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Elvis RWAMIGABO, volunteer in psychosocial service

Publié le 13/08/2020
In my childhood, when I went to high school, I often met children in street situations, sleeping under the porches of shops and commercial shops; Sometimes, the owners chased them away without bothering to analyze their situations by claiming that they are the ones who come back to steal. Most of these children are orphans, sometimes with HIV. That repetitive experience marked my life so much that at university I only wanted to study social psychology. SYM was a good opportunity to be able to effectively enter this field, especially with the psychosocial service. It was an opportunity to know about some of the deep motivations of people who come for screening. In general, the decision to go for testing is not easy to make; you have to face the eyes before reaching someone to explain your situation. That's the case of this lady I met; I couldn't understand why her viral load was still in a worrying situation. She had difficulty sharing what was blocking her private life. In reality, not having a good diet, medication was hurting her and she ended up not taking the treatment. Her case helped me to understand the specificity of SYM: an inter-collaboration with other services especially for an economic care for the most vulnerable. The therapeutic circuit requires other social structures to support the taking of medicines; hence the rationale for NUREM project.