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Sunday, May 5 - Thursday, May 9, 2002
Zimbabwe, Southern Africa

"Making A Way Out Of No Way"

At the beginning of week five on the road, the Balm team arrived in southern Africa. It's winter in Zimbabwe, although the skies were sunny and the weather was breezy and mild. The drive from the airport to the hotel revealed barren fields, arid from lack of rain. As we passed the big standing rocks Zimbabwe is known for, we saw vendor after vendor selling beautiful stone sculptures, piles of wheat, and mobile phone cards, trying to earn a living.

Southern Africa is facing a drought in coming months, and this will only add to the current devastation in the area of health. According to UNAIDS, Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst affected by HIV/AIDS in the world, ranked second only to Botswana with the highest HIV prevalence on the continent. More than 2,000 people die each day of AIDS. One in every four adults is infected with HIV. In 1998, life expectancy dropped to 39 years, compared to 60 years in the previous decade. Fifteen percent of new AIDS cases are among children under the age of five. And it is projected that in the next decade, 45 percent of all the children in the country will be orphaned by AIDS - and half of these orphans will be HIV-positive.

Shortly after arriving in Harare, some members of The Balm team visited an organization working with orphans and widows to learn more about how people are dealing with the pandemic in their own communities. The Zimbabwe Widows & Orphans Trust (ZWOT), formed in 1996, was established to assist grief-stricken and often destitute widows and orphans. Because HIV/AIDS has spread at alarming rates in the region in the last decade, the membership has grown from a handful to many thousands.

The team members were welcomed with warm singing and vibrant dancing. The widows were very open shared their stories willingly. One in four members of the Trust is infected with the HIV/AIDS virus. Many widows feel anger and bitterness and suffer from a loss of self-esteem, confidence and shame.

Their involvement in this organization helps them make the transition after the deaths of their husbands. Most often, after the husband's death, his family comes and claims all the possessions and sometimes the children, leaving the widow with nothing. The Trust provides legal protection from the loss of property and repossession by family members. They offer advice and education on medical and nutritional issues; they provide food and clothing; they assist with insurance and funeral arrangements; and they also provide funding for self-help programs. These programs in particular enable widows to support themselves through small business ventures like souvenir export, knitting and sewing, peanut production and selling fruit and vegetables.

"My husband died of AIDS two months ago," said one 24-year old widow, "and I felt desperate because my four children and I were left with nothing. The Trust helped me with clothing and food, and most of all hope when I was in despair."

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