My Mom, My Superwoman!

Today is a very important day – my mom’s birthday!! My mom is my oldest friend, literally there from the very beginning! She has spent the last 23 years of her life raising Nina, Nick and me into the smart, strong, passionate and unique souls we are today. And I’m proud to say that I’m a lot like her. We both take on any opportunity to travel to new places and meet new and interesting people. We both can spend long hours on the phone talking about not much in particular. We both hate shopping for ourselves, but can always find a reason to buy for others. We are both serious nerds when it comes to reading and discussing infectious diseases. We love taking photographs, and will make you smile for five minutes straight if that’s how long it takes to get a good shot. The list goes on and on!

My mom is such an incredible, constant pillar of strength, love and support in my life. She has always been there for me through everything. From the piano recitals to the Honolulu Marathon, from helping me get ready for school dances to helping me through multiple moves in New York City. She’s the one that’s always there to listen when I get emotional (which is often), and has found a way to talk me through every difficult moment in my life. Unfortunately, her birthday this year comes at a very difficult time for our family, and I’m very sorry that I am so far away, when she has always been there to support me no matter what.

My mom and me in Hawaii (after the marathon!)

MY MOM IS A SUPERWOMAN. Her selflessness is the inspiration behind the work I do every day for Keep a Child Alive. Keep a Child Alive was founded on a mother’s love, inspired by one woman’s fight for the AIDS medication to keep her little boy alive. In 2002, royalties from Leigh Blake's previous fundraiser, Red Hot & Blue, built the AIDS Research and Family Care Clinic in Mombasa, Kenya. When Leigh arrived at the clinic, she met Anne, desperate to obtain the anti-retroviral drugs that her three-year-old son Brine needed to survive. Leigh was so moved by Anne and her courage that she decided to pay for the medicine. What started as payment for the drugs for one young boy has expanded since with Keep a Child Alive to fund the treatment and care of more than 45,000 people in Africa and India.

The AIDS pandemic in Africa is bringing more superwomen like Anne, Leigh, Rhona and my mom to the forefront. With more and more parents dying from AIDS, grandmothers are raising their grandchildren and teenage girls are raising their younger brothers and sisters. In addition to becoming the primary caretakers, these superwomen are actively seeking AIDS medicine for these children left behind. Keep a Child Alive funds the anti-retroviral therapy at the Blue Roof, and we welcome all mothers and children in need!

Happy Birthday Mom! Take today to take care of yourself. Jam out to Alicia Keys, and celebrate the superwoman you truly are!!

“The state of humanity is wearing on my shoulders, I got to find the strength in me…’cause I am a superwoman, yes I am…’cause even when I’m a mess, I still put on a vest, with an S on my chest, oh yes, I’m a superwoman.

This is for all the mothers fighting for better days to come…and all my women, all my women sitting here trying to come home before the sun…and all my sisters coming together saying “yes, I will,” “yes I can,” ‘cause I am a superwoman, yes I am…’cause even when I’m a mess, I still put on a vest, with an S on my chest, oh yes, I’m a superwoman.”

We Are All In This Together

Last week was another busy week at the Blue Roof! Just how I like it. Unfortunately, Rhona was out sick until Thursday, and there are a number of items that cannot move forward without her approval, so I spent the week preparing and managing as much as I could without her. She’s feeling much better now – back to her vibrant self! – so I’m sure next week and the weeks that follow are going to be even busier as we continue to make things happen!!

One of the things I am currently working on is helping furnish the clinic. We intend for one of the rooms upstairs to become a learning center, filled with computers and a library, where we can teach computer literacy classes to our staff and patients, and offer a study space for the youth group. This guy Kerwin represents one of the companies we are quoting for the job, to provide us computers and a wireless network for the clinic. He stopped by last week to check on the status of the job, and then he ended up talking to me about my stay here and how I should really get out and see South Africa or I’ll regret it (which I know already, and we’re trying to figure out the car situation, but there’s a lot of other things going on as well!!). After he said goodbye, he caught our accountant Duane in the hall and we ended up talking even more, which led to a discussion on how vastly different lifestyles in South Africa can be. He was saying that whether he moved to the U.S. or Canada, London or Johannesburg, his lifestyle would not change dramatically from what it is right now. He made the point that people who live comfortably in South Africa are often incognizant of the fact that there are people not too far away who do not have access to clean water, let alone medical care. I think this is symptomatic of many places in the world – because even in NYC, people get used to walking out of Bloomingdales and passing beggars on the street without the slightest recognition. And I think when it comes to South Africa, you might wonder how people can be so blind, but depending on the areas that you live and work in, the country’s poverty level may be even less obvious than it is in the States. It’s interesting to think about how easy it is to live in a bubble and feel unaffected by things happening to people right in your immediate community. The province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa has an HIV prevalence rate of 40% (http://www.avert.org/safricastats.htm). Imagine you’re at an assembly of some sort, sitting in an audience. Look to the person to your left. Now look to the person to your right. According to these stats, at least one of the three of you is infected with HIV. I often talk about how inhumane it is for people in the rest of the world to feel detached, unaffected and irresponsible for the HIV pandemic in Africa, but it’s important to realize many people in Africa feel just as detached, unaffected and irresponsible, due to the circles they run in. If you aren’t witness to the masses of dying people that statistics report, then what makes you connected?

The social work interns started work here last Wednesday, and it is great to have them here as an added service to our clinic. Once we hire a social worker, she will oversee them, but for now, they are working with our VCT counselors. When our patients come in for doctor’s appointments, to pick up their medication, or to get tested, our staff will inform them that they have the option to see a social worker as well, if they are interested. Since the social work interns are still students, they cannot make any formal recommendations and take the action that a certified social worker can, but they can identify urgent concerns and make Dr. Itua and the counselors aware, so we can address the issue as soon as possible. I created daily reports for them to fill out with regards to their work here at the clinic, which will help us keep track of their contributions to the clinic, and learn how we can improve the system.

Rhona came in for half a day on Thursday, which was good for her to ease back into things, and we also had a bunch of meetings that she needed to be a part of. First, we met with East Coast Architects, who are slowly but surely clearing up all the building snags from construction of the new building. The main issue is that the big items that remain to be completed – the parking lot needs to be tarred, the roof needs to be repaired, and the electrical cabling needs to be properly set up to handle more electrical power (for air conditioning, etc.) - could potentially need more funding than what we have right now. This week, we will be following up with the guy who handles the account for the renovations, so we know exactly how the funding was spent and if any money remains to address these outstanding items.

Our next meeting was with Eric from Human Health Development Trust. LOVE HIM! Human Health really wants to work with us to get all the people in the community who have HIV and TB on treatment, and they are willing to train our staff for FREE to make sure that the job gets done! They are going to train our VCT counselors and our HBC workers on TB-DOTS and Home-Based Care, and they are going to train all the staff on HIV/TB counseling. Once the training is complete, they are also going to conduct the assessments, so our staff can be SETA-accredited, which is very exciting! This training will enhance the quality of care our team provides to patients on a daily basis!

For my next meeting, Nicole, the receptionist, took me to the Austerville Clinic for their community meeting, which is about a five minute walk away from the Blue Roof. There I met volunteers from Happy Hearts and Senzane Care Center, as well as nurses and representatives from the Austerville Clinic and Wentworth AIDS Action Group. I’m so happy I was able to attend because it really gave me some perspective on how the different community clinics can really work together to address the medical needs of the very poor in Wentworth. There was still an air of competition though. What’s silly is that we all exist for the same purpose, and there is always going to be a need, so why can’t we just all work together to achieve our common goal? The meeting also gave me great insight into the kind of community council that KCA wants to start for the Blue Roof. I have to be careful about how I proceed here, because I don’t want the councils to be in competition either, but my impression of this meeting was that it focused on the needs of the Austerville Clinic and what the community can do to help them. So then, every clinic should have a meeting that focuses on their needs and how the community can contribute. Or, alternatively, these community meetings should be held in a neutral location, or held at different locations every month so that the meetings are not so focused on one organization’s needs versus another’s. I mentioned something about us getting sewing machines donated so we can set up an empowerment program for our patients to make clothes on site – and a woman at the meeting mentioned different organizations that would be willing to donate fabric for the initiative. I’m very excited about looking into this and getting this and other empowerment programs rolling!

Another thing I noticed is just how blessed the Blue Roof Clinic is for having the support of Keep a Child Alive. During the meeting, various concerns raised by those present all came back to funding in one way or another. "We want to do this, but we need funding." "The government is going to fund the repairs to our roof, but we do not know when, so we just have to wait." Keep a Child Alive has made the beautiful new building at the clinic possible, and donations from people just like you help Keep a Child Alive continue to sustain the programs and services that our clinic provides to so many patients in need.

My day was not over just yet! At 4:00PM, I met with the Blue Roof youth. There were ten kids present today, a few more than last time, and I hope the numbers will continue to rise in the coming weeks. I’m going to ask all the kids to bring someone new to the Blue Roof meeting next week, or an old member that hasn’t been to Thursday meetings yet. Using the KCA College Program and the KCA Kid Power initiative as a guide, we discussed how to fundraise and the different events we could do. The majority of them want to do a fashion show, which is very ambitious, but I’m confident we can get it together!

I also talked to the kids about participating in the Youth Day that’s being hosted next weekend by WOW (Women of Wentworth), but unfortunately, they did not want to have anything to do with it. There is apparently some kind of animosity between the Blue Roof youth and the WOW youth, because the kids were very adamant about “having nothing to do with them.” It’s so unfortunate, because all the different community clinics are working for the same common goal, there is no reason to be in competition with one another, and not support each other’s work. The more support we give one another, the more effective we will be as a movement! I’m going to contact all the other advisors for the youth programs in the area, and see if we can orchestrate some kind of youth team building, where all the programs have to work together!

On Thursday night, Rae and I attended a braai (barbecue) that the German students living on Rhona’s property were hosting. We weren’t sure if it was still happening because it was raining, but we wanted to show up just in case! And I’m glad we did, because it was indeed still going on, and it was a lot of fun! The girls that stay on Rhona’s property are Marisa, Anna, and Uti, and they are the sweetest! Everyone at the braai, except for Rae and myself, were final year medical students, and they are in South Africa doing their practical, which has got to be fascinating! Next week, the girls are going to come shadow Rhona at the Blue Roof, and I’m looking forward to share with them all the incredible work that is taking place here!

Friends and Family Taking Action

I was so excited to check my email this week and read a KCA College shout out to my brother, Nick! Nick has started a KCA Chapter at New Hanover High School, and he is teaming up with my best friend Amanda Guy, who has just started a KCA Chapter at UNCW! KCA College is an action-oriented network of high school and college students who support the mission and work of Keep a Child Alive. KCA College members raise awareness of the AIDS pandemic on campus and take action by fundraising for Keep a Child Alive to provide ARVs and surrounding care to children and their families living with HIV/AIDS.

The new KCA Chapters at New Hanover High School and UNCW are going to give students in the Wilmington area, a fun and exciting way to get involved with AIDS activism. Our generation has never known a world with AIDS, but with the enthusiasm, passion and dedication of students like Nick and Amanda, people our age can be the force behind beating the pandemic. AIDS is preventable, treatable and stoppable, yet it continues to devastate the lives of millions of people. It is a human imperative for every one of us to do something to keep our brothers and sisters affected by HIV/AIDS, alive.

Me, Mike and Amanda at AIDS Walk NY

In Amanda’s own words:
“I will work as hard as I can, but I cannot do it alone…Students can truly make a difference. It only takes $1 a day to keep a child alive and these children cannot even afford that. We have to do something and I think by starting this club and doing what we can to raise money and awareness, we can make even the tiniest bit of difference.”

You can see the difference you make right here with the stories I share about the patients you help keep alive at the Blue Roof! To join Amanda’s amazing efforts, click here to join the KCA at UNCW Chapter. To join Nick’s mega Chapter at New Hanover High School, click here. Nick and Amanda are already planning to host a screening of Alicia in Africa: Journey to the Motherland (available to watch for free on www.aliciainafrica.com), to raise awareness about KCA’s life-saving work, and get their peers to “give a buck!” Click here to learn more about the KCA College “Who Gives a Buck?” signature fundraiser.

My brother Nick, my sister Nina, and yours truly

In Nick’s own words:

“We can make a difference in peoples lives and this is one of the great ways in doing so.”

I am so grateful to Nick and Amanda for joining me and KCA in the fight against AIDS! The funds they raise at home will continue to make my work on the ground possible! If you have an idea on how you can help, email me at noelle@keepachildalive.org!

RIght and Privilege

Rae, the woman who owns the apartment I’m living in, came to Durban last week to make sure that everything was in order in the flat and the other house she rents here. She has been staying with me since Friday in the extra bedroom, and it has been really nice having someone around to spend time with!

On Saturday, after my run, I went to the beach for a few hours while Rae ran some errands. The ocean was absolutely BEAUTIFUL today, with rolling waves, one on top of another! I guess the waves were no good for surfing though, because there were no surfers in sight! And the water was very cold!!

On Sunday, I was heading out the door to go running a little before 8AM, and I ran into Agnes standing right outside my door! Agnes is the woman who cleans one of the other flats in the complex, and offered to clean my flat once a week for 80 rand (which equates to about $8.00). This is actually the second time that I’ve opened the door and she has been standing right outside! I don’t know if she knocks, and I just don’t hear, if she just stands outside and waits for me to open the door, or if it really is coincidence where both times she arrives right when I’m headed out. Rae stayed in the flat with Agnes while I went for my run.

After my run, I made breakfast, and had a chance to speak to Agnes a little. She asked me about how much it cost me to be trained as a social worker. Her daughter wants to go to school for social work, but Agnes was saying that it was just so expensive, was it worth the job? I explained to her that I love what I do, so in my mind that makes the degree worth it, and I was reminded of how blessed I am to have the job that I have. In college, I didn’t major in social work, or international health, or international relations, or program management. I majored in broadcast journalism and cultural anthropology. And while I really enjoyed what I was studying, my journalism and PR internships taught me that I wanted to do more than report the news. I wanted to go one step further from spreading awareness, and take some action, so I figured out a way to use the skills I gained from college in AIDS activism. It is important to remember what a luxury that is, for me to have been able to choose what I wanted to study, and then to still be able to choose an entire different career path. And I’m not the only one – most of my friends from college, and even high school, are pursuing a career off the beaten path of what their major set them up for. It may be normative for the circles I run in, in the States, but such flexibility is a privilege in South Africa.

The difference is evident even before children begin school, in school fees. Unlike the States, where if you pay taxes, you can send your child to any public school for “free,” South Africa requires school fees for public schooling at all levels, which makes it enormously difficult for many children to even begin attending school. There are amazing people working to eliminate school fees at the primary school level in South Africa, but what happens after that? Can you imagine never being able to go to school again after the 5th grade? I was in school for the next TWELVE YEARS. Just think about how different our lives would be if we had to become adults at age 12, because we could no longer go to school and needed to work to survive – or because we lost our parents to AIDS and needed to work to keep our brothers and sisters alive. I can’t even count the number of times growing up that I asked my mom if I could stay home from school, or how often my friends and I spoke about just being done with school and getting out in the real world. Rhona was telling me the other day about a little boy that is a refugee from Zimbabwe, and is currently staying at the Agape Orphanage, another site that Keep a Child Alive funds. She told me that all he wants to do is to go to school. How many 12 year olds in the States do you know who want to go to school? Agape was able to arrange for him to begin his schooling here, and they are currently working to ensure he is able to stay here, as a Zimbabwean refugee.

If you come from a family that can afford your school fees, the South African government permits you to go to school wherever you wish, unlike in the States where you attend the public school that is in your school district. There are three different types of schools in South Africa – public schools that are fully funded by the South African government (lowest school fees), Model C schools that are partially funded by the government (more expensive school fees), and private schools that receive no funding from the government (most expensive school fees). As is often the case in the States, the schools that are more expensive tend to have better programs for students, because parents can afford to contribute to the maintenance of the school, its facilities and programs. Schools in rural areas are subject to fewer resources and less financial support from parents, so their programming and facilities are more limited.

The limitation that I find most interesting is that students must decide in high school, what career they want to pursue. If you want to be a doctor, you need to take the necessary science courses in high school for a university to even accept you in the program. And when you begin applying to university, you cannot apply as “Undecided” and then spend the first two years of schooling changing your major five times (like I did) before you decide what you want to do. You apply to a specific program of study, like social work, you get your degree in social work, and you become a social worker. If you decide during your study that you want to study something else, you have to begin all over again (which I know is sometimes the case in the States depending on the university and what your degree is in). And often, even though degree programs in South Africa cost only a fraction of what they cost in the States, most people cannot afford to start over and study something different.

On Sunday afternoon, Rhona hosted an engagement party for her older son Brevin and his fiancé Diedre. It was the first time that both families had spent time together, and it was a lovely evening. There was so much love and joy at the gathering – and it felt so good to be a part of the family! The party also made me miss my own family terribly! At one point, I met Viola, one of Diedre’s cousins, who is 17 and a senior in high school. She had overheard me speaking to someone about majoring in journalism, and she asked me how I liked studying it, because that is one of the careers she is considering pursuing. I explained to her how I loved every minute of studying journalism, but it wasn’t directly related to what I am doing now. She was shocked, and she shared with me how much pressure it was to have to decide what she wanted to do for the rest of her life when she was applying for schools. And I thought I was under pressure with my college applications!

I often think about how different my life would be if I had applied to study piano or acting in college. I had the privilege then to choose “undecided.” I had the privilege to choose where I wanted to study “undecidedly.” And I had the privilege to choose what field I wanted to pursue whether or not it related to what I ended up studying. I believe that every human being has a right to an education. But what does that right stipulate exactly? Do you have the right to be educated up to a certain age? Do you have the right to a free education? Do you have the right to choose how you use your education? And why is education considered a privilege to so many people, when so many other people take it for granted? Every day I work hard to ensure people’s right to life, but what about the right to learn?

Spread Love!

Join me and spread love this weekend with a Keep a Child Alive Valentine's eCard!

You can also download printable cards to share with everyone you love! Visit this link and spread love today: http://valentines.keepachildalive.org.

Helping Out at Home

Blue Roof Clinic staff meetings are held every Friday, and they have proven to be a great place for everyone to share how their week went, what was accomplished, what we are continuing to work on, and so forth. The meetings begin and end in song, led by the nursing sisters and Moussa, our groundskeeper, which is a beautiful way to center everyone into the purpose of the meeting. These staff meetings are really valuable because they reinforce how much all the programs can support each other’s work.

I’ve been running every day since Saturday – I hope I can stick with it! After my run on Saturday, I showered and headed down to the beach. This was the first time I had to really spend some quality time on the beach, so I was really looking forward to it! I set up on my beach towel with my book for about two and a half hours, and it was glorious. The waves were good, so there were lots of surfers out in the water, and there was one guy on the shore with a long camera lens to catch some action shots of the surfers. All the kids on the beach were really excited about the big camera, and they stood in awe just watching the photographer work from behind.




When the sun got a little too hot for me, I packed up and took a walk along the shore, and then headed up to the seaside restaurant, the Green Dolphin, for lunch. After lunch, I returned to my apartment, and saw that Bucks had been by with the electrician while I was at the beach, and they hooked up my stove, which is very exciting! I can cook now!! The breeze was really nice out, so I sat out on the porch and finished reading my book, Race Against Time by Stephen Lewis. The book is a transcript of five lectures that he delivered for the CBC Massey Lecture series in 2005. I had the privilege of meeting Stephen Lewis and hearing him speak at the Keep a Child Alive Student AIDS Summit in November 2008, and so I could really visualize him delivering these lectures, with great passion and conviction.



The lectures relate his extensive experience working within the United Nations, and his frustrations with how policy surrounding HIV/AIDS relief is developed and never fulfilled, and the reasons why. These are five quotes I found very telling:

With regards to the negligence of the international community to effectively address the HIV/AIDS pandemic:

“I often wonder, in an increasingly jaded way, how long the children of Africa will have to wait before the world delivers.”

“I’ll devote every fibre of my body to defeating this viral contagion, but I cannot abide the willful inattention of so much of the international community. I cannot expunge from my mind the heartless indifference, the criminal neglect of the last decade, during which time countless people have gone to their graves – people who should still be walking the open savannah of Africa.”

“It is absolutely possible to turn the pandemic around. And please believe me, I know how tough it is: I spend a good chunk of my life at ground level watching the heroic battle for survival in the face of incomparable odds. But what continues to be lacking is the sense of emergency, the fire of effective leadership, the consuming passion to cut through the cerebral doldrums and save lives, save lives, save lives.”

With regards to how prevention and treatment services must be dually supported, because they are deeply connected when it comes to resolving the HIV/AIDS crisis:

“With treatment comes hope, and with hope comes testing, and with testing comes prevention, so that what we now have, in country after country, is the single-minded pursuit of keeping people alive.”

And finally, words from a woman in Swaziland, who is working as part of an income-generation project:

“We work so hard to keep the project going that we have no time for sex. That’s our contribution to preventing the spread of the virus!”

I find great value in reading works like Stephen Lewis’s Race Against Time, because they remind me of how multi-faceted the issue of HIV/AIDS truly is, and that while Keep a Child Alive continues to make a great impact in the life of individuals, much remains to be done to impact the millions of lives that have been devastated by this disease. We cannot do it alone. We need everyone on board. We need the public to care and hold our international community leaders accountable to do something about it. When international community leaders begin to actively develop attainable solutions to curb the problem, and hold country leaders accountable for seeing solutions through, perhaps then, we will begin to see a major difference in the global face of AIDS.

I spent Sunday afternoon laundry. I didn’t have a lot to do, but it took me a while because I went to the laundry and there was only one washer, and it was being used. The woman using it told me that the only kind of coins the machine took were old 5 rand coins, which I had none of, so I walked down to the Green Dolphin to ask for change. Then I came back waited for the machine to be free. When I brought my stuff to the machine, I realized that only one of my coins was an old 5 rand coin, so I used that one for the first load, and then had to go exchange money again! This time, I went to the hot dog stand down by the pool. Then, I had just enough to finish my laundry, or so I thought. When it was time to put everything in the dryer, I realized that I misplaced my last old 5 rand coin. So then I went to the neighbor’s house and exchanged more money for old 5 rand coins! I guess the upside is that I’m starting to get to know the familiar faces around the complex. Bill, the guy who runs the hot dog stand actually struck up a conversation with me, and I found out that his son lives in Wilmington, NC! It’s funny. As I begin to travel and see more of the world, I realize more and more just how small the world truly feels!

And then I think about how interconnected people in this world are with one another. Our every day actions – and inactions – directly or indirectly impacts the world around us, which grows smaller every day. So then why do so many of us still feel so disconnected when it comes to issues like HIV and AIDS? The disease is ravaging the African continent, large parts of Asia and Latin America, and has even established itself within the United States. So why do so many of us continue to sit idly? Would it be different if it were your brother or sister? When does a human life become important enough to fight for? For me, even though my time spent in Africa has been relatively minimal, I have never felt more at home. I resolve to do everything in my being to continue to help my African brothers and sisters overcome the devastation they continue to endure from disease, poverty and political corruption, and help renew the beautiful African spirit I know and love.

AIDS Walk NY 2009!

Mark your calendars! AIDS Walk NY is happening May 17th, 2009! It remains to be seen whether or not I will be in South Africa or back in New York by then (I'm working on being in two places at once!), but either way, I can still fundraise - and so can you!

The Keep a Child Alive team goal this year is to raise $10,000! You can help us get there. Join the Keep a Child Alive team today and start fundraising with me, or sponsor me as one of their walkers!

Think about it: the funds we raise together will directly contribute to the treatment and care at KCA sites, including the Blue Roof Clinic! Help me help KCA continue to make a difference in the lives of our patients!

Getting to Know the Blue Roof Clinic

I have noticed that the people I work with at the Blue Roof take enormous pride in their work, which is an amazing quality, and something I am blessed to be in the midst of. Therefore, I have to be cognizant of how I approach people with regards to improvements to our clinic’s programs. “This is where we are, this is where we want to be, how do we get there?” I am working very hard to keep it clear to my colleagues that I’m just here to help! Together, we can get this clinic to the next level of care that we want to provide to the community here.

Earlier in the week, I met with Randall, the assistant pharmacist, who also volunteers as the advisor for the Wentworth Youth Revolution – the Youth Development Program we have established here at the Blue Roof. According to Randall, the program currently has about 22 active members. Life skills and education surrounding HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness have been the main focus of the program thus far, but we are looking to enhance the program’s role to support the overall activities of the Blue Roof. There is a lot of potential for this youth program to thrive, and it can actually sustain itself with consistent youth action. The restructured program will empower them to be involved with the clinic on a daily basis if they wish, and will give them the skills and resources to fundraise for the clinic and raise greater awareness about the clinic’s presence in the community. I’m looking forward to seeing the progress of this initiative in the coming months!

Yesterday, I met with Thuli, Cynthia and Kathy, our brilliant VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) counselors to discuss the VCT program and the psychosocial support program that they manage. For our clients who test negative, they counsel them on safe sex practices, and encourage them to return every three months to be re-tested. For our clients who test positive, drug adherence classes are offered three times a week, in English and Zulu. One of the challenges we have encountered is that many of our patients have difficulty getting to the clinic because they cannot afford bus fare, and the adherence classes are later in the day when they cannot get a ride from friends en route to work. Often then, the patients who do attend adherence classes are there only because they had an appointment with the clinic earlier in the day, but they always express how happy they are to be here. I am going to work with our counselors to develop empowerment programs that can be offered in the early mornings, so patients can come early to learn a skill and then stay for their adherence classes. For example, our patients could eat breakfast at our to-be-created patient “café,” and then participate in a morning empowerment program (computer tutorials, physical fitness classes, textile training, and so forth), before their adherence class. We also intend to arrange VCT drives twice a month with various community organizations during the next three months.

Another challenge the clinic currently faces is the need to educate the families of our patients, especially those in more rural areas. The stigma associated with HIV continues to be an obstacle to our AIDS relief efforts. Many of our patients have told our counselors how they lost the support of their families once they found out they were HIV positive. Can you imagine? One woman recently came in for her doctor’s appointment, starving, because her sisters would not let her cook food from the same pots and pans they used, and she had not eaten in days. I am going to work with our VCT counselors to explore ways we can extend our psychosocial support services to our patient families, to help break the stigma that results in such physical and emotional abuse.

We had a beautiful day at the clinic today, though. Our support group meets every Thursday here at the Blue Roof, and today they began planting in our community garden. You could see everyone having such a wonderful time, planting all the different seeds. They planted all sorts of vegetables, which, once grown, will be used to prepare nutritious meals for our patients on a daily basis. At one point, our patients broke out into song, which I was privileged to witness and catch on tape.

I apologize for how shaky it is – I hope you can still gather from the footage the strength that was felt by all of us in that moment. It is so inspiring to see how simple a task can empower people. I am going to work with our amazing VCT team to develop more activities like the community garden for our patients to participate in, so moments like these can grace the clinic all the more often, and so our patients will have items like the garden that they can look at and say with pride, “I was a part of that.”

Preparing the seeds

Preparing the soil

Cynthia, one of our VCT counselors

What a beautiful team effort!

Moussa, our groundskeeper

This afternoon, I met with our Home Based Care workers to talk to them about the state of the program and what they would like to see happen. We have been providing home based care to people in the immediate community, but realize that a greater need lies in the areas just beyond Wentworth, Durban. We purchased a vehicle to ease access to these communities, and as soon as it is ready, which will be within the next week or so, we will begin running the home based care program at full speed, visiting patients every day during the week and as needed in emergencies. Our caregivers are thrilled to be positioned to bring our services to those in desperate need in the wider community!

After work today, Rhona and I passed a house near my apartment that had caught fire. The fire department was already at the scene and had contained most of the flames, but it was still a horror to behold, and made me think of what it means to have nothing. Every day we work with patients who visit our clinic because they have nothing, no change of clothes, no food, no family support system, nothing beyond the treatment and care they receive at our clinic. And the family that once lived in that burning house, their possessions have been reduced to nothing. So yes, my stove may not be hooked up yet, I may have no access to Internet or phone in my flat, I may have left my glasses in New York City, but I still have so much more than I could ever possibly humanly need.

And with that in mind, I have been thinking a lot about the people right outside our clinic’s gates. I wish there was more we could do for them. There is a tavern situated next door, and we are desperately trying to remove the part that they so boldly attached to our building. And every time you walk outside our gate, there are people wandering drunk all around, and begging for money. It’s difficult for me because I spend my days helping our clinic work more efficiently to help more people, but there is no immediate help we can give to these people right outside our gates. It is in situations like these that I recall the most valuable lesson I’ve learned from my own sister in recovery: it’s not up to me. When they are ready to be helped, they will seek it out. The same goes for the people in this community living with HIV. Keep a Child Alive can create all the services and have all the resources available at the Blue Roof, but people have to be ready to help themselves. Only then will our work begin to make a real difference in their lives.

Weekend Recap

Last weekend, Rhona invited me to the baptism of her niece Carly. It was so nice meeting Rhona’s family! And everyone was so funny about meeting me, because Rhona’s son is named Nowell too. So every time I say, “Hi, I’m Noelle,” they look at me for a moment thinking that I’m going to finish the sentence…”Hi, I’m Noelle’s girlfriend, so-and-so” or something to that affect. And then, everyone looks at Rhona and says, “Oh! Another one!” I guess no one is used to having more than one Noelle in their life!

Mama Rhona and Baby Carly

I also moved into my flat last weekend! It’s a very sweet place, in an apartment complex right next to the beach! There is no Internet access and hardly any cell phone service, but we are working are remedying those issues! Once I settled into my flat, I went down to the beach and took a walk on the shore for a bit. It is really peaceful, and I hope to spend a good amount of my time there over the next three months. I really love the beach, although I still have yet to find beaches as nice as the ones in North Carolina!

The Indian Ocean

Every morning since I moved in, I wake up at 5:30 AM to the shrieks of birds. They are called hadidas, and I guess they operate similar to a rooster, and announce the sunrise. It can be quite startling, but it’s kind of cool at the same time to have such a natural alarm clock.

I consider myself a pretty low maintenance girl, but I am still consistently reminded here that convenience is a luxury. I thought NYU in Ghana and the hot NY summers had prepared me for unbearable heat, but I have never appreciated air conditioning more than I do right now (my flat does not have air conditioning)! Also, I did not realize how often I operate on the Internet until I no longer had 24/7 access to it. After I leave work, I have very limited forms of communicating with anyone really, which is daunting…and at the same time, refreshing. I am re-learning the virtues of patience, living on necessity, spending time with myself, and depending on others. Everything is a process, and most things are more challenging than they seem like they should be, but there is a very strange beauty to that. You have to be resourceful, and really work for what you want, even if it means climbing a hill to receive a phone call.

Where I Live

First week, first impressions

Having lived in NYC for the last four years, I’m accustomed to the express plane trips back and forth to Wilmington, NC, where US Airways crowds three seats across and charges you for everything that could possibly make your flight more comfortable. Maybe it was the free headsets and endless episodes of House, but flying KLM economy is probably the most luxurious thing I’ve done in a very long time! Keep a Child Alive is able to visit our sites as often as we do through their Flying Blue program, where you can donate your air miles for our organization to use. (Visit the Get Mobilized page on www.keepachildalive.org to learn more)

Rhona, the Clinic Director for the Blue Roof, picked me up from the airport in Durban, and has been like a mother to me ever since I arrived. I had dinner with her family, with her wonderful husband Bucks and beautiful daughter Bronwyn. They also have a son named Nowell, who I met a few days later. I have never known another person named Nowell, and neither has he. We talked about nicknames to tell us apart, but we have the same nicknames (Noe, No-no) so I guess it’s going to be fun figuring out who is talking about who when! The flat they’ve arranged for me to live in was not ready to move into when I arrived, so I booked a room at the African Peninsula Guest House. It is such a sweet place, and the people that run it are so supportive of Keep a Child Alive’s work, and they always take such good care of us! I would highly recommend the African Peninsula as a place to stay if you want a lovely alternative to the more commercial resorts in Durban. Check out the view!


Excited to be in a new place, ready to start the new year right, I woke up early last Wednesday morning to go for my first run of 2009. It was pouring rain out, and I thought, “I ran the first half of the Honolulu Marathon in the rain, I think I can handle 30 minutes.” Rhona tells me that usually there are lots of people running along Marine Drive early in the morning, but not this morning! The only other people walking along the road were those walking to work or the bus stop. Their eyes smiled at me as I passed by, soaking wet, and I could hear them thinking, “Silly white girl! Running in the rain!”

After breakfast, Rhona picked me up and we went to the Blue Roof. It is a sight to behold! My imagination is already running wild with different ideas on how best to use all the additional space in the new, beautiful building! I met our amazing team at the Blue Roof – including Nicole and Wendy in reception, Shona and Randall in the pharmacy, our beautiful home-based care workers, the Sister nurses, and dear Moussa, the groundskeeper. The enthusiasm of the Blue Roof team is infectious, and I am confident that together we will make great things happen during these next few months.

The Blue Roof Clinic

Blue Roof Waiting Area

Blue Roof Downstairs

Blue Roof Upstairs

It rained all day Wednesday and Thursday, so Friday I was finally able to enjoy some of the beautiful weather I kept hearing about! It’s hot and humid, just like our North Carolina summers at home, just my style. After my run, I had breakfast at the guest house with Happiness, who cleans and cares for the guest house. She is so sweet! She asked me if I was in school here, and I told her that I worked at the Blue Roof Clinic, an HIV/AIDS clinic. She told me she was too scared to be tested and so I asked her why. She said that she thinks that if she found out she was positive, she would be so scared of dying, the thoughts alone would kill her. I explained to her that the clinic has medicine now that can keep her alive and help her live a normal life, but if she doesn’t get tested then she will never be free of her fear. I gave her a pamphlet with more information on the Blue Roof. I hope she comes to visit soon.

Sunrise

Ngiyanemukela! Welcome!

There are so many things I could share with you here, so many different approaches to take in documenting my experience, living and working in South Africa. There’s so much I want to convey, where do I begin?

I guess I’ll start by introducing myself. Hi, I’m Noelle. I’m 22, a relatively recent NYU grad (May 2008 holla), and I work for this mega wonderful AIDS relief non-profit, Keep a Child Alive (KCA). KCA’s work is focused on providing the life-saving AIDS medication and surrounding care to children and families in Africa and India. To date, we’ve provided treatment and care to more than 45,000 people, and that number continues to grow with the generous support of people just like you.

I joined the Keep a Child Alive movement upon returning from my study abroad extravaganza with NYU in Ghana in Fall 2006 (my very first blogging experiment is archived at http://noeinghana.blogspot.com). During my time in Ghana, I volunteered at West African AIDS Foundation, and when came back to the U.S., I was eager to do more for the cause. I gravitated toward the KCA College Chapter at NYU, and since the very first club meeting, I was hooked. I cannot count the many hats I’ve worn as a part of the KCA team for the two years that have followed, but every role and experience has taught me that making a difference is really just about doing what you can, with what you have, where you are. (Thank you, Teddy Roosevelt)

So here I am, proudly assuming my new role as the Program Coordinator for the Blue Roof Clinic in Wentworth, Durban, South Africa. The Blue Roof Clinic is the first clinic wholly owned and operated by Keep a Child Alive, bringing our dream of comprehensive HIV care to life in a community where its services are desperately and urgently needed. We moved into our brand new state-of-the-art facility in December, and I am here to ensure that all of our programs are running as efficiently and effectively as possible. I'm looking forward to these next three months and all the hard work that is in store!

Thank you for joining me on this journey...