Think Up | 07/07/2008 12:00 am

Ashley Judd's Rwanda Diaries Part Five: Not a Breeze-in, Breeze-out Kind of Gal

By Ashley Judd

Courtesy of Ashley Judd

Editor’s Note: Our friend, Ashley Judd, joined YouthAIDS as Global Ambassador in 2002, after seeing the effects of HIV/AIDS on communities and children in the United States and around the globe. With no cure in sight, and the realization that education is the only way to prevent the spread of this disease, Ashley uses voice and platform — on behalf of those without a voice — to promote YouthAIDS’s programs and to provide young adults with immediate solutions for fighting the global epidemic. Most recently, Ashley went to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where she kept a daily personal journal detailing the heart-wrenching experience. Each week this summer, wOw shares one diary excerpt. The following journal entry was written on April 25th, 2008.

Kirehe, Rwanda

Another method of making both Tuzanet and Primo available is through unpaid “community health workers” — folks who have been elected in their communities to be just that: a health worker.

Believe it or not, our funding expires for this soon. Obscene. It is so successful. But that’s the shortsightedness of some donors: Oh, great job! Sixty percent reduction, problem sorted! But what about the other 40 percent and when the nets become ineffective in three years time, in 2010? Malaria will be back where it was in ’06: high morbidity and mortality, and disabling the productivity of care givers with sick children.

Click here to see photos from Ashley Judd’s Rwanda Diaries Part Five.

They were patiently waiting for services and, by the look of it, they would need that patience.

I packed up all my stuff and ate a weird breakfast before going to the airport. After a wait, we boarded a heifer of a helicopter, a giant military thing with bench seating lining the length of it. The Minister of Health, a tall, rangy guy and straight talker, and I would be crossing Rwanda to celebrate World Malaria Day with PSI. I listened to my favorite far-out spiritual music on my iPod as I admired the verdant hills below, and began to register what I heard, that every square inch of the land is tilled in the effort to feed all ten million people living here. The land is cultivated, gardened, terraced, you name it. (The Clinton Global Initiative has programs to help people increase their harvests in sound ways, as well as to help farmers earn money from their yields.)

Click here to read Ashley’s Rwanda Diaries Part One.

Click here to read Ashley’s Rwanda Diaries Part Two.

Click here to read Ashley’s Rwanda Diaries Part Three.

Click here to read Ashley’s Rwanda Diaries Part Four.

We landed in a giant field in the East Province, greeted by hundreds of onlookers who were curious about the helicopter. Cries of “muzungu” erupted as my colleagues and I got into our cars. We jolted across rough, red dirt roads to see a community health worker in action; we visited a broken woman holding a limp infant. The community health worker had diagnosed malaria, and was giving her education about her new net and proper use of Primo. When I sat with the woman, she was not easy to engage; she was so ill and quite overwhelmed. I tried to squeeze in a few quiet moments with her, as I am not a breeze-in, breeze-out kind of gal. I like to learn the stories of the people I meet, to share in their lives as much as I can, to form an emotional connection. My only real contact with her, however, was that she smelled so rotten I actually had a gag reflex, a first for me in 11 countries of slums, brothels and hospices. Many women live in such extreme poverty that they have no basic knowledge of any form of hygiene.

12 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Ashley, thanks for telling it all - the fatigue, the smells, the joys and the things you miss. I appreciate your diary entries for their candidness, as much as information about what you are doing in Africa.

By Lorraine Bates on 07/07/2008 8:27 am

e-mail alert

Ms. Judd………From my perspective, you are truly living!…………….sharing your compassion and anger with the rest of the world to keep alive this measure of real success. Your journals say it best; as your acutely explicit choice of words cannot be misconstrued or even disregarded.

By Linda Clark on 07/07/2008 8:39 am

e-mail alert

If there were more people like Ashley, Mia Farrow, and others who put themselves in the midst of all this poverty, all this degradation, one hopes it makes a difference. What wonderful ambassadors we have in these individuals. Ashley sounds tired, however, this being such a trying mission, but her moments of joy seem to keep her going in this sad, beautiful country.

By phyllis Doyle Pepe on 07/07/2008 8:48 am

e-mail alert

Wow… the health minister sounds like an amazing guy. I would be curious to know how much it would take to continue the program?? And i’m not sure exactly which program she means will be discontinued? is that the program that assists the health ministers? Where exactly do you donate to that? Or who do you call? and i’m probably missing all that information right in front of me right?

By Chrome Toe on 07/07/2008 8:51 am

e-mail alert

Kudos to you Ashley … you rock! “Each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” —Viktor E. Frankl

By Serena . on 07/07/2008 10:35 am

e-mail alert

The reason there’s no HIV “vaccine” is a fundamental misunderstanding of basic immunology by health policymakers and scientists. Vaccines are actually booster shots for immune systems genetically capable of naturally fighting off the virus. In contrast to polio, for example, only a very tiny number of humans have natural immunity to HIV. Hence all the vaccines to date failed because the antibodies they create aren’t protective. The way to HIV prevention are transfers of the gene(s) responsible for natural immunity.

By Dr. Mark Klein on 07/07/2008 12:52 pm

e-mail alert

You are a wonder, Ms Judd, truly a marvelous wonder—I have read all your writings here so far—you should put them into a book—you have a way a writing that moves peoples’ hearts—what an extraordinary gift you have. You have opened eyes and hearts here, think what a book could do. Your compassion shines through so clearly. You have rocked my world.Thank you so very much.

By Frank Peterson on 07/07/2008 1:10 pm

As I was reading Ashley’s latest diary entry I was nursing a big glass of ice water, crunching on the ice because today is so warm. I put it down and just stared at it…imagining what it must be like to have so little water that even bathing is out of the question. Once again a thousand thank you’s, Ashley, for the work you are doing, and the connections you are making with people for whom one glass of ice water would be a luxury. Even though you may not know it, your diaries are changing the lives and priorities of those of us reading them. God bless.

By Maurine H on 07/07/2008 5:23 pm

e-mail alert

What a remarkable woman!! Ashley Judd’s Rwanda Diaries have been difficult to read. It is a heart-breaking account of the horrifying conditions, which seem to plague the poorest people on earth. I’ve not commented prior this writing because I felt simply too overwhelmed. Then it occurred to me how important it is to let people like Ashley Judd know that her message is being heard. I applaud her tireless work, and I’m praying that more work will be done to help the address devastating health concerns in places like Rwanda. Far too many people in the poor countries of Africa lack access to clean water, not to mention medical help, which is needed for epidemic conditions such as AIDS. Fortunately, much is being done to raise awareness about the AIDS epidemic in Africa. And, we all can in some small way make a difference. However, I believe that the epidemic of hunger is even worse in places like Rwanda, Niger, The Sudan, and much of Africa. I believe that while we all can not be as hands-on as Ashley Judd in her determination to educate the world of the deplorable health conditions of Rwandans, we can all contribute in some way to help feed the hungry. Since last October, I log on to: www.freerice.com Freerice.com is a vocabulary game site. When you go to the site there will be a vocabulary word with a list of possible answers. All you need to do is click on the answer which best defines the word. For each word you answer correctly, Freerice.com donates twenty grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program. I suggest, that if you have the time please log on to Freerice.com Also, tell everyone in your address book. It won’t cost you anything except a little time; a few moments to help feed to hungry. Meanwhile, I feel so fortunate that Ashley Judd has made me more aware of the plight of those suffering from disease and ignorance in Rwanda.

By Maizie James on 07/07/2008 9:42 pm

e-mail alert

Ms. Judd - I am posting without reading your diaries. I have seen you on t.v. and know of the work you are doing. My heart goes out to you, taking on this much needed mission. Going through some mental process right now and cannot deal with the reality of what you are doing. God bless you.

By Maggi D on 07/07/2008 11:47 pm

e-mail alert

Ashley, thank you for what you are doing and letting us know what is happening in another part of the world. It certainly puts in perspective our problems. They are many but we don’t have to ration the water we drink. What you are doing in Africa is awesome.

By Dab-a- do on 07/08/2008 8:55 pm

e-mail alert

I was in Guatemala as a missionary and befriended desperately ill people like the man with a goiter the size of a melon. When he finally went to the local hospital, and we came for a visit, I was shocked to see dogs roaming the hallways. The city hospital was a series of buildings, each a large Quonset hut the size of a football field, without inner rooms or walls, just row after row of hundreds of sick beds filled to capacity. While this societal condition is shocking enough, back in Darfur, rebels today ambushed and slaughtered 7 UN peacekeepers, and injured 22 more. The UN is starting to pull out of the refugee camps because they are being overwhelmed by the terrorists. It is absolutely time to send in the professionals. Hire mercenaries, hire men with 10-30 years experience fighting insurgencies to get this right. In Sierra Leone 100 professionals from South Africa pushed out 16,000 rebels. They had the equipment and the the training, but the UN intervened and ordered them to leave. The pros warned that the rebels would return. The UN sent in it’s own force of 16,000 peacekeepers. They failed miserably, the rebels overthrew the government and now there is a Marxist government in Sierra Leone. The UN isn’t capable of saving Darfur, and thousands more innocent mothers, fathers, grandparents and children will die. Physical security is the basis for all other human rights. “The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon “condemns in the strongest possible terms this unacceptable act of extreme violence against AU-UN peacekeepers in Darfur,” Mr Ban’s spokesman said. The peacekeepers in Darfur are reported to be severely under equipped. And fewer than half the 26,000 troops supposed to be in Darfur have been deployed.” http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/sudan/227…

By Bella Mia on 07/09/2008 11:40 pm