Good Samaritan

‘Our village is a happier and more hopeful place thanks to the Good Samaritan project.’

That’s the verdict of local minister, the Revd Joab Zakaria Messo. The 50-year-old runs five churches around the village of Nala in rural Tanzania.

In 2007 he introduced Bible Society’s Good Samaritan scheme to his area. Through role-play, group discussion and readings from the Bible, the project teaches some basic facts about HIV, blows away myths and crucially shows God’s love for those living with the condition.

It’s changed Nala, the Revd Messo says. ‘Before, when people were tested for HIV they were seen as sinners and they were abandoned by their families,’ he recalls.

‘Now people talk openly about their status. People used to gossip and families were divided. Now there’s unity.’

He adds, ‘I tell people that this is not God’s judgement. It’s just a disease like any other, like malaria. Now the church is busy and we always have a prayer time for people with HIV after the service.’

One person whose life has been turned around by the Good Samaritan scheme in Nala is 19-year-old Cecilia Mwangatua.

Aged nine she fell seriously ill with measles. Her parents both gave blood to save her life.

It was a donation that will ultimately cost her life, as Cecilia’s parents were unknowingly living with HIV. When she was diagnosed HIV+ aged just 12, after her parents’ death, Cecilia’s grandparents shunned her, forcing her to live in a dimly-lit storeroom alone for three years.

Her brothers were forbidden to talk to her. She had to grow, prepare and cook her own food. And she slept on the mud floor, on a calf skin.

‘We thought that through eating and sharing a room with her we would be infected,’ says her grandfather, 73-year-old Yohane Mwangatua Ndahane.

Cecilia recalls this desperately sad time in her life. ‘I felt that I was alone in this world,’ she says. ‘I thought I was the only person living with HIV. I thought God had ditched me. But I prayed that someone would help my family to understand me.’

Her prayers were answered through the Good Samaritan. By attending the group Cecilia heard for the first time that God loved her; that she was unique and was taught ways to live with HIV. And through her, so did her family.

Everything’s changed now Cecilia says. ‘Now we eat together and sleep together. I am happy that the family are all united. It helps me to forget about my parents’ death and my own status.’

Over three years, some 18,000 people have gone through the programme. Each one of them becomes a trainer for others, wholly changing the face of villages like Nala.

‘There are new attitudes here now,’ says Revd Messo. ‘More people are willing to be tested. People are finding encouragement in the Bible to help them live with HIV. And we’re having fewer funerals.

‘God is working and living with these people to help them in this bad situation,’ he says.