A Grim Reality In Swaziland
September 03, 2008
Below is a blog from my new friend I met on FB Ericka Bennett during her visit to Swaziland. What I hope to accomplish these next few weeks is to bring awareness to a problem that when seen, will change lives forever. By sharing Ericka's emotional experience that is truly enough to last a lifetime. I hope to encourage many with another story about a woman who is dying from AIDS that got a second chance at life. A inspirational story that I will be posting soon along with a video. To encourage as many as possible to respond to the call for mercy, and to give hope to those who have none.
We understand that helping a few will not wipe out AIDS entirely. But it will put a dent in a figure of casualites the disease will claim that day.
I WILL NOT BE SILENT : (the harsh truth about
Posted in Africa by Ericka Bennett on
I haven't had much time to slow down since I got home from
But in the quiet moments I find here and there, God is starting to bring it all to mind. Today He brought to mind Elizabeth, the widow we found dying in the dirt outside her shack in Nsoko. Pastor Gift asked us to go and pray for her, so we set off on the dirt path. As Rusty, Molli, Faith and I walked up that afternoon, all of me wanted to scream...
There at our feet, lay this emaciated woman. She was too weak from AIDS to speak, to eat, to move. Dirty, sick, and covered in flies, this widow lay dying as her daughter and grandchildren looked on. It was almost more than I could take. "IT'S NOT FAIR!" I wanted to SCREAM. "IT'S NOT FAIR! Why is this precious woman DYING IN THE DIRT?!"
I dropped to my knees by her head, waved the flies away, and began to stroke her hand and her face. She struggled to move, and finally found enough strength so that she could reach and hold my hand. "She just wants to be touched," I thought. "She just wants to know the world hasn't forgotten about her... that God hasn't forgotten about her..."
Molli knelt at her feet, Faith crouched beside me, and Rusty knelt and put his hand on her back and began to pray. He prayed for God to comfort her, and for God to take her home to be with Him - away from her pain and suffering. I couldn't hold back the tears as he prayed for her... the injustice of it all was just too much.
WHY does she have to die like this? Just because she's in
I composed myself enough to pray over her, and then, in my heartbroken state, did a poor job of singing the only SiSwati song I knew over her. Moments later, still wiping away tears, we walked away...
Elizabeth died the next day.
Africa is the region hardest-hit by HIV/AIDS, and also experiences poor sexual and reproductive health & rights (SRH&R) indicators. Young people, a huge proportion of the population in Africa, have an enormous need for SRH&R and HIV/AIDS information and services, but face cultural, social, economic and legal barriers that impede their access. Poverty, gender-based violence, discriminatory laws, policies and cultural practices place women at increased risk of HIV/AIDS and poor SRH outcomes. Although with proper nutrition and treatment many HIV positive people live long healthy lives, they often experience stigma and discrimination, and denial of their rights. Interact Worldwide works with partner organisations to build their capacity to improve access to and quality of services for young people, women, people living with HIV/AIDS, orphans and children made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS, and other marginalised groups, and to empower these groups to demand and exercise their rights to these services and information.
Stay tuned.....for next you will see how helping one woman like the one you read above can change not only her life, but the lives of many like her.