Many thanks to you all for your splendid response to Sarudzai's distress. Suffering from skin cancer which has spread all over her face and head, she was taken to Mashamabanzou AIDS Care Centre and treated at Parirenyatwa Hospital, one of the two big referral hospitals in Harare. Sr Margaret, the matron of Mashambanzou and Sister Kutongo, the nurse in charge of home-based nursing care in various high-density suburbs, agreed that she had been making good progress when, tragically, her mother died (at the time that Martin Fletcher met her, she had seemed somewhat weak, but not in acute danger). So her father, who is also ill with skin rashes all over his body, asked Sr Margaret if he could take Sarudzai to the funeral. She had to agree, though reluctantly, but asked him urgently to return the child on the same day so that she could continue her treatment which seemed to be promising. Unfortunately, this did not happen. Volunteer workers in our parish, Tracey Taruvinga and Anna Kachidza, went to look for Sarudzai and found she had been taken to the rural home of the family in Mutoko, 140 km east of Harare. I went to see the family too and tried to send a message to Sarudzai's father: please come back with the child so that she can continue being treated; you could also benefit from treatment at Mashambanzou.



For several days, Sarudzai did not return. Tracey and Anna were planning to get on the bus to go and look for her, carrying food, soap etc to give to her family. Then we heard: Sarudzai is back in town. Anna and Tracey do not have to go and fetch her. Now, we are just trying to get her back to Mashambanzou AIDS Care Centre for further medical treatment.

As you will appreciate, Sarudzai Gumbo is not the only such case: there are many other children who are HIV positive and/or have acute AIDS. But they are not hopeless cases, provided they are tested in time and are treated before they get too weak. ARV treatment is not yet available to all who need it, but if someone is tested positive, some government and most church health facilities do have it. There is still a widespread fear and reluctance to get tested. Then such people come for help only when it is too late.

Not all children of HIV positive parents are HIV positive themselves. Many are free from it and survive their parents. So we have a large number of AIDS orphans. Each parish district is supposed to list the names of all these children who are normally being looked after by grandparents, uncles or aunts who, more often than not, are very poor and hardly able to feed these additional mouths. We try to help with food and especially school fees so that they, especially the girls, do not drop out of school. Our parishioners are supposed to keep a close eye on the orphans in their neighbourhood and help, especially when there is some crisis, like children not getting along well with their foster parents or being abused by them (as unfortunately happens at times).

Once more I thank you all for your concern and interest and for your material assistance. I will keep you informed about Sarudzai.

Fr Oskar Wermter SJ
Jesuit Communications
Harare, Zimbabwe