Deuteronomy 31:8

"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." Deuteronomy 31:8







Wednesday, March 13, 2013

It's Not Easy Being a Woman

Being back at work after a wonderful month of home leave and then 2.5 weeks of a fun-filled Zambian adventure with friends is really tough. I've decided that I love vacation and wish I could do it more often! But alas, I can't so here is what's been happening at work lately.

We here at SFH sell male and female condoms and we have like 20,000 pieces of female condoms that are going to expire in the next few months so we've been working on selling them and then giving away the generic brand. So far we have given away our entire stock of 14,000 pieces of the generic brand to clinics, individuals, and brothels around the Kitwe area. You would think it would be easy giving away condoms, but it's not. Zambians prefer the male condoms and therefore when we went to give a box of the female ones to them for free they were hesitant in taking them and requested free male condoms instead. So if it's hard to give them away imagine how hard a time we have had in selling them!

One interesting experience I had while selling these female condoms was in Kasumba Lesa which is right on the border of DRC. We went to what could technically be called a guest house, but was more like a brothel. Each room comes with a girl in it. We went on a Tuesday afternoon to meet with some of the ladies to try and teach them about safe sex to protect themselves against HIV and other STIs and sell them condoms (a dispenser comes with 24 condoms for the equivalent of about $1). Some of the ladies were not wanting to buy and instead wanted them for free because they said that business was slow and they couldn't afford it. They have to pay for there room ($20/day), and since they don't normally even have that much they share it with at least one other woman, and then to get customers they have to look nice so they have to eat, buy make-up, clothes, get their hair done, etc. To make this money they have become commercial sex workers who charge $4 for every sexual act. $4 can you imagine that?!?!?! Just to make their rent they have to have sex with at least 3 men per day and then to buy all their other things they need just imagine how many more times they need to perform. It was an eye opening experience and one I will never forget. Some of these women come from all over Southern Africa just to sell there bodies to make just a little bit of money.

Another area that has been the focus this month is cervical cancer screening. The First Lady of Zambia is a huge advocate for women going to for cancer screening and so women are really wanting the service. Our screeners have busy traveling around the country and I have gone with them a few times to see them work. Unlike America, here they don't do a pap smear and instead do something called a Visual Inspection with Acetic Acid (VIA) test where they take a piece of cotton and put it in vinegar and then insert that into a woman and let it stay for 3 minutes. The vinegar works to bring out any white spots on the cervix which indicates pre-cancer cells. Then the providers take a picture of the woman's cervix with a digital camera and can see if the cervix pink and normal, has white pre-cancer lesions, or has cancer and needs to be referred for treatment. The pictures they take will blow your mind!!! So many woman have VIA positive results and several have to be referred to Lusaka CIDRZ for treatment. If women don't have cancer, many of them have cervicitis, which is inflammation and swelling of the cervix. This is overly common in women here, especially in rural areas, because women insert things like Snuff tobacco (think of chewing tobacco), fresh marijuana leaves, crushed African herbs, into there vagina because of a belief that it will make them "warm and tight for their husbands to enjoy sex more." They also think that vaginal fluid is very dirty and will wash inside with harsh soaps (one woman said she even uses laundry soap), but in fact this is causing lots of damage to their cervix.

There are so many of these myths and misinformation about the woman's body that I would love to spend more time focusing on this and really educating woman on taking care of their bodies because a lot of this practice has come from tradition and they are unaware the harm it is causing. 

So that's my life as of late in a nutshell! I can't believe March is already half over!


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