gaeisile

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Women Respond to AIDS in South Africa

Gaeisile

At the young age of 26, Gaeisile is preparing to die from AIDS-related complications. Unable to eat and barely able to speak due to oral thrush, a painful opportunistic infection, she spends her final days resting quietly. The mother of energetic twin boys, aged 8, the burden of her illness weighs heavily on her family. Her retired mother, her primary caregiver, must now return to work and find ways to raise her grandsons. And they are not alone. Over the next ten years the number of global AIDS orphans is expected to grow higher than 40 million. Even more children will have lost at least one parent to the disease.

Families facing end-stage AIDS are especially burdened due to increasing financial hardship, social discrimination, lack of medical help and the need for impending funeral expenses. Few positive parents disclose to their children the cause of their illness for fear they will be shamed in school or at play. The added stress increases the level of isolation, guilt, depression and fear people with HIV/AIDS and their families experience.

"Gaeisile used to work as a cashier. When she started to be weak and sick she couldn't work anymore. And she was the only breadwinner in the home. She's sick now for two years. She was healthy but everything changed so quickly. She's thin now, she's dark, her mouth is full of sores. Everything's changed. She's weak, she can't even talk anymore," Gelda Afrika said from her home in Witbank, a rural area outside of Johannesburg. Gelda, a field worker for AFXB*, makes regular home visits to people living with AIDS and their families. "There are a lot that have AIDS but they won't speak about it until they start to be sick and weak."

Gelda Afrika, Field Worker, *AFXB

It is critical that children orphaned by AIDS and other diseases be absorbed into their communities rather than institutionalized. Governments must also respond by ensuring that these children's social, educational, inheritance and constitutional rights are protected. Many are just beginning to look property rights issues in sub-Saharan countries as the roles of women increase in response to the high rate of AIDS deaths.

"I'm not afraid to help somebody with HIV because somebody has to do something," Gelda said. "We cannot sit back and watch people dying. We must take care of them, love them, do whatever they need because nobody knows how many days or months they have left to live.

"This woman Gaeisile has these two children. They only know their mother is sick but they don't know anything about AIDS or HIV. It's to protect them because it would hurt them a lot and they are already hurt to see their mother just lying there. Others would treat them bad because they would know their mother was HIV positive, maybe they are HIV positive. So they wouldn't play with them anymore or talk to them.

"At the moment Gaeisile doesn't have long to live. She will die any moment now. It's hard for the little boys, even for the grandmother, because she is unemployed, she has no income. She's got to take care of the twins and the daughter. So we will help her to start a small business. She will sell chickens to take care of the daughter and the twins. HIV has changed the lives of many people," Gelda said.

Gelda Afrika

While in South Africa, Global Focus Films took a hard look at how communities are responding to AIDS. What struck us most was the resolve and compassion of the country's women. With few resources and limited experience we witnessed women at all socio-economic levels willingly step forward to undertake South Africa's response to the pandemic. Even with a limited understanding of how the HIV virus works, can be contracted and transmitted, women, young and old, have stepped forward to care for loved ones, restructure families, raise and educate orphans and begin to dialogue about "that disease." Women like Gelda Afrika, who quit her job at a car dealership after 17 years to work with and support people with AIDS, have redefined what it means to be a hero.

*On August 12, 2000, at

10:00 pm, Gaeisile

passed away. She

was buried on

August 16 following

a celebration

of her life by

friends and family.

Her mother has received

an income generating

grant (IGA) from the

Association Francois Xavier-

Bagnoud (*AFXB) to help

provide for her grandsons.

Visit AFXB