©InfoIn the tiny mountain village of Gore in Illubabor, Ethiopia, a woman named Zode experienced a revolution.
Zode is only 30, but she is very ill. Two years ago she tested HIV positive and has since contracted tuberculosis.
Despite her obvious ill-health, Zode is thankful for the care she receives from a Red Cross volunteer, and for the house she has recently moved in to, built for her by the residents of Gore at the request of the Red Cross.
When Zode was diagnosed with HIV two years ago, the other villagers forced her to move into a shack on the outskirts of the village with her two young children and elderly mother. The stigma attached to HIV was so great that she was effectively banished from the community.
Homecare
Around the same time, the Ethiopian Red Cross set up a programme, funded by the British Red Cross, to combat stigma in Illubabor and to provide home-based care to people living with HIV. The Red Cross sent a home-based care facilitator to Zode’s home to teach her family how to care for her.
The home-based care facilitator, a volunteer named Ayalnesh, visits Zode and her family several times a week. She has taught Zode’s family how to bathe her and care for her. Ayalnesh also gives emotional support to Zode’s 12-year-old daughter, 14-year-old son, and elderly mother.
Zode is thankful for the support she receives from the Red Cross. She said: “The good thing about the Red Cross is I don’t feel I’m being pitied. Ayalnesh gives me practical support and that helps me keep my dignity.”
Community
The Red Cross has not only worked to protect Zode’s dignity, it has also helped her rejoin her community. Last year Ayalnesh told the local Red Cross Branch secretary that Zode’s living conditions on the outskirts of the village were terrible. The secretary immediately talked to several people in the village and asked them to volunteer their time and materials to build her a house.
Thanks in large part to Red Cross programmes to reduce the stigma of HIV, residents of the village came together to build Zode a house, ensuring she was part of the community again.
Julia Abel, British Red Cross programme support officer on the Africa team, said: “I was struck by the change and how clearly the work of the Red Cross has helped reduce the stigma in the community. I was also amazed by the respect the community has for the Red Cross. When the Red Cross asked them to build a house, they came together to do it.”
Read Mertie's story about being positive
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