World AIDS Day 2013

This year World AIDS Day is observed on 1 December. Here we feature three Columban missionaries working with persons affected by AIDS/HIV, Sr Mary Dillon, an Irish Columban Sister in Myanmar, Jhoanna Resari from the Philippines and Kim Jung-Woong (Bosco) from Korea, two Columban Lay Missionaries in Taiwan.

‘AIDS’ Angels

by Sr Mary Dillon SSC

Columban Sr Mary Dillon has been in Burma (now Myanmar) since 2002. Here she tells us about her work with HIV/AIDS patients at the Hope Centre, a respite house that she established to enable people from distant places to avail of medical care. Sister Mary has also developed a home care health program for people with HIV/AIDS. She relates her work to the gospel story of Lazarus.

Last year in Myitkyina, Myanmar, I met a Lazarus, a young man with AIDS, thrown out of the family home, abandoned by all and living in a small hut nearby. No one spoke to him. No one visited him. His brother would push in a plate of food to him once a day without saying a word.

Sr Mary Dillon at the Hope Centre

When I saw him, I could only think of Lazarus at the gate, the searing parable Jesus told the Pharisees in St Luke’s gospel (Lk 16:219-31). He spoke of a poor man lying at the gate of a rich man’s house, covered with sores which the dogs licked.

I found out that his name was Du Hkawng. He was a small man in his early 30s, unmarried and belonging to a fairly well-off family. He had taken anti-retroviral drugs for a while but decided to do without them and gradually his immune system broke down. Unable to walk or sit up, he lay day after day under a piece of tarpaulin, unwashed, incontinent, stinking. It was in this miserable state that I found him, this poor modern-day Lazarus.

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Du Hkawng

I tried talking to his Catholic family but to no avail. His elderly mother, his uncle, a brother and sister-in-law wanted nothing to do with him. Fear of AIDS was deeply rooted in them and they dreaded 'catching' it. Their son, their brother, was a non-person in the family and nothing would move them on this.

We have nearly 70 people, young and old, with HIV/AIDS at the Hope Centre, the home we built two years ago. I would have brought him there, but he was too weak. So with Lucy, the wonderful woman who works with me, we washed and clothed him and gave him a nourishing drink. His emaciated body was a dreadful sight and all we could do was to make him comfortable; this man, who, like Christ himself, was forsaken by all.

On returning to the Hope Centre, I spoke of Du Hkawng to some of the residents. They knew what it was to be ostracized; they too had felt the pain of being unwanted in society; they had suffered the stigma of having AIDS. But now, thanks to good medication and good care they were up and walking.

Later that evening, some of the men came to me and said, ‘Sister, if you can get us there, we will visit Du Hkawng and look after him’. From then on, two of them went each day to Du Hkawng and washed and fed him with soft foods. They talked and sang to him.

On the days that I could not go with the men, they went alone to look after their brother. I was deeply moved by their love and by their kindness. Out of their own poverty they gave all they had, ministering to this 'least of the brethren'.

Du Hkawng died alone shortly after in his hut. He had never talked even once in the weeks we knew him. I feel sure that, like Lazarus, 'he was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom' (Lk 16:22).

I believe that in those last weeks, he met angels in the persons of the men who nursed him and knew him to be a brother.

In my heart I called them our 'AIDS Angels' and thanked God for the blessing that they were, not only to poor abandoned Du Hkawng, but to all of us.

Solidarity with people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS

By Jhoanna Resari and Kim Jung-Woong (Bosco)

The authors are two Columban Lay Missionaries working in Taiwan. Jhoanna, ‘Jao’ to her friends, is from San Mateo, Rizal, Jung-Woong is from the Republic of Korea.

Jhoanna Resari

I was 26 when I first arrived in Taiwan, a little apprehensive about how I might cope with all that would be so different from what I had grown up with in the Philippines, my home country. Even while I was in college I was interested in reaching out to others and doing something worthwhile with my life, but I did not know quite what that might mean in practical terms. One Sunday on my way to Mass I saw a big banner outside the church announcing, ‘Columban Lay Mission’. I realized immediately that as a lay person I could also be a missionary, but when I phoned the Columban contact person and answered her questions about my age, studies and work experience I was advised to get a job and come back in three years.

Nicole Yang, founder of Harmony Home Association, Taiwan

I found a job and continued discerning. I worked as a graphic artist and in my free time did volunteer work in emergency relief and community outreach, all of which seemed close to my idea of mission work. I thought that if I liked this then I’d probably like mission work.

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Once again, aged 23, I contacted the Columban Lay Missionaries and was welcomed to their preparation program, but my parents cried when I told them. They were afraid for my safety and wondered whether I might end up in Africa. However, they ended up telling me, ‘Wherever you are happy we will support you’. They soon got to know the Columbans and my companions in the lay mission preparation program. Much to their relief, I was also able to inform them that the Columbans had no mission in Africa and they were quite pleased when I told them that I was being sent to Taiwan, not so far away from home.

On arrival in Taiwan I began a one year full-time Chinese language course and also made time for discerning which apostolate I might take on. I ended up opting for work with people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. Fr Peter O’Neill, the Columban Lay Mission contact person. put me in touch with Nicole Yang, the Taiwanese founder of Harmony Home Association, Taiwan.

Nicole began her work with people living with HIV/AIDS in 1986 when a friend who was sick with AIDS asked her for help. She took the young man into her home where she was bringing up two young children and, as the saying goes, ‘The rest is history!’

That initiative of kindness and compassion has steadily expanded in Taiwan and beyond to mainland China.

More men than women come to our shelters. Many are from the homosexual community and others are drug addicts. A separate shelter for women and children with HIV/AIDS is now available. We also shelter migrant women and their children involved in legal cases.

Nicole asked me to help with whatever might involve the English language. I also help out with hands-on work with patients, especially the children, so I have had to educate myself about HIV/AIDS. The women’s shelter takes up quite a bit of my time. At first, I was a little afraid and nervous being in the shelter for adult patients because of my lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS, but soon came to understand more about the disease, its cause, consequences and treatment.

Soon I will be completing my six year term as a Columban Lay Missionary. I will then be 32 years of age. This means I will have to discern whether to apply to become a long term Columban lay missionary or not. One thing for sure is the fact that I would like to continue working in the area of HIV/AIDS, be it here in Taiwan or back home in the Philippines.

Kim Jung-Woong, Bosco

Before joining the Columban Lay Mission program I had a varied experience of life. Among other things, I worked for eight years in a hotel chain in Seoul, Korea, as a room sales manager. For three years I wandered around Australia and New Zealand working and learning English.

Ji-Young (Tina) and her husband Jung-Woong (Bosco)

During the Columban Lay Mission orientation period in Seoul I visited Columban Sisters who were running a shelter for HIV/AIDS patients. Even though I was afraid when I shook hands with patients, I was moved and wanted to overcome this fear. Later, in Taiwan, I chose to work at Harmony Home with people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

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Harmony Home is a halfway shelter for women with HIV/AIDS and their children. Many of these women became infected through drug addiction and are now trying to break the habit. Some of the children here still have their mothers in prison and we take them there to visit them.

Recently I married another Korean Columban Lay Missionary, Lee Ji-Young (Tina). After our wedding, Tina began work as a paid employee and not as a lay missionary at Harmony Home. Both Tina and I are committed to working with people with HIV/AIDS who come to Harmony Home.

We look forward to sharing this mission and supporting each other as husband and wife. I am 44 and Tina is 39 and life continues to be an adventure for both of us.