By Satya Hiru Patel

My friends wonder why, when I could pick any country in the world to spend the summer, I chose to go to Tanzania. For me, the choice was obvious. As a public health student at the University of Georgia, I wanted to see first hand how healthcare works in the developing world. I had just finished a class on the biochemistry of HIV medications and I wanted to understand how Non-Government Organization’s used this scientific research to save lives in a country like Tanzania where few are educated about the causes and affects of AIDS and HIV and where proper resources and facilities for treating people who are stricken with the disease are lacking.

As one of seven volunteers from around the world at the Boona-Baana center for Children’s Rights, my eight weeks spent in Tanzania were eye opening to say the least. Working side-by-side with medical students from Hong Kong and an Australian looking for a career in the service world was a reaffirming experience, knowing that we were all there to make a difference in the lives of the people we worked with.

I learned many other important lessons from my experience. Perhaps most amazing of all was to watch five year old orphans who are dying of AIDS working hard to learn English in school. Why, you might ask would they struggle to learn a language that they would likely never use? Often too sick to get out of bed for days, they fight to live “normal” lives and refuse to be held back by their disease. When you look into the eyes of these children you see how important it is for them to succeed even in the face of death.

We all know that AIDS is a very serious world problem that affects many millions of people. But only when you have seen AIDS up close on people’s faces do you begin to understand that behind the staggering statistics are real people who live real lives. Just like people we all know, their smiles can light up a room and their laughter can fill it. Even in Tanzania. But every day they have to balance the cherished normalcy of their lives with the despair of knowing they don’t have the luxury of a future. It’s hard to fathom how one virus, HIV/AIDS has, in some way, touched every African person’s life. Everyone has lost someone to the disease.

HIV first came to Tanzania in the Kagera region, which is the very northwestern part of the county. Eighty percent of its transmission is through heterosexual contact, less than 5% is passed from mother to child and 1% is through blood transfusion. Others get the disease through drugs and traditional skin piercing practices.

The girls I spoke with at Kiota Women’s Health and Development Center (where they receive basic education and healthcare) are no different from their peers in other regions in Africa. Most of them lack a formal education; in the past some have even resorted to prostitution to survive. Slowly their lives and their futures are beginning to change as they learn life skills and good health practices. In time, education coupled with the help of NGOs and other volunteers, these girls may live AIDS-free lives and realize the same hopes and dreams we have in this country - dreams of choices and opportunities - hopes of being able to have a career and raise a healthy family - the vision of wonderful things to come in the future.

See Related Interview with the Girls of Kiota