Caring for people with HIV/AIDS is one of the hundreds of ways in which Medical Mission Sisters around the world try to be a healing presence to those in need today.

Sister Gill Horsfield was already working in community-based health care in Korogocho, the poorest slum in Nairobi, when HIV/AIDS was first seen in 1989. In the slum, which is home to 150,000 people, she began training local health workers how to provide home-based care for those who were ill. This care included medical, pastoral, counseling, and social services.

The program has grown and become multi-faceted over the past 15 years. Sister Gill continues to train community health workers, and together they now care for over 1,000 persons with AIDS. The program's hospice is in continuous use, and one of its rooms has been turned into an IV Rehydration Unit.

"Every year about 200 of our patients in Korogocho die, nearly all of them as a result of AIDS. We accompany them as well as we can during their sickness and up to their death," explains Sister Gill. "In November, we have Mass for all our patients who have died … we remind ourselves that although these patients have all gone to heaven, they are there to care for us, and help us care for those who are still sick in the villages."

"We are seeing more child-headed households," says Sister Gill, who together with the health workers tries to give these caregivers, "some of the skills they need to cope with life, especially knowledge about how to care for young children and for a sick patient at home." 150 children attend weekly peer support meetings, where they receive guidance and a nutritious meal. Deaf and handicapped children receive special care.

In 2004, Sister Gill received her home government's "Order of the British Empire" award for her over-20 years of primary health care service to the people of East Africa. She is one of dozens of Medical Mission Sisters with a direct involvement in caring for people with HIV/AIDS.

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