Thursday, August 04, 2005
Sevare, Mali
We arrived back in Sevare with a number of exciting leads on possible HIV/AIDS related stories. While Nate was following a lead into AMPRODE SAHEL's project targeting young women at the countless car parks spread though out the region and Tuuli was looking into CESAC's pilot project in Mopti supporting HIV positive Malians, I felt it was time for us as a group to better understand the HIV/AIDS testing process in Africa by getting tested at a local clinic. (A detailed description can be found at the HIV/AIDS section of our website.) During the course of the testing, a volunteer at the clinic mentioned that they were suffering from a chronic shortage of spare blood in their reserves. After seeing the sacrifices and hard work the doctors and nurses were making at the clinic, I felt that donating blood in a region with incredibly limited access to even the most basic resources was the least I could do. Although I was not given any Be nice to me, I gave blood today stickers or sugar covered cookies (except by Nate), the basic procedure was the same. The only major difference I observed was that there was a used bed pan splattered with dried faeces unashamedly left under the bed next to the one I was lying on. Regrettably, the fan did not work and the seemingly endless parade of flies seemed to feel most at home on my face. Thankfully, I was in the room for no longer than twenty minutes. Leaving the clinic, I felt happy that I had possibly played a small part in making available a vital resource so evidently lacking in many of the areas we have so far travelled.
We arrived back in Sevare with a number of exciting leads on possible HIV/AIDS related stories. While Nate was following a lead into AMPRODE SAHEL's project targeting young women at the countless car parks spread though out the region and Tuuli was looking into CESAC's pilot project in Mopti supporting HIV positive Malians, I felt it was time for us as a group to better understand the HIV/AIDS testing process in Africa by getting tested at a local clinic. (A detailed description can be found at the HIV/AIDS section of our website.) During the course of the testing, a volunteer at the clinic mentioned that they were suffering from a chronic shortage of spare blood in their reserves. After seeing the sacrifices and hard work the doctors and nurses were making at the clinic, I felt that donating blood in a region with incredibly limited access to even the most basic resources was the least I could do. Although I was not given any Be nice to me, I gave blood today stickers or sugar covered cookies (except by Nate), the basic procedure was the same. The only major difference I observed was that there was a used bed pan splattered with dried faeces unashamedly left under the bed next to the one I was lying on. Regrettably, the fan did not work and the seemingly endless parade of flies seemed to feel most at home on my face. Thankfully, I was in the room for no longer than twenty minutes. Leaving the clinic, I felt happy that I had possibly played a small part in making available a vital resource so evidently lacking in many of the areas we have so far travelled.
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