The O akville Beaver, W e d n e s d a y D ecem ber 8, 2004 - B 5 Scourge o f HIV/AIDS in M alaw i explained a t Appleby By Wilma Blokhuis OAKVILLE LIVING EDITOR AIDS is a worldwide epidemic caused by HIV, a virus that is spread through unprotected sex, from mother to child, by sharing dirty needles and through blood transfusions and blood products. It is not spread by shaking hands. Not everyone who is HIV positive develops AIDS, and not everyone who is HIV positive is aware of it. HIV attacks the body's immune system. In Malawi, a small poverty-stricken country in southern Africa with a pop ulation of 1 1 million, one million are either HIV positive or have AIDS. Andrina Simengwa is one of them. A young woman, she discovered she was HIV positive when she was 17 after she was tested. Shame and stigma resulted in her dropping out of high school, and fear had her praying in dif ferent churches asking for healing. About two years later, she started tak ing the medications that slow down the effects of being HIV positive. Simengwa, a youth leader with the Greater Involvement of People with HIV/AIDS (GIPA) is spending three months at Appleby College working with students involved with the Dignitas-Appleby Youth Initiative under the guidance of teacher Aparna Singhal. The group meets daily with Simengwa, who was hired as a resource person. She returns to Malawi on Friday. The Appleby group is associated with Dignitas International, a group of international health experts based in Toronto responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. Dignitas' goal is to work in countries to prevent, treat, care and support people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Dignitas empow ers and mobilizes Canadian youth to get involved. The Dignitas-Appleby Youth Initiative has developed presen tations to create HIV/AIDS awareness GLEN O AKS' WILMA BLOKHUIS / OAKVILLE BEAVER D r. Katherine Rouleau of Toronto and Andrina Simengwa of Malawi spoke recently about HIV/AIDS at an Appleby College public forum, in the community. She spoke about her country's, and her personal battle with AIDS at a pub lic forum at Appleby. "HIV/AIDS is the greatest problem in my country," she said softly. " HIV/AIDS has reached devastating proportions." The statistics are grim. About 60 million children have been infected worldwide', and some 20 million have died, said Simengwa. "Currently, 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS, of which 95 per cent live in developing countries," she continued. "Out of every 10 HIV infect ed people, seven live in sub-Saharan Africa. About one-third of them are aged 15 - 24. Simengwa falls into that age category. "When I was 17,1started to feel sick internally," said Simengwa, adding she felt feverish. She turned to the church for healing. "I was praying at a church every week but was having a hard time because I was not feeling better after attending church services. So I thought I would try to go to other churches to see if it would make a dif ference. It was not easy because I felt that I should become relieved from the prayers in church, but I couldn't see or feel any changes inside of my heart and mind." Despite her fears, she got tested. "I knew something was wrong and although I was scared to get tested for HIV, I felt that I needed to do some thing about my own health. HIV test ing in Malawi is fairly easy, but people do not want to get tested because they are scared of the results and don't believe the tests are valid. "When I found out I was infected, I was psychologically disturbed," she continued. "I wanted to be isolated from everything and felt as if I was alone in this struggle." She hesitated to tell her family, fearing their reaction. "When I found out I was HIV posi tive, it changed my life. I did not get treatment right away because I did not know enough about the disease and did C o b b le S lO N E m not know that there were drugs avail able to me." She was not told about medications that stop the ravages of the disease. Two years later, " I became so sick that I thought my end had come. I thought I was going to die. But I kept trying to get better and finally found a doctor who told me that medications were available for HIV." She started taking anti-retroviral therapies to stop the virus' attacks on her immune sys tem. Four months after she started taking the medications, she felt well enough to go back to school. Simengwa was in Oakville to speak out about HIV/AIDS. " I want to tell people all over the world about this dis ease, and give HIV/AIDS a human face, and a voice." As for her work with the students in the Dignitas-Appleby Youth Initiative, she said, "it's important to educate young people about HIV/AIDS because this is a problem that affects us all. You all need to protect yourself in your everyday lives, but you also need to take responsibility for what is happen ing around the world." Simengwa said some of the church PISCES M A R I N E es in Malawi are providing spiritual counseling for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families, and they also have support groups to educate local communities, peer education aimed at preventing HIV and sexually transmitted infections, income gener ating activities and vocational training for people living with HIV/AIDS, plus provide care and support for children orphaned by AIDS. Some advocate fidelity and abstinence as a means of stopping the virus, said Simengwa. "Religious, national and communi ty leadership must break the silence, challenge the stigma and eliminate the shame associated with HIV/AIDS. Church leaders, public figures and any individual must have the courage to talk openly and without judgment about adolescent sexuality, about vio lence against girls and women and about drug use in a spiritual way. " It continues to bring great suffer ing to the people of Malawi in terms of physical, psychological, emotional and spiritual devastation. The spread of the disease of so pervasive that it threatens the most productive group in Malawi." See 'Intricate'page 118 Christmas Clearance O N A LL I N -S T O C K B O A T S A N D M O T O R S L1 4 3 6 M S R P $ 1 ,5 7 1 .6 3 N O W $ 8 3 3 .0 7 F S 1 8 5 W / T R A IL E R M S R P $ 2 2 ,6 4 4 N O W $ 1 3 ,3 8 5 .5 2 b e iS ^ Masonry & Fireplace .9 9 Design S pecialists 3 Evm nuD E «J o h n s o n J1 5 R 4 5 R M S R P $ 2 ,8 7 5 N O W $ 2 ,4 0 0 Announcing-a Special New Facility Dedicated to Faith and Family Glen Oaks is pleased to offer crypt spaces in the new Padre Pio Mausoleum... starting as low as §3,100."" FREE OFFER! 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