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Helping our neighbors in the time of AIDSBy Emily Churchman Camp Moses is a school and a home for disadvantaged children at risk of going to the streets. Usually this column chronicles developments related to our programs. But this week I wanted to talk about something that happened in the neighborhood where I live, outside of the school. Our neighbor was on his last legs. Or, he was even beyond that. Skinny and weak, he had a sore on his hip that had refused to go away. It had infected the joint and made it difficult for him to walk. So he just lay in his home, a single rented room with walls made of mud. His wife took care of their two children, a third having passed away some months ago after recurrent illnesses. She did her best to feed the family; sometimes finding small work, sometimes being given food or a few coins; sometimes getting by with nothing at all. When her husband’s health got very bad, the neighbors took up a collection to take him to the hospital, but the money they raised didn’t go far enough to cover all the tests and treatments he needed. Talking to our neighbor after he returned from the hospital, he was clearly exhausted and even though he talked about his plans for when he got better, it was obvious that he felt completely hopeless. One day another neighbor, with access to more means than the rest, took him to the hospital again. This time the tests and treatments were all paid for and he returned home feeling much better. His neighbor also paid for meat for the sick man to eat. The day after he got back, our neighbor was up and walking around. On the second day, he took his oldest son and enrolled him in school. His wife, once her husband was out of bed, was also changed. She swept out their room, did laundry, and walked her son to school. Currently he is trying to find a sustained source of medicine so that he will be completely well. His life now is perceptibly better. Of course, the man is still weak and must still confront the poverty in which he and his family live. The point is not that it’s a happy ending. But, it didn’t cost the neighbor, a Tanzanian, that much money and it didn’t take more than a few hours of her time to help him. And what she did made a huge difference in the lives of the man and his family members. Now, in the time of AIDS in Tanzania, we all have neighbors who need help and hope very badly, even if they aren’t always visible to us. It is easy for us to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of people in need and by the depths of their need. But small actions and small sacrifices go far when we work person to person, even if we don’t feel we have much to give. Of course the Tanzanian government, and the governments of rich countries, have obligations to work towards confronting big problems like AIDS on a large scale. But as human beings and members of society, we have a simple obligation, too; to help our neighbor. To find out more about LOHADA’s activities, please visit www.lohada.org .
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