"Does it ever make you discouraged, when you work so hard in your program, only to see the infection rates stay the same or in some cases go up", I asked Angela, my guide for the day. Angela Chipeta is a young Malawian, enthusiastic about her job as a project coordinator for a Denmark-sponsored program on HIV/AIDS. "No", she replied. "It only makes me want to work harder"!

As Kingston drove us out to the district where her projects were located, I asked her many questions. "Is it that the people don't know about the dangers of HIV and how it is transmitted, or is it that they know but find it hard to make changes in their behavior"? "People know", she said. "You would be surprised! We could stop this vehicle right now and ask the first person that we met to tell us everything that they knew about HIV and AIDS, and you would be amazed at how much information that they would be able to tell you. It is more that people are in denial that anything bad could happen to them. They see their friends and family members sick, they go to the funerals and they feel bad, but the next day they go on with their lives in the usual way".

Change is hard. It is especially hard in Africa, where culture and poverty have such a powerful influence on people's behavior. In some villages where ADRA works, for example, it is considered an "offensive transgression of tradition" for a woman to refuse any man who approaches her for sex. It does not matter if she is married or not, or who is doing the asking, tradition demands that she oblige the request. Some HIV transmission happens even without sex. Even though some village elders will tell you that they have long ago given up initiation rites that have the potential to transmit HIV, when you investigate close enough you discover that the practices are still done. But perhaps the greatest reason that the problem of HIV/AIDS has not gone away in Africa is poverty. Some have even claimed that the real case of AIDS is poverty. People in poverty can know everything about HIV, but still engage in high-risk behavior, either for diversion or as a matter of survival. A disease that has the potential to kill in ten years means nothing to someone who needs something to eat today.

It is because of this that programs that work with HIV/AIDS have begun to change. Today, a good program on AIDS not only does education and awareness about HIV, but also informs about the vital importance of getting tested, living responsibly with HIV, women's rights, support groups, and properly caring for the infected in the village. It also establishes programs that care for the orphans in the village. It provides skills training and small loans to help people break free from the desperation of poverty.

I was delighted to see that Angela's program in Malawi was doing all of these things. The community based organizations that she has organized in the villages, form powerful bodies that influence change. Beyond education, they establish a strong solidarity group that provides advocacy for orphans, widows and gender rights. They encourage people to get tested. They put them in touch with the drugs that are available that will help extend their life, available for free in Malawi. They visit the HIV positive to make sure that they are taking the drugs properly and regularly. They teach how to care for the infected in ways that prevent the infection from spreading to the care giver. They make sure that the orphans of AIDS are protected, cared for and empowered with skills training on top of going to school. During our day it was wonderful to visit two workshops were young people were learning to be tailors and carpenters.



With their skills to keep them busy and self reliant, with their knowledge of HIV and AIDS, with the strength and protection that they can receive from their advocacy groups, and with the guidance of programs like ADRA and workers like Angela, perhaps there is hope after all, in the fight against HIV/AIDS. At the end of the day, I determined that I wanted to be like Angela, and instead of becoming discouraged with the statistics, only be inspired to work harder!