wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 668 *REVISED*-Small United Methodist clinic

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

*REVISED - Being resent to correct error in dateline.*

Small United Methodist clinic serves large population with AIDS

Dec. 1, 2005

NOTE: Photographs, video and related stories are available at
http://umns.umc.org.

By Kathy L. Gilbert*

HARARE, Zimbabwe (UMNS) - Roberta Hupprich arrives at Epworth HIV/AIDS
clinic to find the building already full and people waiting for her.

Before she can make it to the door, a man stops her and pulls up his
pant leg to reveal a seeping sore. She tells him she will try to get him
some medicine.

Coming from the building is the sound of loud, racking coughing
occasionally punctuated with the softer cough of a small child. The
clinic is mostly full of women and children who are sitting patiently in
white plastic chairs waiting for their turn to see the nurse. Everyone
here is in the third or fourth stage of AIDS.

A long day at the clinic begins with everyone joining hands in a circle,
a prayer and singing.

Epworth AIDS clinic, located in a poor rural area outside of Harare,
serves about 200 people with HIV/AIDS. The clinic was started in 2000,
when Hupprich was assigned to Zimbabwe as a United Methodist missionary.
It is supported by donations from United Methodist churches.

Serving the underserved

Irene Mapedzamombe, the part-time nurse who helps out in the clinic,
says the people coughing probably have tuberculosis, one of the common
opportunistic infections that bring them to the clinic. People with
HIV/AIDS can get many opportunistic infections because the disease
weakens the body's immune system.

Hupprich, a professional nurse, is busy trying to set up the table with
records and medicine so Mapedzamombe can begin seeing people. While she
is working, one of the volunteers tells her about a patient who has
committed suicide.

"There is a quarry here in Epworth. It is a place where people go if
they want to commit suicide," she explains quietly. "She was one of our
home patients." The volunteer tells Hupprich that at the last home visit
the women was complaining about not getting better, that her husband had
died and she had children to raise.

Hupprich pushes on past the tears to the task at hand. Every other week,
she and Mapedzamombe open the clinic on Tuesday. On Wednesdays, they
make home visits to patients too ill to come into the clinic.

"We can only do this program every other week because we share a vehicle
and only have a part-time nurse," she says. "We would like to have our
own vehicle and hire a full-time nurse. We would like to come out every
week and serve more people."

The number of people coming into the clinic varies because many of the
homes in the area were destroyed in the government's campaign called
"Restore Order." The United Nations reports nearly 92,500 dwellings were
torn down in the campaign, which started in May 2005.

"Many of our people have either relocated to other rooms in Epworth or
are staying in plastic, making a shelter out of the rubble, or they have
moved back to the rural areas or with relatives," Hupprich says. "The
shelters keep coming up like weeds on the very spot where their home was
destroyed."

Hupprich was assigned to Zimbabwe in 2000 along with her husband, Glenn.
He is also a United Methodist Board of Global Ministries missionary
assigned as area financial representative for the conference.

"Mostly I got it going," she says of the clinic. "A Zimbabwean nurse and
volunteers make it work. The groundwork was done the first year. We feel
part of the community."

Volunteers, many from a nearby United Methodist church, help Hupprich.
They carefully record the patient's name and reasons for seeing the
nurse on worn paper schoolbook folders. A United Methodist cross and
flame is stamped on the page and the date of the visit is recorded.

One of the volunteers, Never Mujikwa, started out as a client early in
the program. He became a volunteer about one and a half years ago,
Hupprich says. "He is quite ill at the moment. He needs prayers."

Betty Siwela, another volunteer who has been in the program for a long
time, is now displaced and "living in plastic," Hupprich says. She
started in the antiretroviral program at Harare Hospital and is having a
bad reaction, Hupprich learns from her son.

"Betty used to come to the office and pack medicines in small plastic
bags for me," she says. "She has two boys, one finishing high school and
the other in primary school. She is alone. Sad case. Please, she needs
prayers."

Treatment begins

A small room on one side of the building functions as the examining
room. The first patient today is a tiny boy dressed in a sweater, wool
cap and shorts. He sits on his grandmother's lap during the examination.

He shyly pulls up his sweater for the nurse to see the rash covering his
small body. The boy is almost 9, his grandmother says. He is one of
three children she is raising since his parents died of AIDS. Today she
tells the nurse she fears she is suffering from symptoms of the disease
as well.

"The grandmother started complaining of symptoms; I don't know if she
got it (AIDS) from the wounds when she was washing the children,"
Mapedzamombe says. "She is complaining of chest pains. We are going to
give her Cotrimoxazole today."

Cotrimoxazole is the drug the clinic most often dispenses for
infections, Hupprich explains. The clinic also offers antibiotics,
medicine for diarrhea, vitamins, iron, something for throat thrush and
antacids. One unique product used for skin rashes is a homemade ointment
of coal oil. "It is really quite effective," Hupprich says.

"Most of the people don't have a lot of food and the antacid helps when
they take medicine on an empty stomach," Mapedzamombe explains.

"We used to have enough money to give them food, now we just hope for
enough to buy medicine," Hupprich adds.

"We treat respiratory infections, skin diseases, diarrhea and people who
have cancer associated with AIDS," she says. As patients get sicker, she
works with a local hospice center because it can dispense pain
medication. "There is no medicine in the (area) clinics and less and
less in the hospitals," she adds.

Everyone affected by AIDS

Epworth is a large, poor community. "Some of the people first settled
here during the liberation struggle as refugees. We see lots of widows,
lots of grandmothers with grandchildren who are orphans."

Hupprich says the statistics vary on the number of people in the area
infected with AIDS. "It used to be 35 percent, but our nurse and others
think it is more than that. I don't know one person out here who has not
been affected by AIDS in one way or another."

Since she came to Zimbabwe in 2000, she says the economy has grown
worse. "Prices for basic food have made it prohibitive for most people
to buy the staples - mealie meal, rice, beans."

Transportation is a "nightmare," she says. People wait for several hours
for transportation to and from work, and then all the money they earn is
used for transportation. Fuel is getting harder and harder to buy also.

Hupprich says the only way the program can survive is through donations
from United Methodist churches and individuals.

"The only source of income we have for this program is the United
Methodist Advance," she says. "Without the churches back home, we would
not be functioning, we would not be able to take care of these people.
It is not huge donations, but it is a lot of small donations that add
up. It is our only source of support at this time."

The Board of Global Ministries was able to send 15 medicine boxes and 50
home health kits to the clinic in September. "It saved our lives," she
says. The clinic also received 35 boxes of medicine and 460 blankets
from UNICEF.

Roberta and Glenn will be leaving the field in July and will retire in
2007.

"I am desperately looking for a conference or church that will support
this program on a steady basis," she says.

"We don't have a large death rate; we do lose some," Hupprich says. "We
have been very lucky, we are very thankful. God has really given his
blessing to this program and to our people."

Contributions to the Epworth AIDS Clinic may be sent through a local
United Methodist church or annual conference, or by mailing a check to
Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068, GPO, New York, NY 10087-9068. Checks should
be written to "Advance GCFA" with Zimbabwe HIV/AIDS Ministries, Epworth
AIDS Clinic (Advance Special #13796A) on the check memo line. Call (888)
252-6174 to give by credit card. For more information, visit the Advance
Web site, http://gbgm-umc.org/advance.

Every day, the number of people infected by HIV/AIDS increases by about
14,000. Already 23 million have died. The 2004 United Methodist General
Conference established the Global AIDS Fund and committed to raising at
least $8 million during the four years of the quadrennium. A gift of $1
per member before the 2008 General Conference would underwrite this
effort.

Individuals and churches can support the AIDS response by designating
checks for Advance #982345, "Global AIDS Fund," and sending them to P.O.
Box 9068, New York, NY 10087-9068. Call (888) 252-6174 to give by credit
card. For more information, visit the Advance Web site,
http://gbgm-umc.org/advance.

*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in
Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

********************

United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org

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