It Never Occurred To Me
By Givemore Chundu
Harare, Zimbabwe
August 17, 2009

I’ll never forget the day in early 2008 when I arrived home from work at 5:00 p.m. sharp. Earlier in the day, my wife had phoned informing me that my sister, Grace, had visited us from the rural area where she lived. She was accompanied by my mother.

Though my wife, Mildred, had told me over the phone that my sister was in a “terrible shape,” nothing prepared me for what I saw before my eyes. Grace was so thin and sick. I wondered to myself if she would make it until the next day. I had never imagined this to be what Mildred meant when she said, “Grace is in a terrible shape.”

When I saw Grace, a sea of thoughts started racing through my mind. Hardly two years before, I had witnessed my brother’s health deteriorate rapidly. I was then staying and working in Gaborone, Botswana — 1,400 kilometers from our home village. I recalled having to make arrangements to get him tested for HIV when his “chronic malaria bout” failed to respond to treatment. It was not surprising when the test turned out positive.

I made arrangements to get my brother on a treatment program. But unfortunately, about six months later, he succumbed to AIDS and passed on. His wife died exactly two months later, leaving behind two children — a seven-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl — who are now being cared for by my parents. It was such a painful experience having to re-live the pain of losing a brother and a sister-in-law within such a short space of time.

The day after Grace arrived at my home, I shared her condition with a colleague I work with here at the Foundation. He asked me to share the issue with one of our staff members — a medical doctor — who educated me on exactly what I needed to do and where I needed to take my sister. Within four weeks, my sister had been tested and enrolled in the national antiretroviral treatment (ART) program. Her life had been saved. Yes, saved because of information I received right here in my office.

Today, I am pleased to say that Grace is doing very well. She lives in our home village and travels to the district hospital 70 kilometers away to get her medication. She is healthy enough to farm maize, beans, and cotton, which she uses to support her seven-year-old son.

I joined the Foundation as a contracts and grants manager in November 2006. I was aware that our core business was the prevention and eradication of pediatric HIV/AIDS, but my specific role was managing contract awards from start-up to close-out. It never occurred to me that working for the Foundation would give me access to colleagues and valuable information that would save my own sister.

Givemore Chundu

Not only that, I am now so informed about HIV and AIDS issues that you would think I am a trained medical professional. And I continue to share this information with friends, relatives, and associates whenever I have an opportunity to do so.

I have also had the pleasure of seeing our core business expand to embrace interventions around orphans and vulnerable children — children like my brothers’s son and daughter — who have suffered the loss of one or both parents to AIDS.

What an opportunity indeed to be working for the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

Givemore Chundu is a senior compliance officer based in Harare, Zimbabwe.