What We Are Fighting

Much of this is taken from a recent article in the local paper Times of Swaziland:
"The seemingly out of control rise in HIV infection has been blamed variously on gender inequality that denies women, who are legal minors, a say in having children. Despite King Mswati III's declaration of AIDS as a "national crisis", little additional government funding has been allocated to combating the disease.
AIDS is a vicious cycle. The more we are in denial about AIDS, the more people who should be cautious are reckless, and the disease spreads. Because people refuse to believe how widespread AIDS really is, they shun known AIDS sufferers, and treat them as isolated, dangerous individuals.
A combination of famine and AIDS is threatening the backbone of Africa-the women who keep African societies going and whose work makes up the economic foundation of rural communities. More than 30 million people are now at risk of starvation in southern Africa, and all of these predominantly agricultural societies are also battling the serious AIDS epidemic. This is not coincidence: AIDS and famine are directly linked. Because of AIDS, farming skills are being lost, agricultural development efforts are declining, rural livelihoods are disintegrating, productive capacity to work the land is dropping and household earnings are shrinking- all while the cost of caring for the ill is rising exponentially.
In particular, as AIDS is eroding the health of Africa's women, it is eroding the skills, experience and networks that keep their families and communities going. Even before falling ill, a woman will often have to care for a sick husband, thereby reducing the time she can devote to planting, harvesting and marketing crops. When her husband dies, she is often deprived of credit, distribution networks or land rights. When she dies, the household will risk collapsing completely, leaving children to fend for themselves. The older ones, especially girls, will be taken out of school to work in the home or the farm. These girls, deprived of education and opportunities, will be even less able to protect themselves against AIDS.
Because this crisis is different from the past famines, we must look beyond relief measures of the past. Our effort will have to combine food assistance and new approaches to farming with treatment and prevention of HIV and AIDS. It will require creating early-warning and analysis systems that monitor both HIV infection rates and famine indicators. It will require new agricultural techniques, appropriate to a depleted work force. It will require a renewed effort to wipe out HIV- related stigma and silence. It will require innovative, large-scale ways to care for orphans, with specific measures that enable children in AIDS-affected communities to stay in school. Education and prevention are still the most powerful weapons against the spread of HIV."
In our clinic, maybe half of our patients are orphans due to the plague of HIV. Cursed from birth with a doom-spelling scourge, these children are the ultimate victims, born crippled into a world where survival of the fittest has never proved more relevant. Mt 25:40 "Whatever you have done for the least of my brothers, you have done for me. Whatever you have not done for the least of these, you also have not done for me." If the Christian gospel is to be taken seriously, we find that our mission is every bit as spiritual as it is scientific and economic.