Disease

Despair or Hope?

Africa and Aids have become almost synonymous. What other medical news and images do you see and hear coming out off Africa, Ebola Virus? West Nile? Leprosy? Malnutrition? Malaria? You would think that everyone in Africa is dropping dead from some dread disease or other. In fact, there are millions and millions of people in Africa who are surprisingly healthy, but there is no doubt that there are pockets of Africa where people urgently need medical help.

There are enormous problems:

• Diets and nutrition need to be improved.

• There is a great need for better sanitation and hygiene.

• Sources of clean water need to be made available.

• Men, women and children all need health education.

• There is a dearth of health workers and affordable medications.

• There is need for research into local and alternative medicine.

• Child mortality rates need improving.

One would think that in the face of so many urgent needs that those who work in Africa are gripped by frustration and despair. On the contrary, the Missionaries of Africa look upon all of this as challenges which with your help and the grace of God they can confront.

In fact great strikes have been made. Let us take one very small example: chiggers. These are minute fleas that burrow into the skin of the foot, especially the toes, lay there eggs, which would hatch, drop out, and start the birth/death cycle all over again. If left, they would cause infections and even loss of limbs. But through education children were taught to remove the fleas as soon as they noticed that they had burrowed into the skin, sweep floors, and also wear footwear, even simple beach sandals. The result? These fleas have almost entirely disappeared, and their memory relegated to folk-lore. One small almost insignificant step - but as the ditty goes "Oh what a relief it is".

But there are hundred more like this and the Missionaries of Africa are involved in such minute steps, quietly, unassumingly, it's all part of their job! Whether it is building hospitals, removing cataracts, being, literally, the first and perhaps only aid in the area, transporting the grievously sick to hospital, they take it in stride, bring hope to the hopeless and succor to the helpless.