I do not really know how to begin to introduce this person to you. Have you ever heard this name, Mizuko Tokunaga? She is a professor at Nagasaki University, and she often visit Africa to work for people who are infected with AIDS. I watched a tv program of her, and knew about her.
Ms. Tokunaga wanted to work in developing countries since she was young, and started working as a midwife in Zaire since she was 23 years old. Since 1993, she has worked as a nurse in Central African Republic.
In Central African Republic, people one fifth of its population are infected with HIV. There are a lot of children who lost parents because of AIDS. In the villages which has a one-husband& many-wives system, HIV spread rapidly. Ms. Tokunaga and her coworkers visit those villages to teach people contraceptives. People cannot read words, so Ms. Tokunaga has to teach contraceptives to people by speaking. In many cases, people in those villages forget what Ms. Tokunaga taught about a month later, so she has to keep visiting those many villages one after another which seems endless work.
If some men know that his wives or girlfriends are infected with HIV, they left them, so young mothers (like 15 years old) work as prostitutes to earn money to raise their children, so that more girls are infected with HIV, but it is difficult to find a reason to stop them because actually, they have to earn that much money.
Many people are becoming weaker and weaker because they cannot get medicine, but Ms. Tokunaga said, even if people can get medicine, those people still die because they cannot take the medicine correctly. Before I watched this program, I thought getting medicine is a solution for diseases, so I hoped that sick people could have medicines, but it is not enough. Local hospitals like one where Ms. Tokunaga works do not have medicine. Only national hospital has the medicine for HIV, but the amount of medicine is only for 2 months.
Instructors for careful directions to take medicine are essential, but Central African Republic national project team tried to spread the medicine without thinking of the instructors, so Ms. Tokunaga decided not to perticipate the project, which also means that the villages that Ms. Tokunaga takes care of cannot receive the medicine. People in those villages asked Ms. Tokunaga questions like why they cannot receive the medicine. Ms. Tokunaga explained that she cannot do anything without responsibilities. She explained that the people can still live without the medicine, and she and her coworkers keep taking care of them. Then people understood her.
Actually, people there are very cheerful and friendly, and they often dance together. People call Ms. Tokunaga "Madam Japon",and respect her a lot. Ms. Tokunaga said their cheerfulness is a help for her. She also said that when people hear "working for poor people", it sounds very "giving things without any rewards", but in fact she is given lots of things to learn from the people there.
When Ms. Tokunaga has off from university, that is August, September, February and March, she goes to Central African Republic every time, and come back to Japan to work, but now she is thinking if she lives in CAR or not. She said it does not matter wherever she will be soil in, but if she becomes sick, people in CAR worry her,and it will be trouble to them, so she also thinks weather she should stays in Japan or not. She cried when she said so.