Care Givers Day Celebration

In Chikankata where Christianity is practically at its best, hardly a day pass by without some sort of celebration - a celebration of friendship, care, love, peace, hope, and of course, LIFE!

This time round, it's a DAY for the 'Care Givers', who earned the title of 'heroes' through their commitment and sincere dedication towards the care of people living with HIV/AIDS within the community and the homes.

Zambia, with 15% of its 12 million people having HIV and with a heavy disease burden to bear upon its own shoulder, however, does not lose hope or give up the fight. People like our care givers here are assurance we had with whom we share a common faith of overcoming one day. It's hard to predict when that day will be. But once a change has occured 'inside' with resultant resolve to face positively, then it's already happening. We are heading towards dawn.

<--The main carers of orphans due to AIDS are aunts and uncles but, with increasing ill health and deaths among them too, elderly grandmothers are increasingly also becoming the main carers. In Zambia, more than one-quarter of all children under 15 are already orphaned, and an estimated two-thirds of rural households like here in Chikankata already look after one or more orphaned children. To be in a household containing orphans has become the norm, not the exception. It can also be said that there are only two kinds of people. Those infected with HIV and those affected by it.

The first response to problems caused by HIV/AIDS comes --> from the affected children, families, and communities themselves, not from government agencies, NGOs or donors. This is because the impact of AIDS is experienced first at individual, household and family levels, and gradually more widely in the community. Since such is the case, I think Chikankata AIDS programme is doing the right thing by empowering the individual, family and the community in its fight against AIDS.

<--However, given the scale of the problems and the fact that those hardest hit are often the most disadvantaged, this first response will be insufficient on its own. Additional assistance from governments, NGOs and donors is crucial. For example, like here where each community health assistant is given a bicycle through funds coming from certain donors like the ones mentioned below.

United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-->

<--The Salvation Army Red Shield Services and others

The Salvation Army World Services Office (SAWSO)-->

<--Our 4 year old daughter Melissa has already started learning much about HIV and AIDS through her father's demonstration using her multipurpose learning board. And I belief this is a simple but significant step every individual can take towards making our community and the world a better place to live in.

"I am a very lucky little boy. My father and mother died. I am an orphan and I am infected. But I am living with a foster family and I am strong and healthy....You can't get AIDS by hugging, kissing, holding hands - we are normal. We are human beings". A testimony of Nkosi Khumalo Johnson, an 11-year-old boy with AIDS, a presentation he made during the XIII International Conference on HIV/AIDS in Durban, July 2000. He died one year later in June 2001.Your care and concern counts. Whoever we are and whatever we may do, we all can be 'Care Giver'.