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Accordia Voices

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Officially, three people make up the Greater Involvement of People Living with AIDS (GIPA) team at IDI: Caleb Twijukye, Benson Bahame, and Charles Kasumba. 

But the GIPA team takes a much more inclusive approach, as Caleb, Benson, and Charles include peer counselors, and the many Friends that visit the Resource Center, as integral parts of the team.  This philosophy of inclusivity is part of a growing understanding that everyone, including Friends themselves, has a role in the care and counseling of people living with HIV/AIDS. 

Caleb, Benson, and Charles know that when trying to impart advice on treatment or making healthy life choices to Friends, the most effective message comes from a peer, someone who understands the situation and can offer relevant advice.

“If someone has been living with the virus for many years, it’s for more powerful for them to provide care and advice to a fellow Friend,” Charles said.

Having grown up in Washington, D.C., and having just worked in the world of American politics for the last two years, I confess to being a bit jaded regarding the possibility of true cooperation and political representation.

While many work in the business of politics to enact reforms that they believe will help the American people, others are motivated by avarice, prestige, and power. These days, constructive dialogue and compromise are rarities in Washington, D.C.

Contrast the situation that I left with the one I found myself in today, sitting in a meeting of the Friends Council at the Infectious Disease Institute in Kampala. The Council is made up of 11 members, five from IDI and six from other clinics around Kampala. They are elected by their peers to serve 18-month terms on the board.

Dr. Alex M. Muganzi has helped countless numbers of patients in his career, but one in particular stands out.

“There was one woman at the clinic who was in a coma for three months. She was on the brink of death. And now, from a combination of the medicine and support that she got at IDI, she walks to the clinic every day to receive her drugs.”

It is cases like this one that inspire Dr. Muganzi to work tirelessly everyday to help people living with the HIV virus. And his hard work has not gone unrecognized. Just last month, Dr. Muganzi was named as a Representative for the Africa Region on the International AIDS Society’s (IAS) Governing Council, a collection of leading HIV professionals from around the world.

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