Katherine's volunteer work at Treatment Action Campaign

The Treatment Action Campaign caught my eye when we visited this organization in Khayelitsha during orientation in January.  While I have constantly heard that HIV/AIDS is a huge problem in Africa, and particularly in South Africa, I wanted to learn more.  I chose to focus my activist project at the Treatment Action Campaign because I wanted to be able to bring back information to my friends at home who jokingly have told me, “Don’t get AIDS while you’re in South Africa!”  Since the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in America is over and a much smaller percentage of the population suffer from it, I have little experience or knowledge of the problems facing the prevention of it in a country that is still struggling with such a powerful infection.

TAC wants to see an equal and integrated health care system that grants HIV prevention and treatment to everyone.  TAC wants all HIV-positive people to be able to live a healthy life by having the opportunity to receive full treatment services and prevention methods.  Through TAC’s many branch offices, the organization seeks to raise awareness about the issues surrounding HIV and other health issues, including tuberculosis.

I spent several Fridays volunteering at TAC.  I did not have a specific project in mind when I stepped into their office.  My main goal was to help TAC in the best way I possibly could.  At first I was disheartened because my first trip to the TAC office in Khayelitsha was rather hectic and unorganized.  People were buzzing by and I was having trouble understanding what the man who was helping me type a report was saying to me.  Fortunately after a few hours of being there I began to relax a little bit and understand the layout of TAC. 

When I got home, I talked to Ben about my concerns for my activist project.  He raised a point that I would not have thought of immediately on my own.  Ben told me that it is not always going out and trying to save people that is going to be my role in South Africa, but instead the little things that seem to be not very helpful to me are tremendously helpful to others.  Most of the people who work at the TAC office are from Khayelitsha and did not grow up with a computer in their house and did not acquire strong computer skills in school.  Fredaline, my supervisor, was happy to have me in order to help type of reports, meeting minutes, create calendars, edit newsletters, and assist other TAC employees with computer skills.  At first I thought that this was not much help, but after a few weeks of volunteering at TAC I was able to see that it did help.  While it may have taken a TAC worker over an hour to type up last month’s report, I was able to do it in fifteen minutes.  I learned through some of the reports about the issues of youth and sex education.  Schools in South Africa, like the United States, are not comfortable giving condoms out because the schools do not want to be seen as promoting sex.  It is imperative that schools begin distributing condoms because young adults are engaging in sexual activities and with such high rates of HIV/AIDS in poorer communities, condoms will help to slow the spread of it.  TAC is also working to mobilize the youth in order to get other young adults to listen.  Adolescents are more likely to listen to their peers than to adults.  TAC recognizes this and is holding youth workshops in order to educate teenagers about sex, HIV/AIDS, TB, and more.

I felt most helpful one day when I was assigned to edit TAC’s quarterly newsletter.  Although it was rewarding to help on such a project, it also worried me.  Since English is not most TAC member’s first language, the grammar in the English newsletter was very poor.  It took me a long time to go through all the articles and reword sentences in order to create grammatically correct sections.  Who would have done this if I was not there?  Who would have had to spend hours editing the newsletter instead of doing their own important task for TAC?  In addition, I learned a lot from the newsletter.  I found out about antiretrovirals and how they are administered to an HIV-positive patient if their CD4 count drops below 350.  I also read in one section of the newsletter that tuberculosis is commonly connected to HIV/AIDS because if a person has HIV then their immune system is much more susceptible to other diseases. 

It boggles my mind that TAC is working to tackle so many issues.  It was unfortunate that the last time I was at TAC all their computers had been stolen.  Luckily they were recovered at the police station though.  Even so, it is tragic to see that an organization that is working so hard to better a poverty and disease-stricken community falls prey to a setback like this. 

I was able to relate my experience at TAC to our class work through the connection between HIV/AIDS and violence against women.  It is not uncommon for a woman to contract HIV after being raped.  At least two women are raped everyday in Khayelitsha.  Every twenty-six seconds a woman is raped in South Africa.  Women face other problems as well.  Many husbands refuse to allow their wives to get tested for STIs and will beat them if the women do.  The shame that is placed on the individual and family members of a woman infected with HIV is very embarrassing.  A husband does not want his wife to get tested in case she is positive because it will bring disgrace to them and most likely mean that the husband is HIV-positive, too.  This relates to our class in several ways.  One major issue is the dependence a woman has on a man in the poorer areas because she is still not allowed to do certain things.  Also, the domestic abuse these women receive has been touched on during our discussions.

Finally, I hope to continue to be affiliated with the fight against HIV/AIDS when I return home.  I have recently applied to three internships that are focused on HIV/AIDS for the summer.  I have not heard back from any of the organizations quite yet: AIDS Action; Metro TeenAIDS; and the Friends of the Global Fight Against AIDS, TB, and Malaria.  I think it is important to recognize that HIV/AIDS is still a problem in the United States, even if it is on a much smaller scale than in South Africa.  Another way I will continue to link myself to TAC is by wearing my shirt that says “HIV POSITIVE.”  While most of my housemates bought the t-shirt, some of them have reservations about wearing the shirt when they return home.  I think it is a great way to show support for the HIV/AIDS community by wearing the t-shirt at home.  HIV/AIDS is still stigmatized at home and I am interested to see how people react to the t-shirt when I wear it.  I look forward to people questioning why I am wearing the shirt so that I can tell them there are many reasons.  The most important to me being that it does not matter if I am HIV-positive or not because those who have HIV are not any different from those who don’t and should not be shunned.  I support those who are battling the infection and will wear the shirt to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.