The Truth about Backpacks and HIV

Backpacks:

On Friday we traveled to many of the outlying villages to meet with the Community Health Volunteers of St. Gabriel’s with Alex, a palliative care worker. These volunteers give up time in their busy lives to receive some basic medical training and to provide care for those in their respective villages. If their patient’s conditions take a turn for the worse or they feel that they can no longer provide the care he or she needs, the worker refers the patient to St. Gabriel’s.

In the past Beyond Traditional Borders had supplied these community workers with heavy-duty backpacks and a variety of medical equipment. Friday’s meetings were for the programs first follow-up. Surprisingly the backpacks from two years ago all seem to be in working condition and still in good use.

Personally, I have been skeptic about the CHW (Community Health Worker) Backpacks. When we packed ten more packs with equipment and supplies during pre-trip days I wondered how this system could possibly be sustainable and therefore effective at all in the long run. When I arrived to St. Gabriel’s and saw the Frankenstein of foreign aid, I categorized our backpacks into jumbled aid.

On Friday’s meetings we mainly listened to the volunteers’ thoughts and suggestions about the backpacks. I was really surprised by how thankful these volunteers were for our desire to have follow-up meetings. They said it showed them that they were not alone and that they had support. Many said they felt empowered and encouraged just by having met with us. One of the groups sang a song of thanks for us at the end of the meeting. (Liz took a great video of it, check out her blog!)

I am still skeptical about sustainability of the actual backpack itself. Volunteers do have concerns about the slowly but surely disappearing medical supplies. The hospital supplies them sporadically due to budget cuts. But I have discovered that the empowerment and encouragement the workers receive from the backpacks and our follow-up fuels sustainability of the community health worker program. Truth is, the backpack is successful in giving the workers their identity but is failing to be really sustainable.

HIV:

Today Liz and I went into the HIV/AIDS clinic for Children’s Day. Every month children and their guardians make their way to St. Gabriel’s to get ARV refills and general check ups. Many children often come by themselves. Entire families here are affected and ravaged by this virus. Mothers and Fathers die leaving their HIV positive children with aging Grandmothers and Grandfathers.

I worked the CDC donated computer system for the clinic. It was downright depressing to see child after child receive “SEVERE WASTING” warnings as I inputted their height and weight.