Mama Kay

The first time I visited Mamire ward to meet all the homestays, we made a stop at the only hosteli (resturant) in Mamire Center. Upon entering, we found a front room containing a single low table surrounded by a long bench and chairs. The place was packed with locals from Mamire, showing that the food had to be very good! It didn’t take long before we were greeted by a mama who was probably in her late 40′s or early 50′s, a smile plastered on her face and a little sass in her step! This was my first encounter with Mama Kay. She ran to hug the Babati staff and to catch the latest news. In no time we realized that she would be a homestay mama to two lucky members of our crew. We also learned that Mama Kay has been living with HIV for years now, but you would never know just by looking at her. Though she takes ARV’s daily, you would never know her body contained a virus with the potential to kill all her immune cells. She has the energy or a teenager, the optimism and enthusiam of the biggest idealist, and the heart Morher Teresa. In the weeks to come of my stay in Mamire Center, I would quickly come to find Mama Kay as my own mama and to be changed by her story and outlook on life.

I had the pleasure of seeing Mama Kay daily, sometimes she was one of the first people we encountered due to our daily visits to her resturant for chapati and chai. She would always greet us as if she hadn’t seen us in years and would welcome us with open arms. Though stigma is a huge challenge in Mamire, over the years, Mama K has combated this barrier. When people first learned or her HIV status, few came to her resturant. Now there isn’t an hour in the day where a person isn’t enjoying her amazing food and chai, a testiment to her success in overcoming stigma. While this alone makes her a strong and admirable person, she also is a CHW (community health worker) in Mamire Center, a job that requires a person with a huge heart and compassion, and strength to face the reality of HIV. Day in and day out, as a CHW, Mama Kay visits those living with HIV. In Mamire Center there are patients in the early stages of HIV who are up and about, living a proactive life, and others facing their last days, almost overcome by the virus. In the time we were in Mamire Center, two patients were taken by this terrible disease, a harsh reality to swallow, and every time Mama Kay was the first to witness the outcome, yet she never showed sign of self pitty or fear, but there isn’t a way she couldn’t have linked her future outcome to what was before her. While Mama K could have easily stopped her daily activies to ponder the reality of HIV, instead she takes volunteers and teaching partners on patient visits, leads the support group, and is a mother and grandmother to the most beautiful children in Tanzania! For this, Mama Kay is one of the strongest people I know.

She was the first to propose the kuku project when we asked how we could help the patients of Mamire ward. She told us the reason for the deaths of the patients were due to stigma, stigma place by family who neglected to care for the patients who otherwise could have sought help. With the extra funding from the project, patients wouldn’t have to rely on the stigmatizing family members who won’t even lend them 1,000 shillingi (equivalent to 75 cents) to take a bus to the district hospital to receive ARVs or to buy fresh fruit and vegetables, essential ingredients to maintain a healthy immune system. Yet daily, Mama Kay watches people stigmatize those living with HIV, something that would have to be heart wrenching, but she continues to carry on in her same positive manner, doing all she can with the cards dealt to her. While you could think that Mam Kay has forgotten about the fate of the virus infecting her, on our last night in Mamire, as she gave a speech thanking our efforts and all we had done in Mamire, she invited us back to visit her family and friends, saying that she would probably not be around. This is the reality of HIV. And while many times we avoided thinking about Mama Kay’s fate, that night hit us head on.

When I come to Tanzania to work with SIC, I come so that people can see the reality of this disease so that they won’t face the fate of many. When we started the kuku project, we had patients like Mama K in mind. So I ask that you hear the story of this incredible mama and take it to heart. I invite you to be apart of this fight against HIV by simply being aware and seeing the reality of this disease, something that breaks my heart. As we say in SIC, “Tuko Pamoja Kuushinda UKIMWI” (we are here together to combate AIDS) not as a problem of Africa, but as a problem that affects people worldwide, something that needs all hands in order to overcome.