Comboni Samaritans Gulu bringing hope to HIV/AIDS patients

 

YEARS ago, St. Daniel Comboni in his dream wanted to serve Africa with Africans. Before he died, he left his light shinning all over Africa in the faith of Comboni priest, sisters, brothers, more so in the native priest, catechist and the laity at large.

 

Bearing all this at the back of his mind, the late Fr. Paul Ottolini in 1992 founded the Comboni Samaritans of Gulu organization that has since been helping people living with HIV/AIDS in the war torn region of Northern Uganda .

 

With his co-founders, Sr. Giovanna Scalabria and the late Dr. Mathew Lukwiya the people living with the killer disease have found life within the community. The seeds planted by Daniel have been watered and has bore the fruits for the glory of his name.

 

With a mission derived from the commandment of Jesus "Love one another as I have loved you" and the church mission, "of promoting life to its fullness", the Comboni Samaritans of Gulu have drained stigma from the HIV/AIDS infected people.

 

SUPPORTIVE: Caring for the sick.

 

The Christian NGO under the Gulu Archdiocese has and is continuing to support HIV/AIDS patients, sponsor orphans and vulnerable children in education. The other activities that are currently ongoing is the sensitization and prevention of HIV/AIDS, generating income multipliers activities for the people they care for. They are categorized under Health, Education, Youth and the saving Cooperative. The support is extended to the people of Gulu, Kitgum, Pader,

Amuru, Apac, Moroto Kotido and Masindi districts.

 

At the beginning of the Exodus, the founder man used to move in the communities for prayer and later realized there were sick people in the society and the disease they had contracted was quite strange and the sick had been abandoned.

 

The Organisation Director, Florence Okech Aol (flanked by Sr. Fernanda Pellizzer) explains that Fr. Ottolini became so concerned and started giving material support to the sick people and had to involve Sr. Giovanna Scalabria.

 

"When father realized that the problem was more than big, he involved Christian Communities saying the sick needed love and care and this is how Dr. Mathew Lukwiya came in. At the beginning, the response was poor but they later responded. They did not know what the disease was and many people related it to witchcraft but after realizing what it exactly was the community became so supportive.

 

"Dr. Lukwiya sensitized people in church about the disease and they pulled money from their pockets to assist the infected people until Sr. Dr. Dorina Tagiallo formed a group of volunteers called Good Samaritans that she extracted from the bible.

 

CREATIVE: Items made by HIV/Aids patients.

 

“The group was spiritual and the attitude of loving our people with the values of fighting HIV/AIDS. The Christian value of solidarity, respect was understood

and sunk into peoples minds. These people were willing to share with other families in life. The volunteers were not educated people but they were taught and quickly they learnt what to do," said Okech.

 

Currently, Comboni Samaritans has about 170 volunteers who help people living with HIV/AIDS to adhere to the conditions laid down on the use of ARVs. There are care takers at zonal levels who stay and care for the patients.

 

The organization has also sensitization programmes for the prevention of the killer disease under Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission. "Mothers are provided with NAN powder milk, cups for feeding the newly born babies and from the day the child is born, he/she does not breast feed but start on NAN using a cup and not a bottle owing to the hygiene conditions in the camps," she explains.

 

She adds that the patients are visited twice a week for those who just starting to take the ARVs and if the condition normalizes, visits are made on weekly and monthly basis owing to the condition of the patient.

 

Further to that, when a registered patient dies and they fail to locate the roots of that person, the organization buys land on which to bury that person, which in all reality is a good practice. Besides the medical care for the HIV/AIDS patients, there is distribution of pigs for multiplication and a cooperative society where the victims come together to make art and crafts.

 

"The aim of the cooperative is for the sick to live happily with others despite the fact that they are positive. It reduces on the stigma and we do provide for them. This cooperative has changed the lives of people. It is a therapy centre for the sick.

 

"We also have agricultural programmes for those who are still strong with the aim of supplementing what the World Food Programme gives them," said Okecho.

 

Comboni Samaritans also provide education to the orphans regardless of religion from pre-primary to University level and most of them have graduated and returned to work for the organization as a way of giving back. Last but not least is the memory project where most of the sick are asked to write things about their ancestral homes since most of them have lived in camps for long. This is aimed at helping their siblings in a near by future to return home after the insurgence.