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A story of Local Response by Helena Zweifel
In the exercise that we did while writing the books, we consciously concentrated on strengths, resources and life. The young woman's life story of misery and deception became the story of a woman coping with life. Her story: “I got infected with HIV by my first boyfriend who dropped me. My family sent me out of my house and I found refuge with some relatives in the city. These relatives however, treated me like a dog or a leper. I was not allowed to eat from the plate…” The story of misery goes on like that.
In an exercise as part of the memory and life book workshop another participant retells the story of the young woman in an affirmative and positive way. “This young woman sharing her story is actually a strong and courageous woman. She had bad luck in her life, but she found ways to cope with life. She managed to find a job and slowly found the respect of her relatives. She not only is able to care for herself, but also helps other women living with HIV to cope with life. This actually is the story of a courageous woman who never gives up! She can be proud of herself!”
At the end of the workshop, the young woman came up to me to thank me, “Making my memory and life book gave me new courage. Thank you for sharing!"
I would like to thank the young woman for this appreciation and for giving me the opportunity to learn and to realise how important it is to focus on life and giving.
I was invited to Haiti to do memory work with a group of women living with HIV. Writing memory books is a method developed in Africa where women and men living with HIV write down their life stories for their children. They tell their children where they came from, what is important in life and a share with them their wishes for the future. We are from aidsfocus.ch, the Swiss platform on HIV/AIDS and international cooperation. We had learned this methodology from our partners and communities in Africa and wanted to share it with others.
In Haiti, the first evening, I screened a film with South African women writing their books for their children. The young woman, she might have been 18 to 20 years old, started to cry. "I do not want to do memory book,” she sobbed. "I do not want to die!" She associated writing down memories with dying. I felt very bad and that night, I painted the cover of the memory book that I had prepared and changed the title of the memory book into "MEMORY AND LIFE BOOK".
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