‘We are called to action’
Living with AIDS # 270
KHOPOTSO: His name is Caiphas Mohale. He is in his mid-thirties, speaks passionately and dresses very well. His authoritative demeanour could easily make one think that he is in the teaching profession or an office manager somewhere. But those do not appear in his CV. Instead, he spends his days caring for the ill, especially those with AIDS.
CAIPHAS MOHALE: Really, for me, it was a call(ing) because these people were really left out, sidelined’¦ And when you are sick you need someone to come and see you’¦ We are called to action because of this pandemic.
KHOPOTSO: Mohale is one of a few men in this field. Most often the role of the caregiver is relegated to women. When asked why he chose to join a cause largely viewed as a women’s domain, he answered with a question of his own.
CAIPHAS MOHALE: If you are helped, why don’t you go and help other people?
KHOPOTSO: Mohale’s example and the presence of a few other males in his group could be a sign that things are slowly changing. He and his group belong to a faith mission under the Catholic Diocese of Dzanani, in Limpopo province. On the day of our meeting he was attending a retreat at his parish in Duiwelskloof. The local priest, Father Tom, was at hand with some practical scenarios based on the Scriptures ‘ a well known story about Job.
FATHER TOM: I have suffered some terrible disaster. I’ve been diagnosed with something. And my question is: ‘Why did it happen to me?’ What do you say to me as a friend? We’re talking about Job. And we’re talking about the friends of Job. And the friends of Job were trying to console him, but it seems they got it wrong. What would you say to me?
KHOPOTSO: Deep silence echoes throughout the room. Finally, a fellow believer, Sister Sally Duigan, breaks the silence.
SISTER SALLY: Uuuurgh’¦ (chuckles all round) It’s a difficult one, but it’s very real.
KHOPOTSO: As the Old Testament story about Job continues, it says that his friends blamed him for his illness, suggesting that it was a justifiable punishment for some wrong he might have possibly done. In modern times, the same can hold true with HIV and AIDS. Some believe that AIDS is a punishment for one’s sins.
But Caiphas Mohale, a staunch Catholic, says this view needs to be banished to get rid of the stigma surrounding AIDS.
CAIPHAS: We must know them. We must identify them and say these are the people, so that when you pray, I mention your name’¦ because I’ll be saying: ‘God, this is Tebogo who’s sick’. ‘¦ But if you sit in the church and say: ‘We are praying for the people who are sick’ ‘ who are those? So, we said in order to answer this question we just have to go out and really help our people because it’s our brothers and sisters, it’s our mothers, it’s our fathers. So, why sit back and start pointing fingers?
KHOPOTSO: In his rounds as a care-giver in the villages of Duiwelskloof, he tends to many people with differing needs.
CAIPHAS MOHALE: With the TB patients, they are many’¦ So, when we go around we even encourage them to take medication. Sometimes, you find that (with) the medication you (must) eat first. What do you eat if you are poor? So, when we come we always give them something so that with the drugs they are given from the clinic that means they can use them. Really, the TB people, they are really many ‘ not forgetting that TB is something that is related with AIDS. But with the HIV positive people, to come out is really still difficult. But we’ve started a group. They come together and share their experiences. They see that ‘I’m not alone. There are people who are really like me’¦’
KHOPOTSO: Caiphas is on a mission to get more people in his community to disclose their HIV status. He believes that in silence there is no health. For as long as he can, he says, he will contribute his fair share in the crusade against HIV and AIDS.
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