The Values of Reach Out Contrasted With my Own

Today, I watched a documentary about Reach Out, the organization I will be working for this summer in Mbuya. The HIV/AIDS clinic targets its healing process in four areas: body, mind, family, and community. At the time of the documentary, Reach Out had around 1600 clients, and provided antiretroviral drugs to all of them free of charge. For the drugs to be affected, the person must have a proper diet and nutrition. Therefore, food is given to over a thousand of their clients which has been donated by the World Food Program. However, it has recognized that survival depends not only on having the proper medication and food, but on hope. This is their phrasing. In order to inspire hope, the organization provides counseling services and encourages their clients to celebrate. A good example of this is on World Aids Day, all the clients, volunteers, and staff had a massive celebration and parade. In the documentary, it showed how everyone was singing and dancing. While, I recognize that people may act one way and feel another. I liked that people could dance, laugh, be happy, and a majority of them were HIV positive. That ability to be happy in the face of daunting prospects is a valuable skill that I aspire to learn.

On top of the traditional role of the organization, Reach Out has a number of sub-programs. There is a tailoring unit that takes contracts and makes all of the school uniforms for children who go to school at Reach Out. Not only do they provide education for children, but for adults as well to truly understand the illness, and require regular attendance at refresher seminars. The last aspect of the organization discussed in the documentary was the Bread of Life. This is the micro-financing portion of the organization, and where I hope to be working.

After watching the documentary, I feel so excited to go, and work for this organization. I feel as though in my own life, I undervalue what Reach Out puts at its highest. A large part of the documentary was interviews with people who were explaining how the organization showed them that there life didn't have to end now that they were HIV positive, and that they had hope to continue. To me, hope is almost trivial in my life. I don't hope. I just do. I think that if you plan and do your best, you don't have to hope, you will get the results that come. This seems like a big learning opportunity for me.

My quandaries about hope reminded me of Sudanese man that I met at a Darfur Awareness Rally a few years ago. He was telling me how after he finished his education, he was planning on going back to the Sudan. He said that he didn't know where his relatives were, and he wanted to find them. I he thought the NGO's were valuable and effective in the Sudan. He said something to me that has always stuck in mind. He said, “Even if the NGO's don't serve their purpose, its nice to know that someone cares and is listening.” This caught me off guard. Essentially, I am always bashing on the ineffectiveness and other problems with aid. It seemed like he just valued someone caring enough to be there and try.

Here are these two situations, being HIV + and having ineffective aid organizations in your country, that arouse feelings of anger, sadness, and despair in me. It seems for these other people, these situations bring hope and comfort of knowing someone is there. My desire is to gain this ability, and this outlook on life in my time in Uganda. When I come back who knows if I will be changed. However, I think that being exposed to this line of thinking will be extremely valuable.