to ease plight of those with AIDS

Dying of AIDS in Zimbabwe can be an ordeal many Americans would find hard to fathom:

* You've already lost friends and family members to the disease. No one will know for sure where you contracted it, since the stigma against AIDS in your country is such that no one talks about it.

* If you're an employed male, when your boss finds out you have AIDS, he stops paying you. Since you have to pay for health care, you probably don't get treatment because you can't afford it.

* Morphine might be unavailable, anyway. Even fresh vegetables are too expensive for your table. In the meantime, if you live in Harare, you can look at the former corrupt mayor's new $23 million home.

* When you die (and your average life expectancy is 38), your relatives may come and take all your possessions, leaving your wife with nothing -- except possibly the AIDS virus. But even if you've slept around and then passed the virus on to your wife, she wouldn't ask about it. Her place is to be there for you.

Linked to Diocese

According to Carla Lamadora, director of Island Hospice in Zimbabwe, scenarios like that are why The Community Hospice Africa Fund needs to exist. Started last month by The Community Hospice, the Africa Fund will help two hospice programs in South Africa and Zimbabwe to fund staff, care, education and prevention efforts.

During a recent visit to the Albany Diocese, Ms. Lamadora addressed staff members at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany. Both The Community Hospice and St. Peter's are part of MercyCare Corp.

"The loss is so huge now," she noted; "1,200 people a week in the country are dying of AIDS."

Island Hospice, she said, was the first Hospice program in Africa, employing full- and part-time nurses and social workers. When it began, its clients were mostly cancer patients; today, most have AIDS. Island Hospice's services are free, focusing lately on "training trainers" who do palliative care. Meals on Wheels is also available, and patients can borrow medical equipment for their use.

Seeking help

Since one Zimbabwean dollar is worth about $40 U.S., a small donation goes a long way. Ms. Lamadora explained that a new home-based care group in a rural part of Zimbabwe was able to dig a well through donations -- and "to have a well there is just unbelievable."

"In a high-density area [i.e., an urban ghetto] outside of Harare, we're about to start doing a hospital/clinic/community project," Ms. Lamadora added. "We feel very positive about being able to have some good, supportive networks in that community. As this hospice has become more and more a community hospice, that's what we need to do."

Still, battling such a huge epidemic is a struggle. When she left Zimbabwe, the country was on its third week of a doctors' strike with no sign of a reprieve. Many AIDS patients are so poor they don't even have sheets for their beds.

She also spoke of a 15-year-old girl blinded by a brain tumor, whose mother sold what she could to get bus fare to a clinic. "Basically, it's trying to do Hospice work on top of the AIDS pandemic, on top of a government that's collapsing," Ms. Lamadora said.

Hopeful

Signs of hope do exist: She noted that her African Hospice program was cheered by a recent shipment of vitamins from the Albany area, which helped patients who can't afford a balanced diet.

"You've been a big help," she told the St. Peter's staff.

The Community Hospice here hopes to see a legal change that may provide further help: Today, hospitals distribute medication to terminally ill patients that may not be used before the patient dies. Hospice workers are working toward it being legal for hospitals to send sealed bottles of medicine to hospices in Africa.

Working together

Contributions to The Community Hospice Africa Fund will be used to combat the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa; the fund is an extension of The Community Hospice's work and does not detract from local efforts.

"We can, all together, make a difference," Ms. Lamadora told the St. Peter's staff. "We can have such a good impact on both sides of the exchange."

(Donations can be made out to The Community Hospice Africa Fund and sent to The Community Hospice Foundation, 295 Valley View Blvd., Rensselaer, NY 12144. For information, call 1-800-678-0711.)