Tough Day

Today was the first day we made home visits to some of TAFCOM's clients. I will have additional pictures later (Erin, my volunteer partner, took photos at each house), but this is a photo of the first woman we visited today. She is a grandmother living with her daughter and two grandchildren in a one room "house" that has no electricity, no water, no flooring. The dirt floor even had a mud puddle in it from the recent heavy rain. This woman has AIDS and is suffering from an opportunistic infection of shingles - she could barely stand for the picture. Her entire "house" was smaller than my bathroom at home...and they have two adults and two children living there. I don't know how to explain the squalor and poverty that these people live in on a daily basis, and I don't know how to help.

My initial impulse is to say that I will give them some money or buy them some food, but for how long does that help? Only until the money or food runs out, and then what?

For some of the healthier clients who are able to work, the answer is a little clearer (although not easy!): empower them to become self-sustaining through a small business. Educate them on basic business principles, help them to form a cooperative among their neighbors, show them how to become self sufficient. There are a few organizations who are successfully doing this and ever-so-gradually lifting their clients out of poverty. But even those organizations require capital to get off the ground and people with an education to lead them in the right direction.

And what of people who are in the situation of this woman - unable to work, afraid of imminent death, unable to care for herself or her family? At this point, all that TAFCOM can provide is emotional support via the occasional home visit. I believe that Nie (from TAFCOM) has developed friendships with each of these people, and her visits seem to mean a great deal to her clients. The people we visited today were inviting and welcomed us into their modest homes, probably with the hope that we can DO SOMETHING for them. What is it that I can do????

I know that I am only a few days into this journey. I am trying to soak in as much information as possible and hoping that an opportunity to help in some tangible way will present itself. My heart is breaking.