Living Positively with AIDS...Some help from TASO!

Inspiration and hope were two things I found while visiting The AIDS Support Organization (TASO) this morning. The organization is one of the largest and most successful AIDS focused organizations in all of Africa. Aside from providing anti-retroviral programs to over 60,000 patients, they also have 11 offices and village health teams on the ground in almost every community. Today I had the honor of speaking with one of the “higher ups” in TASO. Her name is Sarah and has been spending the past few months strategizing for the future of TASO’s outreach programs and sharing her vision with everyone around her. I spoke with her for only an hour and a half, but she inspired the hell out of me. She did it with the way she spoke of progress and potential. She did it with the way she spoke of her love for influencing the lives of all Ugandans, especially adolescents. I can’t put into words how thankful I was for her time and perspective on my task: to help further health education in the rural village of Kikandwa.

Our discussion focused mostly on strategies. I found that especially in rural areas, there are many misconceptions and myths that must be combatted first before the retention of health content can occur. For instance, the topic of contraceptives is one surrounded by myths in the rural community. Many village men think that their wife’s use of contraceptives means they are either unfaithful or think that they are being manipulated by more developed countries that seek to undermine the progress of Uganda. After all, more children and a larger population should mean more people to be productive members of society, right? What they don’t see is the complete lack of control this often gives to the women of the community. They don’t seek the lurking monster of inequality in the situation. Unfortunately, this often influences the lack of any contraceptive use in the rural communities, and restricts such use to the more privileged women, mostly in the city.

Additionally, we spoke on strategies to use within the village to conduct research. This included things like talking to men and women separately, staying out of the earshot of local elders with questions, and utilizing a local (young) translator. Each one of these things adds to the probability of receiving truthful and effectively communicated information, and all have cultural justifications too lengthy to explain here and still keep your attention ;) All in all, today was an amazing day. With the meeting, I will now be able to collect information and ask questions that will lead me to construct a truthful account of the community’s current position with health education.

Can’t wait to leave for the village on Sunday! Jangu tugende! (Come, we go!)