WEARING a T Shirt emblazoned with the words “HIV POSITIVE” may not be your idea of standing up for yourself, but that’s exactly what Molly did to confront the stigma of her condition.
She was pregnant with her second child when doctors told her she had HIV and sent her home with a leaflet. There was no advice and no counselling, nothing to give her hope.
“I went home and gave away all my precious things then I sat down and waited to die. It was only when my daughter was born that I realised somebody had to bring these children up,” she told Oxfam worker Ian Falkingham.
Molly went back to her neighbours and asked for her furniture back. She then started wearing the T Shirt. Slowly her home became a centre for villagers worried about HIV and she became part of an Oxfam-backed project in
South Africa.
“The stigma and vitriol of people with HIV in her village was unbelievable, but Molly stood up and said ‘I’ve got this disease, you are all afraid of it, but I’m not going to lie about who I am’,” said Ian. “She became a one woman support group for women in the community. They would sometimes come in by the back door, but they would come to her house and ask questions.”
During his visit, Ian also met a doctor running a rape clinic, he told the Oxfam Shop Conference.
“She was the tiredest human being I’ve ever seen in my life. She was tiny and had furrows in her face. She gave girls HIV tests, counselling and advice. She saw 20 to 25 people a day, everyday, on her own. She seemed really pleased to see us. I think it was knowing that somebody cared enough to help.
“My trip to
South Africa was the most inspiring thing I’ve done in 24 years with Oxfam, seeing what a huge difference to people’s lives a small amount of money can produce. What we all collectively do is really, really important.”
Ian also urged us to back Oxfam’s GROW campaign.
“The world food system isn’t working. The credit crunch and bank collapse means that children in
Phnom Penh are wasting away.”
Cambodia grows rice, which is exported to
Thailand for processing. The global recession caused a 50% increase in the price of rice and 63,000 women in the Cambodian textile industry lost their jobs. A UNICEF survey of more than 1000 households in 15 villages found 38% of mothers reported going without food so that others in the family could have enough to eat.
“These women have to buy the rice back from
Thailand for the same inflated prices as everywhere else. In
Cambodia it’s women and elder sisters who are taking the weight of all this on their shoulders by not eating or eating less to feed their children. They are also borrowing money and getting into debt to buy rice.
“Sign up to the GROW campaign.”
GROW is about making sure everybody has enough to eat and is now focusing on the injustice of land grabs.
Oxfam worker David Hewitt took up the story. He visited
Armenia to see Oxfam’s work in action and discovered the super rich had grabbed the best agricultural land and shut down unproductive industries.
“In a world rich in resources, poverty isn’t inevitable, it’s an injustice that must be overcome,” he said.
The majority of the population are subsistence farmers on rocky, barren terrain where it’s difficult to get their produce to market, he said. Families live on £20 per month, which includes money sent home by the men of the family, who often work abroad. Oxfam is helping rural communities with small, but long-term projects such as funding a cold storage facility, which helps 5,000 people keep their produce fresh. Instead of their produce lasting one month, it now lasts nine months and they can sell it at the best price. Villagers share battered Lada’s for the 150km-250km journey to the capital. Previously they had no idea about the price of fruit when they arrived, now an Oxfam worker texts the market prices to the villagers and they make the journey when it's worth it. They are also looking at alternative ways of making money.
“Oxfam primes projects. We don’t want to fund them forever. We are trying to become redundant,” said David.
One example of this was a small medical building Oxfam refurbished and initially paid the salary of a trainee doctor treating common but basic problems such as dysentery, he said. It was valued so much in the village they decided to keep it going themselves. Each family chipped in £1 of their £20 a month. David was told: “We are all poor, we are just trying to help each other out of our situation.”
