VIH y La Sida

We were picked up in the morning and ushered to the public hospital where we met with representatives from the HIV/AIDS department. The public hospital lies in squalor, and from the outside it is nearly impossible to distinguish it as such. People littered the cramped cooridors under awnings outside as other people, sick, sat on benches or on the ground just staring at us as we passed by. A little girl was throwing up on the corner of one of the buildings as we passed. Services here are free, but when juxtaposed with the private hospital set up by Dole it is easy to see why the elite or really anybody with the means would chose private healthcare over public.

We left the hospital and moved then to the central office of the primary HIV/AIDS nonprofit group in La Ceiba, COCSIDA. We spoke with the women and exchanged questions and information for around two hours, and most of the 20 plus questions that I had constructed were answered quite well. Their outreach programs seem to be very good, with an emphasis on prostitutes, but there is still much work to be done with local governmental coordination beyond the police as well as with the churches. It seems the main lacking factor in HIV prevention efforts here is male outreach. Perhaps this might suggest a future avenue for development and discussion.

After lunch we travelled to an orphanage run by the department of Atlantida where six children with HIV/AIDS live. The children, for the most part, were incredibly friendly, but there are still glaring defects with the system as we spoke with their primary caregiver. Following this, we passed our time by visiting a school were local poor families can bring their children for the day – we spent this afternoon painting this classrooms.

This morning we were finally taken to the main office in La Ceiba for the Cruz Roja Hondureña and coordinated our volunteer plan for the rest of our time here. Tomorrow we will travel to Helens to take a day off with the other volunteers but after that we have all of our days filled out. Thursday we will be giving a presentation to the Red Cross technicians for about an hour in the morning discussing interesting and creative ways of facilitating youth outreach. Friday and Saturday will be spent with the Red Cross in neighborhoods around La Ceiba and in it as well administering both information and at the later event medication to infected persons and also helping with outreach for at-risk populations. More on that to come.

Sunday is our day off and we hope to spend any more of our free time before departure working more on painting the school down here which we completed one classroom of this afternoon. We’ll be working more on the presentation we’re to give to the Red Cross this evening and tomorrow throughout the day in preparation. We have a number of games prepared as well as literature, the technicians, we have been told, would also like to finish with a Q&A on perceptions and different cultures at the end of the presentation.

We have also exchanged contact information with COCSIDA and a progressive second semester plan for a project once we get back might be development of an outreach program for men or one which encompasses and utilizes the power of the church in reaching at-risk populations. The organization itself works closely and receives funding from initiatives and organizations such as UNICEF and USAID but I am interested in seeing them develop the local connections that will be necessary to develop actual pragmatic steps towards reaching their stated goals. Fundraising as we all know is the beginning, but you cannot throw money at a problem that you cannot seriously reach. HIV/AIDS prevention in Honduras, therefore, which blooms in extremely rural areas like La Ceiba, needs to be a grassroots initiative which recieves local, national, and international support – not just one or two forms exclusive of the other, or without adequate information dissemination.

In other news it is always hot here, and the heat, especially at night, is becoming quite oppressive. I never thought I’d say it but in my own small way I do miss the seasons back home, and I look forward to not sweating at a near constant rate.