Home arrow The Human Face arrow Finding meaning in life despite disease
Finding meaning in life despite disease PDF Print E-mail
Written by Michael Swan   
Pax ChingawaleZOMBA, Malawi - Pax Chingawale never thought of himself as the kind of person who ever would or could get AIDS.

If Chingawale was tempted, he might have been tripped by pride in his status as a solid, sober citizen. He had retired from his career as an auditor with Malawi’s government. He had filled the role of an older brother within his family. He was respected within his church and community.

That’s when he thought he might pursue his long deferred dream of ministry inside the Presbyterian Church of Malawi.

As a matter of standard procedure and ordinary caution in southern Africa, the church asked Chingawale to take an HIV test before entering the seminary. The result shocked Chingawale, and church officials were disinclined to waste a seminary education on a man who might die soon after graduation.

The positive result, combined with rejection from the seminary, was certainly a blow. But Chingawale began to view the world through the eyes of the HIV positive, and he began to notice things.

“We are witnessing people being segregated by their relatives,” he said.

He noticed all the subtle ways in which stigma attached itself to people with HIV, but he also noticed that HIV is not the same thing as death.

“People can still live,” he declares.

Chingawale grabs hold of his life now by speaking out — making sure people know he is HIV positive even though it would be easy for him to hide his status. And he encourages others to speak.

“Not everyone is free to talk,” he said.

But Chingawale preaches the gospel of openness and honesty. He tells people how honesty about his HIV did not destroy his marriage.

“We tell them about the positive side of being open,” he said.

Chingawale organized his own support group for HIV-positive people which eventually blossomed into a group of parents who support each other and educate their children about AIDS, encouraging them to delay sex until marriage. Some of the parents who are  themselves HIV positive also volunteer to deliver home-based care under the guidance of Dignitas International , a mainly Canadian NGO which runs a major AIDS project in Zomba.

“When the volunteer is HIV positive they (the patients) feel they are in the same category,” said Chingawale.

The five volunteers in Chingawale’s group monitor 54 patients in 13 villages. In May, 13 of their patients were on antiretroviral drugs, nine were chronically ill and waiting for ARV treatment, 11 were relatively healthy but on waiting lists for ARVs. Chingawale is aware of 316 orphans who have lost either one or both parents in his area.

For chronically ill patients who haven’t been able to cultivate their fields, Chingawale’s group delivers food aid and 50 kilogram bags of seed from Canada.

Most of the volunteers are women.

“Women I found to be more caring than men,” explains Chingawale.

With all this on his plate, the Presbyterian Church came knocking once more. They could see Chingawale opening up AIDS ministry from within the world of the HIV positive if he were ordained. This time Chingawale said no thanks. He had already found the work God meant for him to do.
 
< Prev   Next >
[ Back ]