International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 27 November 2003
Solveig Olafsdottir in Harare

She started as a nursing assistant, but in 1998, she joined the Red Cross home-based care programme, which provides support to families living with HIV/AIDS. She wanted to work within her own community and help those who are most in need.

That same year, she went for an HIV test. She was not surprised to learn the result was positive.

Shamiso had developed herpes and other vaginal problems, and had already had two miscarriages, one stillborn baby and a daughter who died after only six days. On the advice of friends and family, her husband had taken another wife, because of Shamiso's failure to give him children and make him a real man.

"So there were two of us sharing one man, without using a condom. None of us had been tested, so I knew there was a risk," she says.

Still, she was still unprepared for the result, even though she was already working with HIV-positive people.

"At first, it was so difficult to understand," she says. "I just asked, 'why me, oh god, why me? I am dying."

Shamiso is far from being alone in this situation. It is estimated that at least 200,000 people working for the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement are living with HIV/AIDS. Every day, the organization loses staff and volunteers to the disease. It became evident that something had to be done.

"This poses an enormous challenge - not only to our ability to carry out our humanitarian mandate, but also to the survival of our organization," says Razia Essack-Kauoria, a member of the International Federation's governing board and secretary general of the Namibia Red Cross.

The Federation has decided to launch to address the unprecedented challenge that HIV/AIDS is posing to Red Cross and Red Crescent work. It will provide access to anti-retroviral therapy to Red Cross and Red Crescent staff and volunteers û many of whom are working on the HIV/AIDS frontline, but who are dying through lack of treatment.

"This fund is an emergency measure for us until global efforts to increase access to treatment are truly up and running. We can simply not afford to lose any more of our people," Essack-Kauoria explains.

The fund is named after Shamiso's friend and colleague from Chitungwiza, Masambo. A long-serving volunteer of the Zimbabwe Red Cross, Masambo was one of the founding members of the home-based care programme, and had been caring for people living with HIV/AIDS for ten years before she herself was taken ill.

Like Shamiso, she had lost four children to AIDS. Her health deteriorated fast, and within four months of falling ill, she was too frail to continue her voluntary work. She had gone from being a carer to being in need of Red Cross assistance herself. Masambo died in October 2001.

It was her story, presented to the International Federation's General Assembly shortly afterwards, that led to the decision to create such a fund. But it was not only her painful personal testimony that prompted the organization to find ways to provide anti-retroviral treatment for its staff and volunteers, but her invincible commitment to help others in the same situation.

Masambo's sister, Nyembesi, is proud of her sister, and grateful that the Red Cross Red Crescent has acknowledged her selfless work within her community by naming this new fund in her honour.

"Masambo was a very brave woman," Nyambesi says. "The Red Cross was everything to her, even more than her own family. She did not have any children, they all died, so she dedicated her life to the Red Cross."

Although Masambo's friend Shamiso is still healthy, she has no doubt that having access to anti-retroviral drugs will change her life.

"Yes, one hundred per cent," she says with a smile. "Because, you know some of the people I saw they are on Cotrine tablets for life, they are taking Cotrine and they are still healthy. If the Red Cross gives us the tablets, I think we will live longer."

Shamiso has a reason to live. In May this year, she gave birth to her first healthy baby, after receiving Navirapine, an anti-retroviral treatment during her first labour pains. The baby then was given a single dosage of the drug as well.

"I was very happy and I thanked the sister who told me to take Navirapine. I thanked her very much because if Navirapine had been there at that time, I think all my babies would be here," she explains.

But Shamiso has still taken the chance of breastfeeding her daughter, despite knowing of the risk of transmitting the virus to the baby through her milk. She simply has no means to buy the baby formula needed instead. But she would like to have another child.

"Without being provided with milk, I don't think I can have another baby," she confesses. "But if I find someone to give me milk, I think I can have one more. I want to have one only û then I stop forever!"

With anti-retroviral treatment, Shamiso and hundreds of other Red Cross volunteers may continue to reach out to the most vulnerable communities for years to come, and stay alive longer to care for their own children.

The Red Cross Red Crescent hopes that the creation of the Masambo Fund will encourage other organizations and companies to care for their own staff that have AIDS.
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