Day 7: A Matter of Dignity

Roughly 5 million South Africans, 11% of the population, are HIV positive. Not only is AIDS a difficult medical condition, it is also complicated by people’s attitude towards it. Besides dealing with the physical condition, working with AIDS in a township is a matter of dignity. Ignorance and AIDS’ association with poverty has cause it to be made a stigma carved in stone. Back in the 90s, many South African villages still saw AIDS victims as people who are cursed. They are shunned and often abandoned by family members. Today, this image still exists in parts of South Africa as the government is not helping to promote the real information about AIDS. Taking steps backwards, the health administration also had a poster made, which advertise garlic as the cure for AIDS… AIDS has also become the description of poverty. With malnutrition and improper environment, HIV can easily become an issue of death. Getting people tested is the important yet extremely difficult first step for people to take. Theresa, director of Etafeni’s Income Generating Program put it simply, “You are exactly the same person as you were, but just that you have now a virus in your body.” But most people in South Africa can yet to see that. If you are HIV positive, there is no reason to give up on yourselves. Etafeni’s usual gardener’s HIV condition has worsened so his niece Vincent is now doing his job. Two of Vincent’s everyday duties are Etafeni’s upkeep and picking up trash. Trash? Etafeni’s director, Stephanie said to me that self-esteem is the central issue for our AIDS patient. Even though people here are used to a state of filth and chaos, keeping this place clean will mean that this center honors them. The Income Generation Programe is also about helping AIDS victims build self-esteem and self-respect. Theresa said to me, my job as a counselor used to be directing people where to get free bread, where to get paraffin… But now I know, instead, you have to teach them how to sustain themselves. And respect themselves.
I think about how dignity has become a subject assumed and rarely talked about in the Western culture. Presenting yourself properly when you are in the public, keeping your words, following through with a commitment, honesty, taking care of you own health. All of these are issues of dignity that we let loose on ourselves. At one extreme, I do feel that life is too short to live seriously. But at the other, as human beings, do we treat each other and ourselves with the respect we deserve? Why it is only when coming to problems do we start thinking of this matter of dignity?