HIV/AIDS

Fulani Village Receives Spring of Life Mobile Testing Clinic

The Fulani family breathed a collective sigh of relief when the last of the children being screened for “the dreaded disease” (as HIV is often known in this part of the world) showed a non-reactive test. It was a warm, humid, sunny morning in the Nigerian bush. Every so often, a gentle cooling breeze would rustle the leaves and bring some refreshment to the staff and volunteers of the Spring of Life Centre, Egbe who were working in the shade of some trees at the semi-Nomadic Fulani camp at Akata, about six kilometers outside of Egbe.

We arrived at the camp at 8:30 in the morning, and spent some time attending to the necessary courtesies—greeting the chief and his elders, introducing ourselves, and obtaining the permission to conduct a health education talk focusing on HIV and AIDS and its prevention. … read more …

Spring of Life Club Video

Spring of Life is the support arm of The ECWA AIDS Ministry (TEAM), with activities including home visiting, voluntary testing and counseling (VCT), and community-building activities. See Susan Bertrand's short article about the Kids Club.

Here is a short (6 minute) video with pictures of the children in the Kids Club, as well as a few shots of the adults' Spring of Life club meeting. These support groups have played a big role in the lives of our clients, building a sense of community, caring, and teamwork, and helping eliminate the stigma of HIV. The pictures and footage here were shot in 2005. Nearly all the kids were living with HIV at the time, and most are still doing well, with many on antiretroviral therapy.

(Click on the player to start. If your connection is too slow for this video, see the low resolution version instead, or press pause on the player, wait until the video finishes loading, reaching 100%, then press play again).

Covered with God’s Fingerprints

By Anna Beth Wildman
“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Psalm 139:13-16).

Elizabeth
Elizabeth
Baby Elizabeth is carried into the examination room at Spring of Life, an SIM ministry for people living with HIV/AIDS. The ten-month-old waves her spindly arms as SIM nurse Susan Bertrand lifts her from her mother’s lap. Elizabeth opens her mouth and gives a pitiful, scratchy cry. “Oh, she’s totally positive,” Susan’s voice cracks. As Elizabeth cries, Susan continues, “She’s got a bad case of thrush.” She turns to me. “Elizabeth’s mom, Sarah, has never been here before. She was in the market and a friend of mine approached her and said, ‘Your baby needs help; I’ll take you to Spring of Life.’”

I glance at Elizabeth’s mother, Sarah, who is very thin. She sits expressionlessly, too tired to care.

Kids Club

Children in front of Spring of Life Center
Smiling Kids' Club children outside Spring of Life
These are our precious kids who came for Kids club two weeks ago. The first Thursday of every month our HIV positive kids gather for games, snacks and a Bible story or craft. We really want to show them the love of Christ and pour into their lives. Many of the kids are orphans. Each of them is taking antiretroviral medications, living healthy lives and going to school. The children always look forward to coming to Spring of Life for this event. It brings hope and encouragement to their lives. These faces are the next generation of Nigeria. We want them to know their Maker, the God of all creation. We pray that they may know their value in God's eyes, and of His unfailing love for them. (from Susan Bertrand's blog)

 See  video of Kids Club

The truth will set you free: the ministry of HIV testing

Outreach workers addressing crowd
Outreach workers addressing crowd at VCT outreach in Jengre

As we expand our HIV voluntary counseling and testing to rural areas, we are finding something that surprised us all. Not only are people willing to be tested, but they want to be tested.

At first we were afraid people would not want to be seen being tested because of the stigma it might produce. However, as we discovered at an outreach in Jengre, this is just not the case. We had people waiting in line before we arrived each day and we could not test all those that wanted to be tested, even though we tested 700 people in two and one half days.

More Articles…

Page 1 of 2

Start
Prev
1

Search site

Nigeria Profile

For a larger view, click on the full-screen button or use the Google Video button to go to the video on the Google Video site.