Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) - DREAM (an acronym for Drug Resource Enhancement against AIDS and Malnutrition) is a program for prevention, treatment, and health education, in a global fight against the HIV plague and malnutrition, begun by the Community of St. Egidio in 2002, in Mozambique. Today, it is present in many sub-Saharan countries, providing clinics and scientific research laboratories that offer treatment free-of-charge to AIDS and HIV patients, as well as personal treatment for pregnant mothers, with the goal of saving their lives, as well as the lives of their unborn children. The results of the project were presented in the 6th International Congress, “Community and Health: DREAM, a Model for Africa,” that took place in the Pontifical Gregorian University and that was attended by government Health Ministers and representatives from various African nations.
The results of the DREAM program have been extraordinary: 10 countries have begun implementing it, with 31 clinics and 18 scientific research laboratories, present in both urban and rural areas. The number of patients attended reaches nearly 50,000 and there has been a registered growth of some 10,000 people per year that go to DREAM for their needs. Some 27,500 patients receive Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Therapy (HAART) and 10,000 children have already been healed, as of today - the largest group in Africa. It is estimated that a million people have been treated directly or indirectly by the program.
The International Congress offered the perfect occasion for sharing experiences among some of DREAM’s directors, especially those from Mozambique, Guinea Conakry, Malawi. “If we can distribute Coca-Cola to the most remote corners of the country, why can’t we do the same with the Anti-Retroviral Therapy?,” said Ines Zimba, head of DREAM in Mozambique. This is a challenge that has been presented by the Health Ministers and pharmaceutical centers, and as Prof. Marco Impagliazzo recalled, one that the Community of St. Egidio has made its own. Ines Zimba said that from the very beginning, DREAM has employed the best available therapeutic methods and up-to-date medicines in efforts to cure as many patients as they can, without discrimination of any kind.
The health centers are not only a site for medical assistance, but they are above all a “focal point for encounter and breaking free from isolation,” said Kpakilè Felemou, DREAM Director in Guinea Conakry. The patient is the central focus, not only in his health but in the entire environment in which he lives. Thus, the first objective is to fight segregation and marginalization that a disease like AIDS can lead to, and that for an African patient struggling with the difficulties of everyday life, difficulties of moving from one place to another, etc., can be an even more difficult task.
DREAM, in Africa, has made African unity blossom and has established strong bonds of union with its inhabitants, which is the first prerequisite in order to continue treatment and for healing. In fact, the constancy in treatment is obtained by making the patient feel involved. Thus, those who work in the DREAM program are inhabitants of the area and can speak to the patients in their native tongue. The patients themselves participate in educational courses, where they learn to control many aspects of their life and become, in turn, educators for their own families. The healing and the focus on Africa’s dignity and wealth are truly “a dream come true.” (PC) (Agenzia Fides 16/5/2008; righe 44, parole 561)
