DEDICATED FIGHTERS AGAINST HIVIAIDS in the southern African country of Namibia are standing on the threshold of a miracle.
To the fore among them is Maryknoll Father Richard Bauer (left, with young Namibians) who combats AIDS in the nation’s capital, Windhoek. “The history has been terrible, with HIV prevalence climbing through the years to peak at 22 percent,” he says. “That’s nearly a quarter of the entire population.”
Working on Namibia’ s HIV/AIDS pandemic for the past five years is a natural outgrowth of the California-born Bauer’s service as a priest from the very beginning – and it has been a long, long fight. Even before he was ordained in 1985, Bauer worked alongside other pastoral workers and volunteers in the then baffled and frightened atmosphere of San Francisco hospital wards, when even many health professionals were leery about hands-on contact with patients suffering that still-mysterious disease.
“Meal trays were left at the door, and we’d take them to the patients in their beds,” recalls Bauer. “And we’d be the ones washing and bathing them.”
Bauer has served in Africa since joining Maryknoll in 1996 – first as a priest associate from Utah’s Salt Lake City Diocese before officially joining the mission society (Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers) and taking his final oath in 2005. He headed pastoral services for people with AIDS in the Dar-es-Salaam Archdiocese, Tanzania, before being transferred to Namibia, where the national bishops’ conference put him in charge of Catholic AIDS Action (CAA), the Church’s AIDS outreach ministry.
Catholic AIDS Action, with 100 full-time employees and some 2,000 volunteers, provides help and support to 7,500 people living with AIDS and helps care for 17,500 orphans whose parents have died from the disease. The program also provides preventive education to about 10,000 young Namibians every year.
The rate of HIV infection is going down, especially among teenagers and young adults, Bauer says, noting that as of December 2008, the official figure for HIV prevalence was 17.8 percent.
Two elements of Bauer’s and CAA’s work appear critical to this success: a robust program of HIV testing, and educating people to change their attitudes and behavior around sex.
Individuals who test positive are quickly put onto treatment regimes that employ antiretroviral medication, which is increasingly available in Namibia. Josephina Nrunbala, a CAA child services coordinator, recounts the case of a young boy named Mawaya whose mother had died from AIDS but whose father was reluctant to have him tested. “He was afraid to know the status of the child,” says Nambala, recalling that the boy was sick and had skin rashes. When she eventually persuaded the father to have his son checked, Mawaya tested HIV positive.
He was put on antiretrovirals immediately, and now, says Nambala, his skin is clear and he’s concentrating in school. “Every time you see Mawaya, he is smiling,” she says.
Five hundred miles to the north in the town of Rundu, on the River Okavango that marks the border with neighboring Angola, another Maryknoller, Father Wayne Weinlader (right), runs a feeding station that he set up himself five years ago for orphans and vulnerable children. Weinlader, a former U.S. Navy chaplain who was affected by Gulf War Syndrome while serving in Iraq during the 1991 war, knows as a result what it is to struggle with a severely compromised immune system. While fully recovered now, Illinois-born Weinlader retains a strong empathy with the young people he cares for – many of whom suffer from HIV. Just how many, though, has been an unknown – until now.
Recently, the two Maryknollers from distant parts of the country combined their efforts, and Catholic AIDS Action staff and volunteers are assessing the needs of the 250 children or more who show up for the midday meal that Weinlader and his team provide every day of the week. HIV testing will be offered, and the affected youngster will – according to Bauer – “be provided with holistic care”.
“Unfortunately we do have a turnover – of the little kids dying,” says Weinlader. “It’s like …” and his voice drops away as a crowd of the youngsters closes in around him. “I’d better not talk too much now. We have an audience.”
There’s a chance, however, that now many of these children will survive.
Increased testing and immediate treatment clearly play their part in slowing the disease’s spread. But perhaps an even greater contribution comes from the intensive outreach CAA and its partners organize to educate Namibians, especially the young, about the disease. Changing people’s behavior seems possible – and is happening right before the organizers’ eyes.
Peer-counseling groups for youth, set up by CAA, are a critical part of this effort. Thabo M’kalamila, 25, a youth education-prevention coordinator, works to spread the message of responsibility in sexual relations. “It’s quite exciting,” he says, “and I look forward to meeting new people every day.”
Nationwide, surveys show that young people are now delaying the beginning of sexual relations and limiting themselves to fewer partners compared with their counterparts a few years ago.
As a result, the rate of HIV infection among 15- to 19-year-olds has plunged from 11 percent to 5 percent, Bauer says. For the broader group of 15- to 24-year-olds, the rate of new infections has been cut almost in half, he adds.
While that’s “still a disaster,” it’s also a sign of great hope, he says. “We are definitely making a difference.”
FIRST PUBLISHED IN “MARYKNOLL” MAGAZINE, April 2009 Edition
