Children, Homoeopathy and Heartbreak

It was Orphanage day and we were back with the predominantly HIV children in a very poor area of town. The first one was the lad we had seen two weeks ago who was malnourished and very swollen. Most of the swelling remains reduced but he arrived out of breath despite having got a ride to the end of the drive so only walking 100m or so. It took him a long time to stop breathing hard, and even then his breath remained laboured. It is difficult to look at this little fella and try to reconcile the fact that he can barely walk; no football, no chasing around with friends, no laughter, just HIV. The homeopathy has helped in a major way, stopping the vomiting & diarrhoea, let’s hope it can help further.

Last time Lorraine had seen a young lad who was exceptionally despondent. He is HIV positive and was afraid for his health which coloured his whole life – so much so that he wanted to kill himself. He is 15. Now, when he sat down he smiled, and continued to smile on and off in response to various questions; it was very moving for Lorraine who had seen him before so was acutely aware of the improvement. He no longer despairs, he no longer wishes to kill himself. It is wonderful to witness.

Our last case was very tough, and is not resolved. A little girl had been for a few visits to try and get help coping with her life, and some remedies have made her feel better about herself. Her mother is dead and her father lives away with no contact number, so she and her brother live with their aunt and uncle. Her brother is HIV negative so does not get treated too badly but things are different for her. It is very common for people to persecute/ shun/ victimise people with HIV [not just in Africa] and that is what happens to this child. The girl came today for help with nosebleeds, but as we talked it came out that she wanted to runaway – today. The final straw came when she had eaten some food that was left over and her aunt said that she would poison her if she did it again.

It is very hard to know what to do; she has told the same story of persecution each time she was seen by a homeopath, and some remedies have helped but there are always two sides to a story. We talked to one of the supervisors at the place who explained that actually they only take children over 15 (the younger ones come from the school they run, so are not part of the orphanage) so taking her in was not an option. Also, with much discussion we found, unsurprisingly, that it would not be so simple – clearly the family needed to be talked to before anything was done and there were other considerations. So we gave what help we could in the form of remedies and left.

This was the sensible approach; we are here to help with health not sort out all the social problems, but all of us felt flat afterwards.