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Rwanda - Home-Based Care Brings Hope to People Living with HIV - YWCA

18 Feb 2009

World YWCA

YWCA of Rwanda

Home based care project responds to stigma and discrimination

Almandine Bertain* (name changed to protect identity) lay in bed in Rwanda waiting to die from an AIDS related illness. With no family of friends to support her, she had given up hope.

But hope and a new beginning soon came for Almandine in the form of Violete* (name changed to protect identity), a volunteer with the YWCA of Rwanda.

The YWCA of Rwanda runs a successful home-based care project to respond to situations like Almandine’s and change the reality of people living with HIV in their communities. The organisation has equipped 30 volunteers with knowledge and materials to care for people living with HIV through home visits in the region of Abisunganye. The training not only empowers volunteers to address the issue of HIV in Rwanda, but it inspires the local community to take care of family and friends living with HIV.

Stigma and discrimination are just some of the challenges women living with HIV in Rwanda face. The average life expectancy in Rwanda is only 49 years. It is one of the least developed countries in the world; one in six children die before they reach the age of five. About a million people were massacred in the genocide in 1994 and now over 11% of the population are living with HIV.

Almandine’s family deserted her after she disclosed her HIV status. When her husband discovered she was HIV-positive, he refused to go for testing and threw her out of their home. With her four children she decided to go back to her parents who also refused to take her in.

Through the Abisunganye group, Almandine was identified as a person in need of home-based care and Violete was assigned to her. Violete visits weekly, despite a 6km walk. “ We discuss my health and the challenges I face living with HIV,” says Almandine about the weekly visits.

Violete, along with the volunteer team, participated in a four-day training, addressing issues such as the situation of HIV and AIDS in Rwanda and palliative care for people living with HIV. The volunteers are mostly women, some of whom are living with HIV.

During weekly meetings, people in need of home care are identified. Volunteers then visit with a kit of sorghum flour, sugar and hygienic material provided by the YWCA of Rwanda. Every visit is recorded and signed by the client in a notebook kept by the volunteers.

Volunteers share experiences of their home-based visits during weekly meetings discussing the needs and improvements of their clients. Participants to the home-based care program testify how neighbours started visiting them again and accepting them back into the community because they had seen volunteers visiting their house. “When neighbours saw Violete coming to my place, they knew that I was still alive! This project has brought me a sister and given me hope that there are people who care for me,” says Almandine. Almandine can now rely on her neighbours when she is sick and says it is because of Violete’s visits that neighbours have become sensitised to her condition.

The home-based care project has added value to the YWCA’s work in the Abisunganye community and the YWCA of Rwanda will continue working on HIV prevention and care issues. The positive impact of the programme has been felt throughout the local community and women living with HIV have gained hope for a better future.

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