by Deborah Bogaert

Earlier this year, a small group of ELCA communicators traveled to East Africa to visit programs supported by Lutheran World Relief through the Stand with Africa campaign. We spent 12 days traveling throughout the region and during that time got an in–depth, personal look at the AIDS epidemic’s effects on generations of East Africans. The programs we visited and the stories of the everyday people we met reflect a mix of success, hope, and challenge. Visible in all of them, though, is proof that our giving is having real and often lasting effects on people’s quality of life.

Uganda
Extending the Family
Two million of Uganda’s 24 million people are AIDS orphans. Approximately 25 percent of Ugandan households are caring for at least one orphaned child. The good news is that the HIV infection rate, which was around 13 percent in the1980s and 90s, has fallen to about 6 percent today. Still, the challenges of caring for these orphans are great in a country where 40 percent of the people live on less than a dollar a day; 60 percent lack sufficient clean water; and 10 million are without adequate toilet facilities. Even when extended families are able to take in an orphan, their already tenuous economic situation can reach the breaking point.

In the Luwero district of southern Uganda, a program supported by Lutheran World Relief, in partnership with Africa Medical and Research Foundation (AMREF), cares for approximately 4,000 children orphaned by AIDS. The program helps provide education and supports water and sanitation projects, but most significantly, it appoints guardians for children who have no living family members. The guardians, in turn, are taught to develop income-generating skills that help them become self–sufficient. This program recognizes that caring for orphans in the community is more beneficial to all concerned. It is also more economical: This guardianship program costs $120 per year per child, compared to $1,000 a year in an orphanage. Children, supported by education, vocational skills, the guardian system, and improved community infrastructure, tend to stay in school and their communities. The school dropout rate has decreased significantly, especially for girls.

We visited the St. Kizito Vocational Training Center, which serves 96 students, 53 of whom have been orphaned by AIDS and are supported by LWR and AMREF. Godfrey Kikonyogo is a young man orphaned by AIDS who will soon graduate from St. Kizito with training in mechanics and welding. Other programs include masonry, bricklaying, and carpentry.

Support for education would be for naught if the children were not cared for at home. Gladys Nabukalu, 64, lost her husband in the 1985 civil war. She has also lost all but one of her children to AIDS. With AMREF’s support, she cares for two orphans. Her crumbling home was rebuilt (She told us she "sleeps better now."), and she has a new water reservoir and a new separate cooking area that uses 60 percent less fuel than her old kitchen. Gladys, who has asthma, said she is grateful for how the new facilities cut down on her work — especially fuel and water gathering. She supports herself and her orphans by raising pigs to sell at a nearby market and by weaving mats, a craft she can work on while seated.

Yiga Moses, about 42, raises chickens to support eight children, three of whom are orphans in his care. He started his chicken business with a micro–loan of about $120 from AMREF. Now he has a big enough flock to fill two coops: one to feed his family and the other for eggs to sell. With the money he earned from selling eggs and chickens, he was able to pay back his loan in three months. Nine months after that, he purchased land in the names of the orphans he supports. Now, they will have land to live on and farm when they are older.

Katosi Women Fishing and Development Association
These inspiring women, most of them widows, came together because of the economic pressures on single women in their area. Some had lost their husbands to the civil war in Uganda in the 1980s; many more lost husbands to AIDS. To support themselves, they got into the fishing business — in their culture, a man’s trade. LWR helped them get around the middlemen in the marketplace, purchase a refrigeration system, set up an accounting system, and diversify when needed. The organization has since grown into a formidable association of about 50 women, and their business model is spreading to other communities.

Ironically, what they are known for — fishing — is no longer a viable source of income for them. The export market for fish from Lake Victoria has collapsed, so they now make their living predominately by raising and selling cattle, pigs, chickens, fruit, and other agricultural products. The women invested the money they earned from fishing into farming. They have also learned, with assistance from LWR, better farming techniques, such as keeping soil fertile, preventing erosion, and rotating plantings. In addition to diversifying their sources of income, they are growing and eating more balanced, healthier foods.

Association members abide by the association’s rules; for example, they meet every two weeks and are required to save money. Members must have at least 10 percent of a loan amount before the association loans them the balance. Loans range from 100,000 Ugandan shillings (about $55) to 1,000,000 Ugandan shillings ($555). A wheelbarrow costs about $55; a bicycle about $40; a pig is about $33, and a cow starts at about $450. Normally, loans are repaid in six months. The association has also bought land for women who repaid them over time.

Through micro-loans, the association is also helping members construct latrines and install water tanks. Sanitation–related illnesses are prevalent in this part of the world, and the Katosi women have made hygiene education and improvement a priority. A "lifetime," 30-meter-deep latrine costs about $275 to construct. Water tanks to store rain water are also a priority for their community and cost about $275.

As Margaret Nakato Lubyayi, the association’s director, said, "You only need a stepping stone to help you see what you can do on your own."

Tanzania
Service to Children
During the next leg of the trip, we visited families living in the countryside near Bukoba, a small city in the northwest part of Tanzania along the shore of Lake Victoria. Most of the people here live in deep poverty, in mud and straw houses with dirt floors. For our visit, families spread fresh hay on their earthen floors, and one mother even ran after us as we were leaving to give us some fruit. Our visits were coordinated by HUYAWA (a Swahili acronym for "Service to Children"), a program of the Northwestern Diocese of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania (ELCT).

HUYAWA supports children orphaned by AIDS and their guardians by helping them gain access to medical care when they become ill (many caretakers are also HIV-positive), providing funds for school uniforms and supplies, and providing legal assistance, often related to disputes over property rights. Many of the orphans are cared for by grandparents, but some have no guardians at all. HUYAWA visits these child-headed households frequently to ensure they are going to school, have adequate food, and that others are not intruding on their homes and property. In 2003, $4,500 from the ELCA World Hunger Appeal, through the Division for Global Mission and in partnership with Lutheran World Federation, was contributed to HUYAWA.

Martha Symphorian is raising three grandchildren. Her daughter, mother of Dennis, 15, and Rose, 13, died of AIDS about a year ago. Her son, father of Kennedy, 15, died of AIDS when the boy was only a year old. Because of the stigma of AIDS, Kennedy's mother moved away, leaving Martha to raise her grandson. A few years ago, Kennedy began showing symptoms of AIDS. At 15, he is much smaller than his cousins. When he is well enough, he excels in school, but when we met him, he was quite ill. During our visit, he sat quietly off to one side, appearing very tired.

Martha cultivates the banana and avocado trees on the family’s small plot of land and sees that the children get to school. Dennis hopes to be admitted to a vocational secondary school. A HUYAWA representative helps Martha get assistance to pay tuition (about $200 per year for each child) and takes Martha and Kennedy to a dispensary for medication. "Sometimes," Martha says of Kennedy, "you think he is ready to die, and then he comes back."

Audax Rwenyagira is 16. He and his sister, Justa, 15, have been living alone since their mother died. An older sister wants them to come live with her, but they don’t want to leave their land. Someone might destroy their farm or simply move in on their land, stealing it for themselves. Every day after school, the brother and sister collect water, gather food, and work their land. If they have any time left over, they think about homework. HUYAWA provides their school supplies and checks on them regularly.

As you can see, the lives of many people in Africa have been devastated by AIDS, but through your support of Stand With Africa, they are offered hope. Many are cared for and now have real opportunities to improve their lives, thanks to your gifts. A little help really does go a long way.

Deb Bogaert is director for communication, Women of the ELCA, and a contributing editor to Lutheran Woman Today.