Community care

Summer 2024 newsletter

Joanne Miya, Tanzania

This Uzima Centre support group celebrates community with a joyful song (Photo by Jerry Fleury).

Greetings from Uzima Centre. We hope and pray that all is well with you and your loved ones. It is hard to believe that we are already halfway through 2024.

Maryknoll has asked me to share a bit about community, which is one of our core values. I have been blessed to experience community on so many different levels.

First and foremost is my Maryknoll community. The lay missioners, priests, brothers, sisters and affiliates have accompanied me for over 40 years. They have seen me through many ups and downs. They are my “911” here in Tanzania. This community includes the many Maryknollers who shared this journey but have returned to the U.S. Others have received their final call home to God. They taught me more than could ever fit in a newsletter.

My Uzima Centre community

I also have my Uzima Centre community, made up of the clients and staff. Some of the clients I have known since they first tested positive for HIV over 20 years ago. I have been blessed to see children born with HIV enter college. This community challenges me to be grateful, always, and to never give up hope.

And of course there is my family. I look forward to Zoom calls with my four sisters. We share wisdom, frustrations and silly humor as only siblings can. Zoom calls with my children and grandchildren help keep me going. I may not be your typical mother or grandmother, but they love me. My husband, Martin, has spent almost 38 years with me “for better and for worse.” He’s the one I come home to each day, and I am grateful.

In Tanzania, a family unit is often multigenerational. Currently, our first generation of HIV-positive adults has reached geriatric status. More than half of our HIV-positive adult clients are now over 50. These are the people who became infected during the peak of the AIDS pandemic in East Africa in the 1990s. Our oldest client is 80! Among Tanzanian men, HIV prevalence varies from 0.3% among those aged 15 to 19 years to 8.4% among those aged 50-54 years. The face of HIV has changed.

With Laurensia, who has been living with HIV for more than 20 years (Photo by Jerry Fleury)

Many are no longer able to support themselves due to debilitating chronic conditions such as heart disease, diminished eyesight, arthritis and other geriatric medical conditions. Forty-four percent of HIV-positive patients over 50 have arterial hypertension. Undernutrition is found with 29% and contributes to mortality. These national statistics match what we are seeing locally. Only a third of our elderly clients are receiving three meals a day.

Elder abuse takes many forms. There is a lack of access to medical care, inadequate nutrition and a lack of psychosocial support from the community. Traditionally, Tanzanians respect and care for the elderly, but that doesn’t always hold true when HIV is involved. Some family members are resentful and angry, others afraid, and others are simply too burdened already to care for an elderly relative with medical needs.

None of our clients have medical insurance. So, although medical care is relatively inexpensive here, as compared to the U.S., it is still beyond the reach of many. One chemo treatment costs around $100. Hospitalization costs $50 a day, and one month of medication for hypertension is $25. I would like to ask anyone who is able, to consider donating for this specific need.

Faida, facing each day with hope

Please keep our clients in your prayers. Together we can help the elderly age with dignity.

I recently received a beautiful letter from one of our clients who was assisted with the cost of cancer treatment. She wanted to express her gratitude. Now in remission, she is once again able to care for her very elderly mother. She asked that I “thank the donors who made this treatment possible.”

The truth is that you too are an important part of our community here at Uzima Centre. Your prayers and donations are providing health and hope. I’m reminded of the quote, “He who has health has hope. And he who has hope, has everything” (Thomas Carlyle).

Let us continue to pray for peace and healing for people everywhere. Thank you for being part of my “community.” May God bless you.

Peace, deep breaths and gratitude,
Joanne  /  jmiya@mklm.org or uzimactr@gmail.com 

Please consider supporting my mission work at the Uzima Centre with a donation through the link below.

I invite you to walk with me as a “COMPANION IN MISSION.” Companions in Mission are friends and generous donors who give financial gifts on a regular (usually monthly) basis. For more information, visit Become a Companion in Mission. Thank you so much for your generosity!