Life in all its fullness

Robina Ssentongo works at the Kitovu Mobile Home Care unit, bringing practical and emotional support to those living with HIV [Annie Bungeroth]

Robina Ssentongo explains how faith inspires the work of the MAHCOP programme in helping children left orphaned by AIDS in Uganda

“Our key role and our mission is – to sum it up in the words of Jesus ‘I’ve come that you may have life and have it in all its fullness’.

That’s John 10:10. So all our activities are making sure that people have life in all its fullness.”

Robina Ssentongo, 44, is the director for the Kitovu Mobile AIDS Home Care and Orphans Programme (MAHCOP) in Uganda, an HIV and AIDS group founded by the Medical Missionary of Mary (MMM).

“Working with the dying is not easy. You do so much and build a relationship with somebody but all of a sudden, because of AIDS, they have to go.

“And then these people are not only suffering from the disease, but also suffering from dire poverty. They have no proper housing or those basics in life that a human being wants.”

Dealing with trauma

The programme works in the Masaka and Ssembabule districts in Southern Uganda, where orphan-headed households are common. This makes the work much more wide-ranging than simply medical care and counselling for the AIDS patient.

“There may also be children in that family who are suffering, who may already be half orphaned and in danger of losing their only remaining parent, or being orphaned a second time if the guardian is also sick.

“When we look at an orphan, we see a child that needs education but has gone through traumatic events seeing their parents die, seeing their key care giver die, maybe even seeing their friends and neighbours die of AIDS.

“And this is a child now who may feel guilty, or disadvantaged or even cursed by God. So we see what can we do for these children by making sure they can go to school, and helping them learn new skills.”

Community learning

The group runs mobile-farm schools, which are community-based and teach modern, organic farming skills. It also ensures children can receive psycho-social support, to help them accept their situation and live with it.

This also translates into providing support and education for the community groups and teachers. Robina says that if these people are more sensitive to the problems around HIV and AIDS, they are better placed to assess situations.

“We are spending more time with the teachers because they were complaining that the children were stubborn or difficult to manage.

“Teachers are trained in psycho-social skills – mostly focusing on trauma. Now they are able to relate the children’s educational performance to their behaviour, and address the real issues that they have lost hope at one time or another, that they have been failed or neglected. Some may even have been sexually abused.

“Before, nobody had an ear for the children. So we are trying to make sure the community understands them. It is difficult for people to talk about their feelings. It needs someone who is skilled to bring that out.”

A strong network of volunteers at ground level makes it possible to carry out such a huge variety of tasks – such as visiting the sick, educating and mobilising the community, and ensuring the work is sustainable.

MAHCOP maintains more than 750 volunteers across three districts, with each visiting up to ten families. Robina is full of praise for their hard work, as each one has to try and fit this work in at their own convenience.

“When we want to do something, we train the volunteers first to make sure they are well versed about the issue before it goes to the rest of the community.

“We have given them counselling skills for dealing with AIDS patients and children, skills in managing income-generating activities and self-help groups.

“They are not very different from the people they are helping so they have similar challenges of poverty and call on us to do something about it.”

Sustainable future

Self-help plays a big role in MAHCOP’s work, as it encourages the setting up of small groups to help themselves through small savings. Members can borrow funds to help them solve problems such as buying clothes or schools materials, or paying for medical care.

“Our organisation has a multi-sectoral, holistic approach, and the self-help groups are important because we cannot always be there.

“Sometimes I think the work we do is like a calling. Maybe a calling is only for the religious field but, for me, I feel it is a calling because it is not the smoothest path or best field I could work in, or has the greenest pasture.

“But every time I see someone saying ‘what you have done for me has made life different’, I feel good. I feel encouraged to reach even more people, as many as possible.”

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