Lois's Closing Address to the Aids Education Meeting at Mamohau
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Friday March 10^th 2000

Mamohau Hospital Mamohau Hospital is high up in the northern mountains of Lesotho. It is one of four Roman Catholic Hospitals. The hospital is part of a mission that includes a nursery school, primary and secondary schools and several health clinics and health posts in more remote villages. CHAL administers all of the Christian hospitals and clinics in Lesotho. Click on the picture for an expanded view

Good morning. My name is Lois Ferguson.

I am a nurse and I serve as the Public Health Coordinator for the Christian Health Association of Lesotho, called by its initials, CHAL. CHAL works throughout Lesotho with all of the church-owned hospitals and health centers. CHAL's hospitals and health centers provide about one half of all of the health care in Lesotho. At CHAL we work with the Governemnt of Lesotho and other non-government organizations to advocate for programs, services and funding for prevention of and treatment for persons with HIV/AIDS. Through a grant from Danish Church Aid, CHAL was able to train HIV/AIDS counselors throughout Lesotho, starting in 1991. This training and the grant funding provided an essential foundation for AIDS programs at CHAL facilities. Today these programs provide home based care, orphan care, and counseling and prevention services.

I should also tell you that I am from America. I have been appointed by a national group of churches to serve you for 3 years here in Lesotho. I arrived in Lesotho with my family on January 7, just 2 months ago.

I am honored that you have asked CHAL to join you today, and pleased that I could be here with you along with my colleague, Mrs. Florence Khapwale . Mrs. Khadi from our office sends her regrets. She is the AIDS Program Coordinator for CHAL and could not be here because she has been assigned to assist with a UNICEF national survey.

You are to be congratulated for the courage and the strength to join in this 3 day workshop. I am told that this is the first ever such gathering of HIV positive persons in Lesotho. I hope that you have been challenged and stimulated by your time together. I also hope that you have been able to start thinking about what you would like to do next. How you might continue with the positive energy and peer support in the days ahead. I would encourage you to stay in touch with the workshop leaders and with the other participants so that what you have begun in the past 3 days will not be an ending point, but a starting point.

As I considered what I should say in my address to you today, I thought that there are many things that I could say about HIV/AIDS. Some of them you may have heard already. I could tell you that since the disease was first identified in 1981, there have been 16 million deaths from AIDS. Almost 14 million of those deaths were here in Africa. Eighty-five percent of the deaths last year from AIDS were in Africa.

In South Africa 13% of the adult population has HIV/AIDS. In Botswana it is 25%, in Zimbabwe 26%, in Namibia 20%. These figures are incredibly high! One in every 4 or 5 adults infected with HIV! Figures from the GoL say that 9.8% of adults in Lesotho are living with HIV/AIDS, but we know the actual figures are much higher. We have only 9.8% reported because some people do not have access to health care, but many more are afraid to be tested. They are afraid to know the results, and they are afraid of the stigma that it will cause to them and to their families if they are tested and found to be HIV positive.

I could tell you that HIV/AIDS is a very costly disease. It costs money for medical care. It robs 10 years from our average life expectancy in Lesotho. Those who are very sick are unable to work. But most important, it robs Lesotho of its future. We are in danger of losing an entire generation of young adults to this dreadful disease. By the end of this year there will be an astonishing 10.4 million African children under the age of 15 who will have lost their mother or both parents to AIDS.

I could tell you many terrible things about the devastation of HIV/AIDS. But you know these things already, in your hearts. You have lived with the pain, the loneliness of this disease as you have known others who have died, and as you face the reality of your own HIV status and the likely road ahead of you.

But I have not come today to tell you of the devastation of HIV/AIDS. I have come instead with a message of hope and strength in the face of this gloomy picture. I have come as a living representation to you of your brothers and sisters in Christ who stand WITH you. You have not been forgotten; neither by your brothers and sisters at CHAL, nor by the churches in America who have sent me to be here among you. I would like you to imagine that all those who sent me are here today standing behind me at the front of this room. Imagine the Basotho from all of the CHAL hospitals and health centers, the doctors and nurses, counsellors and support staff for the 8 hospitals and over 50 health centers at least 500 staff members in all. Now add to that number the 15 or so staff from the CHAL central office, and we have filled the front of the room. Now imagine that we are in a great hall. The halls has many, many seats and steps leading up to a big stage up front where I am joined by the 200 people from my home church in America. Next come the hundreds of thousands of people from the churches all across America that know I am here as their representative to you. Truly, you are not alone.

I am here also to give you the message of God's love for you. It is a love that is the same yesterday, today, tomorrow, and always. It is a love that does not care about your HIV status. It is a love that stands with us, and indeed carries us when we are too weak, too frightened, or too lonely to go on. The road ahead is not clear. For all of us, the road has many twists and turns. Some stretches are relatively flat and easygoing. Others lead straight up to the mountaintop. Be assured that God walks with me, with you, and with us all. We have only to open our hearts to God and the power of his love will bring strength in the dark days, even in the darkest days ahead. God will bring hope where there is no hope, strength where is there is no strength. He is with us here today as we work and pray together and He will go with us as we leave this place. Call on Him when you need Him. Let Him help to carry your burdens to the mountaintop.

I would like to close with a song, and I hope that you will join me in singing it. It is a simple song, but one that I hope you will remember and draw strength from long after this workshop is over.

updated 3/22/2000
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