Global Giving UK: No Pretty Pictures

Island Hospice Bereavement Service Zimbabwe

This blog post is entitled “No Pretty Pictures” because I really couldn't take any. 

• Death sentence
• Hopeless case
• Pain 
• Poor  
•  No happy Ending

These are the first five elements that came to mind when I sat to think about the kind of circumstances that Island Hospice reaches out to. Nothing could have prepared me for the scenarios I came face to face with and the real life stories of how sickness and disease can make home life complicated and difficult. How effortlessly illness can strain relationships and bring them to breaking point. I saw in all truth how the shona saying, “Nhamo yemumwe hairambirwe sadza” (….the troubles of someone else don’t stop you from eating) can be brought to life.

The last thing I wanted to write about was a sob story. The last thing I wanted to write about was pity or pain. I wanted to emulate good stuff, to take pictures of smiling faces, to document victory against all odds. What I wanted was a heroic story but reality doesn't always work out like that.

The truth of the matter is that cancer is killing people effortlessly. The truth of the matter is that HIV/AIDS is still leaving children motherless and fatherless. The truth of the matter is that Mai XXXX XXXXX who I met at a home visit struggles to clean her house, to cook for her son, to walk, to talk, to sit up. Her husband works during the day as a builder and at night as a security guard. He is never home. Majority of the meager salary he makes goes towards her pain medication. Only the really strong stuff will work, it’s expensive. All three of them live in a two roomed wooden cabin with an external bathroom shared with 15 other people. Every week she has a duty to clean this bathroom and nobody in the compound cares that she is sick. The lady next door will do it only for a fee. It’s not her fault that Mai XXX XXXX has cervical cancer.

This is her reality.

YYYYY YYYY is HIV positive. Although she is 24 she looks 15. She is so skinny. She has a two year old daughter, TTTTTT, who had an on-going cough of up to two weeks before I met her at Mabvuku Clinic. TTTTT was very quickly losing weight and as I looked upon this child helpless to her circumstances my heart ached. Anti-Retroviral Drugs are free in Zimbabwe but YYYY YYYY isn't on them yet. Why? Because her husband (who is also HIV Positive) won’t let her take the meds.

How ridiculous does this sound?

What logic is there behind such blatant fallacy?

I don’t understand.

Why?

This is hers and her child’s reality.  

14 year old NNNNN is also HIV positive. He is only in grade 3 though. He has a physical and mental disability. He lives with his 16 year old brother and father. Amai Vakashaya (Mother died). It’s his brother that takes care of him and brings him to the clinic for medication. In the nurses room NNNNN is asked how he is today. He smiles shyly. When asked by nurse JJJJJJ what she can do for him today he says, “Nurse ndinemaronda” (Nurse I have sores). Nurse JJJJJJJ asks him where and he lowers his head in shame. The large sores are on his head, his back and his private parts.

This is his reality.

We all want a happy ending but chokwadi ndechekuti pano hapana (the truth is there is none here).

“Most donors are happy to give to something whose fruits they see in the physical but if someone has been given a death sentence there is hardly any sunshine in the horizon.” This is what Val Maarsdorp the Director of Island Hospice said to me.

“So what you do?” I asked.

“You make today better. You make a happier now. You do what you can to see each day through. You encourage, you support, you try hold things together.”

Life is for Living.

Life is for Now.

The nurses, counselors and caregivers at Island Hospice face these situations daily. They love their jobs, they love people. NNNNNNN, YYYYY YYYYYY, TTTTTTT and Mai XXXX XXXX need theirs, yours and my support to get by. To make today better. To make a happier now.

You can be a part of the work Island Hospice is doing by donating to them through Global Giving UK at: http://www.globalgiving.co.uk/donate/1116/island-hospice-and-bereavement-service/

You can also give of your time by volunteering. Island Hospice is desperately in need of support staff. You can help out at the reception desk or with some admin work. They are currently understaffed with a very heavy work load.

The Island Hospice address is:

6 Natal Road

Belgravia,

Harare

Telephone: +263-04-701 674

XOXO

Chido Dziva Chikwari

P.S This project visit was made possible through Global Giving UK. Global Giving UK is an organisation that supports grassroots projects and charities world over.

You can also read my introductory blog post about Island Hospice work here: 

http://myheartsimpressions.blogspot.com/2013/08/globalgivinguk-introducing-island.html

Or visit their website: http://islandhospice.org/