Visit to HIV Colony

In Tanzania, most people who test positive for HIV are excommunicated from their families and villages. Because of this many there are many villages on the outskirts of town set up for ostricized people with HIV. I went with some other volunteers a few days ago to visit one of these villages. The drive there was breathtaking, but when we arrived we saw a town that was very hard to take in.
The children there were so starved for attention from adults. Many of them are HIV positive and all of their parents are either living with HIV or dead, so there are not adults in their live with extra time and energy to play with them. We spent most of the time there just holding hands and wiping built up snot from their noses. It was very hard to leave because they clinged to us as we got in the van and then chased our van as we drove through the town on our way out.
We met one HIV patient who particuarly made an impression on me. She was a young girl who I guessed was about five or six when I met her, but after talking to her I learned she was 15, but her growth was severly stunted because she has had HIV since she was born. She was very smart and spoke good English and was a living miracle to still be alive after such a difficult life.
The HIV colony truly made me realize just how important HIV education is in Africa. It is important to help stop the spread of HIV as well as to encourage the people of Africa not to ostricize people with HIV, so that less people are afraid to get tested, and so that those who do test positive are not forced to live the rest of their lives on the fringes of society in isolated colonies.