Day 9- Tour Of Ubuntu

Today, we headed over to the Ubuntu offices and met with leaders of the separate divisions: Care and Support, Empowerment, Clinical and Prevention. Care and Support is responsible for counseling to HIV infected and affected people. They also perform house visits to check on the status of their clients. Empowerment is responsible for educating community members on the dangers of HIV. Clinical is responsible for HIV testing and the distribution of of medications. Lastly, Prevention is responsible for educating clients, both old and young, about how to use various prevention methods, such as using condoms. These four areas of aid are all intertwined and disigned to work with the community by introducing Western medicine and safety practices, but at the same not interfereing with the township's embedded tradition.

After the various presentations, we took a tour of one of the clinics Ubuntu supports. The clinic was primarily for HIV and TB testing and management. Ubuntu, in addition to providing staff, crates used to do HIV tests as well as counseling and their support, has provided a large garden that is used everyday to cook soup for the patents, so they have something to take their medication with. Ubuntu has created many of these gardens which have proved to be extremely beneficial to the community. In addition to providing food to those in the clinic, it has also provided a model garden for those who wish to create their own gardens.

After the tour, we headed back to the B&B to rest until our friends from Ubuntu came over to have a braai or a traditional South African BBQ. The food was delicious! One of the Ubuntu members, Astra, who was helping us grill, told us stories about some of the children at Ubuntu. One of the girls had been failing in school, so he went to her house to uncover the reason. In the end, he discovered that the little girl's mother was HIV+, her brother, also HIV+, was in jail, her father was dead, and she had been raped 4 times. This story helped wake all of us up and realize that, although many people here walk about with a happy demeanor and a smile upon their face, life is rougher than any of us could imagine.