July 22, 2011

TASO outreach to Pabbo

Work has finally begun at TASO! We got to sit in on a meeting that started with the chair person leading a musical prayer. Everyone was singing and dancing. On a tour of TASO last week we also had the pleasure of meeting the TASO drama group. We walked into a room full of men and women dancing and singing and they invited us to join them. We learned after that these people were all HIV+ and they travel with TASO to various communities to sensitize people about HIV/AIDs and to show how they have become empowered by the disease.

Yesterday, Anne, Linda, Beatrice and I got to go on an outreach with TASO to the village of Pabbo. Pabbo is located north of Gulu and we drove on the road that leads to Sudan to get there. On the way we passed many trucks carrying live cows with men sleeping on hammocks above the cattle. TASO took three vehicles, around 25 staff members, and brought everything they needed to carry out the services they provide at the TASO Gulu center to Pabbo. People were lined up waiting for us when we arrived and by the end ofthe day around 250 clients had been served. We helped out where we could but none of the clients spoke english so it was difficult to interact with them. The TASO staff work incredibly well together as a team. Each client received either group or one on one counselling, then saw a doctor, and received medication from the "pharmacy" TASO brought with them. Health talks about HIV prevention were also given. Most of the clients were women who also brought children. A doctor explained that many of the villagers associate white people with food because they used to bring supplies to IDP camps. He assured the clients that I was a student there to learn. By the end of the day we were exhausted, and many counsellors and doctors were still working. Going on an outreach to Pabbo was great for learning more about TASO, as well as seeing a more rural area in Uganda.

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