Missionary stands up against HIV stigma

January 31, 2007 :: Andrew Walker, Daily Trust,Abuja,

A 41-year-old father of two yesterday told the world he is living with HIV at the official opening of a clinic in Kubwa village.

Fidelis Massie has lost his job because of the stigma attached to the disease, but wanted to say publicly he is infected and is determined to use his life educating people about the disease.

Mr Massie said: "I have lost most of my friends to the disease. I want to campaign to prevent this disease from spreading. Most Nigerians in the interior places don't know all about it. I am healthy now and I am ready to work to tell people."

The former missionary is being treated at the Daughters of Charity 'Dream clinic' in Kubwa which has been providing treatment for free to sufferers of the disease since June. He was diagnosed in October last year and lost his job at a Pentecostal church in Plateau state. "They didn't say it was because of the HIV, they said it was because I could not go out into the field anymore because I was sick. But I am strong and healthy now, I want to campaign for Aids awareness." he said.

His wife contracted the virus after receiving infected blood in a transfusion during an operation in Jigawa state last year. She is now the only breadwinner in the family who can support their two children, aged 4 and 5.

Mr Massie said: "This centre has saved many lives because it gives out free Anti-Retroviral drugs, and because they treat malnutrition, and there is no discrimination in the people who work here."

Also volunteering to reveal she was HIV positive was Teresa. She told a gathering of dignitaries at the blessing ceremony: "I don't know when I caught the disease, but when I found out my mother sent me to the Daughters of Charity. People look at those with HIV as not being human, but we are all one. I'm asking for support to help us tell more people to know better about this."

Yesterday the clinic received blessings from the Archbishop of Abuja, and a representative from the ministry of health cut a ribbon across the door in the opening ceremony.

But the centre itself receives no funding from the Federal Government, and is reliant on funding from international donors. The Federal Government has signed a "memorandum of understanding" with the Daughters of Charity agreeing the government will not obstruct their work, and has promised to give them an ambulance, but no federal money has gone to building the N14 million laboratories, or the operating costs of the clinic.

The centre is funded by Catholic Relief Services and the American President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) provides the drugs. The centre cost N31 million to run last year.

Archbishop John Onaiyekan said: "I am ashamed that the Germans and the Canadians and the Americans are coming in to fund this. We have the money surely. But a memorandum of understanding is a beginning. In a place like this you need high level motivation. The sisters are highly motivated and dedicated, and not in it for the money. They should get money from government.

The government is even taking money from foreign donors and putting it where they want. To steal money from people with HIV is the height of wickedness." He said that the cooperation between church and state broke down in the last 20 years due to the military regimes, corruption and poor attitude of government.

Dr Ngozi Njepuome, director of public health at the ministry of health said: "Faith based organisations are very good at providing health care for the poor, and places like this are very dear to us. The Minister has said he will give an ambulance to the clinic. We will look at our memorandum of understanding and implement based on what we have agreed."

Sister Geraldine Henry, the head of the centre said two young women arrived at the Daughters of Charity last week, one was too weak to walk. She said: "Her sister carried her on her back to the clinic, carried her miles on her back. Her sister had Aids and she died, and the other sister is HIV positive too. The situation is terrible."

But the centre was managing alright without government assistance, she said. The Daughters of Charity take all the HIV and Aids cases from the nearby general hospital, and according to doctors who work at the centre, over 20 per cent of their 500 patients are from outside the Federal Capital Territory.

Sister Henry said: "Eventually the Idea is that the government will give the anti-retroviral drugs to us. But I don't think they have the resources. They are putting their money into their own hospitals. But we're doing very well."

She said during the building of the clinic government red tape got in the way when they were importing the equipment and beds. She said: "The Irish ambassador had to go and have a word every time there was a hold up."

The ethos of free treatment for patients at the centre was taken from the catholic Saint Egidio community's Drug Enhancement against Aids in Mozambique (Dream) project. It has been transferred to Kubwa and became the Drug Enhancement against Aids and Malnutrition. Across Africa 20,000 people are being treated in centres based on the Mozambiqan model.

But Archbishop Onaiyekan said: "At the very most this centre will be able to treat a few thousand. In Nigeria alone we are talking about millions of people with HIV and Aids."