeper into poverty. The human impact of HIV cannot be ignored – and that’s why we must help people to rebuild their lives and their communities.
A good example of how Oxfam is achieving this is our work in Malawi. Oxfam trains and supports home based carers – local volunteers who, with supplies from Oxfam, support the sick, elderly, and orphaned in their communities.
Esther Peter, a home based carer from Malenga village. Photo: Carlo Heathcote/Oxfam
Esther Peter is a home based carer in Malenga village, in Blantyre Area of Malawi. “Home based carers like me are available 24 hours a day, if needed, so we have to be very flexible. I have seven children, but some are older, so I can share my time between them and visiting other people. Our group of carers is looking after 28 people: 10 women and 18 men. Oxfam has given us kits containing calamine lotion, paracetamol, cotton wool, bandages, antiseptic, soap, disposable aprons and gloves, to help us in our work.”
Distributing essential items
Carers like Esther also distribute essentials items, provided by Oxfam, to orphaned children and people living with HIV. Blankets, kitchen utensils, soap, basic medicines such as aspirin and anti-malarials – these simple things make day-to-day living that bit easier. Carers also offer counselling and help with household chores.
Simon Kafodya, Chair of the Village Committee, Tambala village, Mulanje. Photo: Carlo Heathcote/Oxfam
Developing home gardens
People who farm and grow food to feed their families using traditional, labour-intensive methods can’t continue this work if they are weakened by illness, so hunger is an ever-present threat in communities affected by HIV. Oxfam has provided seeds, fertiliser and training so that people can grow low-maintenance, nutritious vegetables in gardens right next to their homes.
“Oxfam taught us how to grow vegetables in kitchen gardens," says Simon Kafodya, from Tambala village in Mulanje. "At first, we thought that it would be difficult, but now we see the benefits and everyone is growing vegetables behind their home. We no longer have to buy them. And two years ago, only one or two people here had livestock – but Oxfam provided ten goats, and now almost everyone has a goat!”