venerdì 20 marzo 2009

To discuss the problem of AIDS either from a newspaper editorial office or from the political office of one of the several European Institutions is one thing. To talk about it having first hand knowledge of the situation of dozens of HIV-positive women, and of their children who wave been infected, is a very different matter. Rose Busingye is the director of Meeting Point in Kampala, a place of rebirth for four thousand people, either sick or orphans, who would be otherwise condemned to live ignored and abandoned to their destiny, stigmatized by AIDS. In this place with its profound humanity, the controversy on the use of condoms to eliminate the scourge of AIDS resounds like a faraway echo.

 

Rose, how do you feel hearing so much controversy about a problem you have to fight every day?

 

Whoever fuels the arguments regarding the Pope’s statement should actually understand that the true issue about the spreading of AIDS is not the condom. To speak only about this is to stop at the consequences and never address the origin of the problem. On the contrary, at the root of the spreading of AIDS there is a behavior, a way of being. Also, let’s not forget that the great emergency is to care for the many people who are already infected, and for them the condom has no use.

 

However, it is also true that something can be done to avoid a further spreading of the disease, and in this case prevention is useful, isn’t it?

 

I’ll give you an example, to show how at times people really do not understand the situation in which we are living here in Africa. A while ago some reporters came to make a feature on the activity at Meeting Point. They saw the conditions of the HIV-positive women who are here and they were moved by it. They decided to make themselves useful, to do something for these women, and they gave them some boxes of condoms. When Jovine, one of the women, saw them she said: ”My husband is dying, and I have six children who will soon be orphans. What is the purpose of these boxes of condoms you are giving to me?” The deep need (The ‘emergency’) of this woman, and of many others like her, is of having someone who looks at her saying: ”Woman do not weep!”. It is absurd to think of answering her need with a box of condoms, and the true absurdity is not to see that the human being is love, affectivity.

 

And as regards the persons who may have relationships with others and spread the infection?

 

The point is the same: we must first look at their humanity. Once we were talking to our children about the importance of protecting others to avoid infection, one of them laughed, saying: "but what do I care, who are the others? Who are the women with whom I go?". And another said: "I too have been infected, and so?" AIDS is a problem as all the problems of life which can not be reduced to one factor. Let us start from the fact that we need to be educated, even in living sexuality. But education primarily concerns the discovery of self: the person who is conscious of himself. He knows that he has a value that is greater than everything. Without the discovery of this value - for themselves and others - there is nothing to hold. The condom, in the end, will only be used well by a person who has discovered the value of the human, if he truly loves and is loved. Are we to imagine that where the condom is distributed the infection of AIDS will not continue? And so, the condom discourse may even seem ridiculous in our actual conditions and circumstances.

 

In what sense?

 

A few days ago, for example, we showed our women all about condoms, even explaining the instructions for use. First, you must wash your hands. There should be no dust. They must be kept at a certain temperature . They interrupted: “wash your hands, when for a bit of water you have to walk twenty kilometers?” And then the dust, even a few granules may be dangerous and threaten to tear the condom. But these women split the stones from morning to night, and their hands are cracked and hard as rocks! To this I say that the condom pushers are talking without the slightest experience or understanding of our actual conditions.

 

In light of this widespread ignorance about the real problems of people living in Africa, what is the effect the controversy against the Pope?

 

The Pope did nothing but defend and support what is really useful to help these people affirm the meaning of life and human dignity. Those who attack him have vested interests, while the Pope has no ulterior interest. He cares for us, and wants the good of Africa. He is not bringing mines that blow our children into the air, our children are soldiers who are amputees, with no ears, no mouth, unable to swallow saliva; and we give them what, condoms?

 

In fact, AIDS is not the only problem that is gripping Africa.

 

There are many other problems and tragic situations for which there is total indifference. When a few years ago there was genocide in Rwanda everyone watched. Nearby there is a tiny town, which could have been protected, and nothing was done. My relatives were there, and they all died in an inhumane way. It did not move anyone, and now they are here with condoms. But even in terms of disease the point is the same: why don't we take aspirin, or anti-malaria medicine? Malaria is a disease that kills more people here than AIDS.

 

What is the situation now in Uganda about the spread of AIDS?

 

In Uganda we are making great progress, and our president is doing well and achieving excellent results. And his method does not focus on condoms, but education, and he has established a ministry for this, and sent people around the villages to educate the illiterate to change their lives. The President's wife was here recently, and she said forcefully that the real point to change the situation is to stop living like dogs or cats, who must always satisfy their instincts, and explained that man is endowed with reason. That makes him responsible for what he does. If man is bound to his instinct, like an animal, giving him condoms is useless. This is the method that is yielding results, and led the spread of AIDS in Uganda from 18% of the population to 3%. The method works, and the heart of the method is to make people feel embraced. We see here the Meeting Point: when people arrive here, they don't want to leave.

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