Henning Mankell - I Die, but the Memory Lives on

Orphans

A tragic consequence of the HIV epidemic is the rapid rise in the number of orphans, and the consequent rise in the number of households headed by children and grandparents. By the end of 2003, more than 14 million children had been orphaned by HIV/Aids. It is estimated that in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, poor households have an average of four additional dependants to care for. UNAIDS reports that 40 million children in developing countries will lose one or both their parents to HIV by 2010.

"Every day there are more and more children on the street," reports Pascal Rukengwa, director of Humanité Nouvelle, another organisation supported by Christian Aid in Kinshasa. "Among these are more and more children whose parents have died of Aids." His organisation now runs a theatre group and a day centre for these children and helps them develop skills such as shoe-shining so that they can work rather than beg and steal for a living.

Creating memories

HIV has changed the way we look at public and private memories. Last century, millions of young men were killed in two world wars. Public memorials were dedicated in their honour. In contrast, the flu epidemic in 1918-1919 left somewhere between 20 and 40 million people dead. There are very few commemorations in their memory. But the gay community, affected first by HIV, needed to make its own statement in response to this tragedy. HIV was killing young, articulate, creative gay men in their prime, and their community was determined not to forget.

In 1987, a gay-rights activist named Cleve Jones made the first panel for the Aids memorial quilt, in memory of his friend Marvin Feldman. This was the start of the "Names Project", a global initiative in which friends and families remember loved ones lost to HIV by creating a quilt panel representing the life of that person. The project provides a creative means for remembrance and healing. In addition, it has illustrated the enormity of the epidemic, increased the general public's awareness of HIV and Aids, assisted with HIV prevention education activities and helped raise funds for community-based Aids service organisations. Today, there are Names Projects in 43 countries, and 44,000 quilts have been made to commemorate loved ones who have died from HIV.

In 1988, WHO designated December 1 World Aids Day. HIV is remembered publicly in many ways, in many cities – especially in Africa – on World Aids Day. Unlikely partners such as the Mothers' Union and Aids activists march arm in arm, displaying banners demanding access to treatment or promoting love and support for people living with AIDS. Candlelight vigils bring communities together to demonstrate remembrance and hope. Church services on World Aids Day provide a spiritual context which allows people to grieve for dead friends and relatives and renew their commitment to fight stigma, discrimination and HIV itself.

In 1991 the red-ribbon symbol was introduced as a way for people to promote awareness about HIV, to show their solidarity in caring about people who are infected with and affected by HIV and Aids, and to express their support for action against the epidemic.

Marie-Jeanne, a photographer with FFP, expressed what many people feel: "I want to live. I want to work. When we are given a chance we can achieve things. It's all a matter of will. If we want to do it, we will. However, it's very difficult in this country. We don't have many opportunities to expand our horizons."

Dr Rachel Baggaley

Head of Christian Aid's HIV Unit

Honorary research fellow at the London School

of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

For more information on memory work and related resources see

www.ifrc.org

www.plan-international.org

http://web.uct.ac.za/depts/cssr/asru.html

For more information about Christian Aid and its work with HIV/Aids, see www.christianaid.org.uk or telephone +44 20 7523 2172.

PLAN

PLAN has several projects in progress all round the world to assist and support children affected by the HIV/Aids epidemic. Uganda is the African country which has best succeeded in turning the epidemic around, but despite this, the country still has a large number of orphans. In Uganda, PLAN is working to provide vocational training for young people who have been forced to leave school when their parents died. Single mothers with HIV/Aids are provided with nursing care and help in finding new ways of earning a living. PLAN was instrumental in initiating the Memory Books project, which is aimed at helping parents with Aids to prepare their children for the fact that they may soon be orphaned. The books help parents to express their feelings, thoughts, experiences and hopes for their children's futures.

Burkina Faso

Association Solidarité et Entraide Mutuelle au Sahel (SEMUS)

SEMUS works in a region where few other organisations address HIV/Aids. It provides a range of integrated development activities including income generation; food security; education; health care through provision of drugs at low prices from its pharmacy, and provision of drugs and medical equipment to a local health centre.

Burma (Burma/Thai border)

EMPOWER (Education Means Protection of Women Engaged in Recreation)

Established in 1984, EMPOWER aims to provide migrant sex-workers with access to education and information in order that they are better informed and better able to protect themselves from abuse and health risks, including HIV.

Activities include typing and computer classes, counselling, health and safer-sex workshops, distribution of condoms.

Democratic Republic of Congo

Fondation Femme Plus (FFP)

FFP is an association of women living with HIV/Aids. It specialises in psychological, social and medical support to more than 2000 women in the DRC, including counselling, medical treatment, support for small businesses and practical support such as food and help so that children can attend school. "When my husband died, I didn't want to be open with anyone. I felt as though I had died with him. But thanks to FFP, I feel like I am a worthwhile person, and I can go on living," Mama Dedy, mother of two, told Christian Aid.

India

Arogya Agam

Arogya Agam, based in Tamil Nadhu in south-east India, is related to the Women's Development Programme, promoting women's empowerment socially, economically and politically, and increased understanding of and access to health, with a strong focus on an HIV/Aids programme.

It gives support and training to village health guides and community health committees to lobby for and monitor government health services and demand community rights to access health services. It also refers patients with sexually transmitted infections for health care and provides counselling. Arogya Agam mobilises villages to distribute condoms and raises awareness of HIV/Aids, particularly among young people.

Jamaica

Jamaica Aids Support

Founded in 1991, JAS has 30 staff and 150 volunteers in three main offices. JAS provides services for over 10,000 clients, including a "friends" network offering practical and emotional support to people living with or affected by HIV. After training, volunteers are assigned to a client/family member or care-giver. It also organises educational outreach, care programmes and promotes human rights for people living with HIV in a climate of stigma. Its "living quilt", to which artists contribute each year, includes the names of people with whom it has worked.

For more information, see www.jamaicaaidssupport.com

Kenya

BIDII

Bidii is the Swahili word for "effort". BIDII is a Christian-inspired NGO that provides community development services in two districts of Ukambani. It combines training in sustainable agriculture and improved farming methods and protection of water sources with a programme of primary health care and HIV/Aids awareness in communities along the main Nairobi-to-Mombasa highway.