Relentless suffering exists in Sub Saharan Africa, in local communities still impacted by legacies such as apartheid. Poor and often hungry, they are now decimated by HIV and Aids. Stories abound – but it is important to know that South Africa still has the largest number of people infected and affected by the disease. Grandmothers are heading up households of orphaned grandchildren, teeenagers and young people are dying, queues of local people wind their way round clinic buildings waiting for life saving medicines. In some ways, the situation is improving a little, but the disease may not yet have peaked.

Mindfulness might have offer something – but in approaching this, it was obvious that methods used in the North would not be much use in rural areas where most of the day is spent on domestic tasks (such as collecting firewood and water), where there is no electricity and where literacy rates are low.

Mindfulness approaches have been adapted into short pith practices and learnt by health professionals and community support workers working with NGOs, who can then pass them on to neighbours and families who they visit and support. These are slowly developing and currently it is still very early days – and other more pressing priorities always abound. Early feedback suggests that even these simple practices offer local people access to increased steadiness and compassion.

Links
Woza Moya Project, providing quality community care and support to people infected and affected HIV and Aids in Ufafa region of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.
www.wozamoya.org.za

Thought on a Thread, a mindfulness project offering support to communities affected by HIV and Aids in South Africa.
www.thoughtonathread.co.uk