HIV Care Home Visits in Dodoma

During the last three days we have visited several homes where our partners care for children in need and families living with HIV. For so many, the Lahash partners at the Mennonite church are essential to their survival.

We visited Sala and her three children in Kikuyu slum region of Dodoma. She has been diagnosed with HIV for two years, and although she is too sick to work, she is not yet on antiviral medications. When we arrived, she was sitting on the ground outside her home with her infant daughter on her lap.

Our partners have arranged for her to get her CD-4 count tested this week. This level assessment will allow Sala to have medications prescribed so that she may grow stronger and care for her family. Since she has been too sick to work, the church is giving her a small amount of food and money each month to help care for her family. She attends the Mennonite church whenever she is strong enough to walk the short distance, and she named her youngest daughter Esther after the pastor's wife who runs the Lahash sponsorship program on site.

The effects of HIV/AIDS in Dodoma, Tanzania is devastating many lives, yet there is intense hope behind the eyes of the friends that we have made. The love of Christ and the tangible support that the Lahash partners bring into so many homes is a bright light in this community.