It is sunny and windy today – Mozambique’s winters are full of cold evenings and still colder dawns. We are to visit two unusual places in one day – DREAM, an AIDS treatment center, and a high-security prison.
The first DREAM center was established ten years ago by the Community of Sant’Egidio. It is a modern clinic, where AIDS can be diagnosed and treated according to the world’s highest standards. It is a clinic, where you can see “All Is Free Here” written at the entrance, where doctors smile and ask in what conditions you live and whether you have anything to eat. If you don’t, they will give you something.
In the center we met a beautiful and elegant woman named Olivia. She has AIDS. The woman was diagnosed 15 years ago, when she, 30 at the time, weighed 21 kilograms. “Take this pill and come over when you feel worse,” state-run hospital medics advise Olivia. They know her diagnosis but choose not to disclose it: why should they sadden the woman if there are no medicines in any case? “After all I came to know what the problem was and began to prepare for dying – AIDS seemed a death sentence to me,” Olivia says. But she suddenly came across a friend who told her about DREAM centers, where one can take treatment and, hence, stand a chance to survive. “I was treated and felt better. I couldn’t believe all this: doctors talked to me and smiled… Now I work here. I tell patients that a cure is possible and they needn’t fear. Nobody usually believes that I am sick, too,” Olivia says assuredly, boldly, and, at the same time, very sensitively – although she tells her story almost every day, she seems to be re-living it over and over again.
After the center we go to the high-security prison. There are 800 detainees here today. Issuf, who accompanies us, used to be one of them. His wife had died of AIDS, but her father accused Issuf of murder. The man was taken to this jail, where he spent 14 months. When Issuf was telling me of those events, I saw tears in his eyes. In prison he met a priest who helped him to be released. Issuf learned that he had AIDS, too. He began a course of treatment as part of the DREAM program and got to know the Community of Sant’Egidio. Now he comes to this prison once a week to offer a prayer to inmates. It is difficult to imagine what it means to get back to a place like this… Issuf says he has forgiven the people who put him inside – he only expects his father-in-law to come and apologize to him one day.
Coming into the chapel, the prisoners greet and shake hands with him. One of them says: “I am very happy that you visit us, for we feel human in this case. We feel that we can still be of need for society.” Tears glisten in Issuf’s eyes. There are a lot of birds in the small prison chapel. They sing in a loud and ringing tone. The prayer ends with a sign of piece: under a Catholic tradition, people shake hands with each other and say: “Peace be with you.”
What else shall I say about Issuf? Still undergoing treatment, he begins to work at the DREAM center. He once meets a longtime female friend of his, who looks worn out in a heavy condition. This woman’s name is Olivia. They soon get married. A fully healthy girl is born to these two AIDS-affected people.
The Day’s FACT FILE
Olha MAKAR is a student of the second year of the Master’s Program “Mohylianska Journalism School” at NaUKMA. She is the active participant of the International NGO Community of Sant’Egidio founded in Rome in 1968. Today the organization working in over 70 countries is aiming at overcoming the social injustice, cultural and religious stratification of society. In Ukraine the principles of the Community are shared by the movement called Friends of the Community of Sant’Egidio. Its volunteers take care of aged people, help homeless and those who have to panhandle in the streets of the Ukrainian cities.
This summer, as a volunteer of the Community, Olha Makar went to Mozambique to work in the children food center. She shared her impressions about the country and processes in it with The Day.
