Africa AIDS Education Project

Tanzania

We invite you to help with a donation to our charitable projects

Your kind donation will help to:

• Educate the Maasai tribe near Arusha, Tanzania in HIV/AIDS prevention, to help avoid the spread of this devastating disease
• Provide them with bicycles, so they can reach their distant villages to also educate them about HIV/AIDS
• Set up a program for a regular supply of condoms
• Help them sustain these programs, so that they can continue HIV/AIDS education and reduce the incidence of HIV
• Provide bedding, school books and repair of playground equipment at the boarding school in Arusha
• Help to furnish the street kids center in the Arusha area

My Tanzania Experience

by Roshan Kaderali

For the past thirty years, I have lived in the United States, raising a family and working as a nurse, childbirth educator, and entrepreneur in Marin County, California. I grew up, however, in Tanzania and always dreamed of returning and giving something back to the people there.

As the AIDS epidemic rages on in Africa, leaving a continent of orphans to fend for themselves, now seemed like the right time to help. Last year, using my nursing background as a catalyst, I joined Global Service Corps, an organization dedicated to AIDS prevention based in San Francisco. I volunteered to spend a month in Tanzania, teaching HIV/AIDS prevention to villages and workplaces.

When I got off the small plane in Arusha, I felt the early morning sun and dusty air on my face and knew I was back in Africa. This land did not feel strange to me and I was comfortable hailing a taxi in Swahili (the country’s native language).

I was taken to a hostel run by nuns where many volunteers were housed prior to going on their various programs and staying with their African "home stay" families. My home stay was on the grounds of The Arusha School, a boarding and day school. I stayed with the matron and her family of six. There were seven of us in two rooms! They slept, cramped, in one room while I slept in the other. The accommodations were meager; no kitchen and no running water in the bathroom. I became an expert at basin baths, washing myself and my clothes with the rationed water I was given.

My family was caring and hospitable, despite their poverty. Our meals consisted of the staples of rice, beans, and bananas, cooked in a variety of ways. There was very little protein and I was amazed how little could go so far amongst the seven of us.

I miss their laughter and the three year-old’s beautiful, mischievous smile. Her mother wanted me to bring her to the US for education and a better lifestyle.

While the school hours were filled with instruction, after school the children had little to do, as the school is badly neglected and lacks the necessary facilities. The library is closed, the playground equipment needs repair, windows are broken, and the electrical power goes out frequently. Unfortunately, they lack funds to make any changes.

I also visited the dorms, where 30-40 children in each dorm sleep on bunk beds with little bedding, just the bare essentials. They sleep on foam mattresses with a sheet (if they are lucky) or a piece of cloth draped over the bed. Many have no blankets.

Some of the kids are orphans with extended families too overloaded with caring for other family members (whose parents have also died of AIDS) to take care of them.

I held a gathering with the kids to find out what they would like to make their evenings and weekends more pleasurable. They initially wanted computers, and television sets but I explained that was not within my budget! I bought them board games, soccer balls and jump ropes, and we enjoyed playing games together in the evenings.

I was overjoyed to see the smiles on their faces. Despite their simple lives, they too dream of having successful careers as doctors, pilots, and world leaders. My daily highlight was being greeted every day by the smiling children with "jambo, Mama Roshan," holding my hand, eager to talk and walk with me. In turn, they made me smile as I faced another day, missing my family in California.

Each morning, with Mt Meru looming in front of me, I left the school grounds and walked into Arusha. Along the way, I would be greeted by the orphaned street kids in rags, begging for food. This was emotionally very challenging and I felt helpless. The best I could do was take them to a local cafe or restaurant for chai and some food. I tried to make this a daily commitment as I felt this was all I could do at the time.

After a week of intense training with GSC, learning all about HIV /AIDS in Tanzania and practicing Swahili, we were off on our assignments, where we would make new friends, gain their trust and provide the information for them to spread amongst their people.

On the first morning, we found ourselves walking amongst banana groves escorted by a couple from the village where we were going to teach. We set up a make shift easel and all our materials in a banana grove and held our first class. It was wonderfully primitive. and the villagers were warm and friendly. They asked all kinds of questions without any embarrassment.

In the afternoon, we presented our material to a group of young Rotary Club "Rotarians." This was a lively group, ranging from ages 15-30 years old. Initially, there was some skepticism, but we knew it was important to gain their trust as Tanzania depends on their generation to survive as their peers and elders continue to die.

There is such a stigma attached to HIV that most deaths are attributed to other illnesses rather than acknowledging that the fatalities were AIDS-related. We knew if these young people did not get the information they needed, one day there may be nobody left to run the country.

With each group, we realized that they were quite well-informed about HIV. We focused on behavioral change within the culture, and presented methods of empowering men and women to take charge of their lives through role playing games. These same people were eager to be trained as educators too, so they in turn could "spread the word" about HIV to their communities.

We completed each workshop with a graduation ceremony, rewarding the students with certificates, soap, flour, sugar, and rice; staples that are expensive to buy. The students were also given condoms, pens and notepads. My colleagues and I were elated as we completed our first day. This was everything we had hoped for and more.

Over the next few weeks, we spent our weekends exploring the country and our days educating villagers and workers. During work assignments, we were able to talk openly with the people about the changes they needed to make in their sexual behavior.

The women were honest and frank about their feelings of helplessness in a male-dominated culture. It was difficult to get their husbands to wear condoms, even when they knew the men were not being monogamous.

Even worse, by insisting that their husbands wear a condom (even if the man were HIV positive), the women could be physically abused or thrown out on the streets with the children. In some areas, women’s co-ops have formed, allowing single women who leave their husbands to earn a living growing and selling crops. The co-ops also offer emotional support for the women and their children. Some are funded by the government but the money is not always available.

The price of condoms was also an issue due to the poverty of most of the population. Unlike other countries, condoms are not available in restrooms, even though this is something the general public would welcome as such vending machines are less embarrassing to use than buying them in a store. Of course, they would be much more likely to be used if they were free.

Unfortunately, even when condoms are used, they are often expired, heat-damaged, or not used properly. To make matters even worse, prostitutes are often bribed to have unsafe sex, without condoms. As a result of all these factors, the spread of HIV continues.

Once our teaching assignments were complete and we had provided as much information to the groups as we could, we left Africa feeling that we had made a difference. The people in Arusha were now better informed and could even educate others and spread the word about AIDS prevention.

However, I did feel there were more steps that could be taken. For instance, many work places were interested in providing free HIV testing, but the lack of funds and time prevented us from pursuing these steps.

Overall, my experience in Tanzania made me even more aware of the enormous needs of the African people. While I felt my work was helpful to them, I left feeling overwhelmed and powerless to do more in the few weeks I was there. Their problems are so huge and it is difficult to know how or where to begin. It’s simply overwhelming. As I have gone back to my life in the U.S., it is too easy to settle back into my routine and the creature comforts of home.

Instead, I have realized how fortunate I am as a businesswoman to use my experiences to inspire myself and others to reach out and start fundraising for the people in Tanzania. I will never forget their warm, welcoming smiles their hopeful eyes, and the promises I made to them in my five amazing weeks in their desperate country.

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Charitable organization EIN 56-2394048