About Pots of Hope

Over the past week, I was able to spend a week in Kamanjab, my future site, with my organization Pots of Hope. I’ve taken a few aspects about the trip and made them into separate blog posts.

For the first post, I’d like to tell what Pots of Hope really is and how I hope to contribute to this amazing organization and to the people of Kamanjab.

Pots of Hope has many purposes but the overall goal is to help combat HIV and bring meaningful change to the Kunene region of Namibia. (In Namibia, there are Regions, like our States, and there are districts, like our counties. We serve the Kunene region and more specifically Kamanjab and the outlying farms.) There are several avenues that they use to approach HIV, and I hope to add a few more.

First is income generating projects. In Namibia, the unemployment rate is really high and has been for quite a while, although most of it is not related to the global recession. It can be challenging, especially for women, to make an income for themselves without much training. This can lead to various outlets for income and the two most problematic, in my opinion, are prostitution and marriage for financial stability. Both of these two outlets can put women at risk for HIV. The first is pretty obvious, but the latter isn’t so much. If a woman is financially dependent on a husband, it can be difficult for a woman to leave an unfaithful partner and can create leverage for some men to extort. The hope is to teach women to sculpt pots to sell and have some source of income.

The second and equally important aspect of Pots of Hope are community dialogues, outreach, and support. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of stigma, discrimination, fear, ignorance, etc surrounding HIV. One of the bigger and more complex issues is gender-based violence. As mentioned above, there can be scenarios where HIV is brought into the marriage and violence occurs. Sadly, from what I’ve learned, it’s mostly the man’s fault but the women are always the scapegoat. Through dialogues, activities, etc, the goal is to help remove these issues and work towards a healthier Namibia.

Members of the Support Group

So there are several ways, in which I hope to help:

First and foremost, gardens. A lot of people here have space and water, but there isn’t much technical knowledge. The people here are really poor and they’re barely struggling to survive. Some are starving, going many meals without food. Or there are those who may not be starving, but don’t have the best of diets. The main thing eaten here is called pap, braai pap, mille pap, but basically, it’s grit made of corn. It can be eaten for all three meals and other than starches and filling the stomach, it’s not really good for anything but it is cheap and easy to make. It doesn’t really taste like anything though. Not only is this a problem with normal child development, as it can stunt growth, but it’s especially problematic for those who are taking ARV’s (Anti RetroViral medicines). ARV’s don’t cure HIV, there isn’t one, but they suppress the virus to help keep people alive. The problem is that they’re extremely hard on the body. I can’t imagine ever having to take them. It’s even more important to take them while having adequate nutrition and a well balanced diet; something, you can guess that most people don’t have. It’s sad, as a kid, I heard to eat all of your food for there are children starving in Africa. Well I got to meet those children. During my trip, we got to meet people who are in our support group. There was one family in particular. She and her husband have 9 children and don’t have a penny to their name. They have a few chickens and live in a small mud hut with a small garden around the house. Most nights, they said water is all that they have to fill their stomachs and even then there is a good possibility that their water is not the cleanest. What was even more shocking to me, was the fact that some of the people in this family, are HIV+ and taking the ARV’s. As I mentioned earlier, I can’t imagine taking them at all, or with poor nutrition, but I especially can’t fathom how people can take them with NO food for days. It was this family that inspired me to want to teach others to garden. This family had the land and the water, but they were not gardening effectively. The corn was not planted efficiently, there were plants planted next to each other that don’t like each other, e.g. corn near tomatoes, and many other things that is preventing their garden from being at full capacity. My goal, by the end of the year is to help people have a garden to where they can grow food for 1 week worth of food. I hope this will either help people from going a week of starvation, or help a week where they aren’t eating pap and can free up a little money to use in other, but positive ways. (Not for alcohol) I want to teach people about growing spices and herbs that can give new flavors to foods and make herbal teas. I also want people to plant a few flowers and things. My main hope for the last two items, spices/herbs and flowers, is to help bring some variety and happiness into otherwise bleak lives. I plan to start off with a garden at the Pots of Hope center that will mainly be mine, but will serve as a workshop/hands on classroom to teach others and be a model of something they can duplicate. There is also a clinic at the farms, I hope to have another garden there for similar reasons and have that as an example for those who don’t leave the farms. The food, I hope will go towards those who are too old and can’t grow much.

Second, I hope to eventually enact a program called “Male Engagement.” It’s a program that PC has mentioned to us and we’ll be trained about it in July. Basically, as mentioned above, gender based violence is one of the biggest problems in spreading HIV. I think a lot of the problems stem around the fact that women empowerment is beginning to take hold, but there isn’t a role in this for men to play. I’m sure many feel threatened, scared, concerned etc. Essentially, I feel that these men don’t know what’s going on or what to expect, and are acting out any way they can. I feel that if men were involved and explained what is going on etc, that things can be more positive. I hope I can be an agent of change who is respected and they can relate to me since I am a man as well.

Third, I hope to engage and interact with younger people. While I was there, we met with people in the support group, about 40 people, but they were all 45 to 70, or they were children brought with their parents. I think I only met one person who was in the 18-45 range and he seemed really reluctant to be there. For some reason, wither it’s pride or shame, the most important generation of people in Kamanjab and to a larger extent, the Kunene region, don’t get help. We don’t know if they’re getting medicines, if they’re taking them, if they’re doing anything to prevent HIV spread etc. But we really need to get to them and get them active. I also hope to use my age to try to connect with people to seek out the services and info they need.

And lastly, I plan on helping of course with the normal day to day projects of Pots of Hope. They do great work and their pots are renown. I hope to teach branding, especially a logo or something that they can incorporate into the pots. They want to sell these pots to people outside of Namibia, and I feel if they had a small logo, something recognizable, such as product(RED) or something that it would greatly help. I can see one of the pots in a home back in the states, where it’s on display in a house. Guests come over and someone asks about the pot because they see the small logo on it. Instead of just saying oh it’s some pot made in Africa, they can say, “this pot comes from Pots of Hope and was made by NAME, a woman who is HIV+. By purchasing this pot, I was able to support her and her children….” I think the stories of the women would move the buyer and others to help these women out.