25 August, 2006
JEAN MICHEL
Jean Michel came to BRA’s clinic at Batey Cojobal for the first time in February 2006 with Yahaira, one of BRA’s community-based health promoters, and tested positive for HIV. He was losing weight rapidly and was sick with parasites. To get to Jean Michel’s house, Chitra Akileswaran, another BRA volunteer, and I climbed up a steep hill. He rents a small tin shack with a dirt floor and was sleeping in a hammock made from rice sacks. On top of a cardboard box, the only piece of furniture in his home, there was a picture of him from about 8 months ago with a big smile across his round face. It was hard for us to imagine at time that the skeletal man crumpled up in the hammock could be the same person. As we emptied our backpack full of food, medicines, clothes, sheets, and hygiene materials, he barely acknowledged that we were there. Instead, Yahaira talked to a young neighbor who was helping to take care of him. Unfortunately, not all of his neighbors were as generous. The owner of his shack threatened to kick him out for not paying rent. Luckily, with the AIDS Patient Fund, we were able to pay the rent he owed for the past 6 months (about US $15) and provide him with food. BRA has also given him a mattress and a Biosand Water filter. Now that Jean Michel has been receiving ART and food aid, he has turned back into the handsome man in the photograph. When I go to visit Jean Michel, I rarely find him at home because he is always walking around his neighborhood, socializing, or digging root vegetables to sell. His recovery is nothing short of miraculous.
