March 23, 2005: Headlines: COS - Niger: Green Valley News: Jill Rhodes lives in the West African country of Niger and is working with the hospital in the city of Maradi to establish an HIV counseling center
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March 23, 2005: Headlines: COS - Niger: Green Valley News: Jill Rhodes lives in the West African country of Niger and is working with the hospital in the city of Maradi to establish an HIV counseling center
Jill Rhodes lives in the West African country of Niger and is working with the hospital in the city of Maradi to establish an HIV counseling center
Jill Rhodes lives in the West African country of Niger and is working with the hospital in the city of Maradi to establish an HIV counseling center
Locals help others globally through Peace Corps
By Beth Slovic
Green Valley News
Henderson, Nev.
March 23, 2005
Thousands of miles from home, two Henderson residents are working as Peace Corps volunteers to promote literacy and HIV awareness, just a few of the causes the government-run organization, which is celebrating its 44th anniversary this month, champions across the globe.
The Henderson volunteers, 23-year-old Sarah Gluck of Southfork and 27-year-old Jill Rhodes of Green Valley Ranch, are two of 36 Nevadans serving remote corners of the world.
[Excerpt]
Rhodes, who attended the Las Vegas Academy and who studied political science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, lives in the West African country of Niger and is working with the hospital in the city of Maradi to establish an HIV counseling center.
"Because of cultural differences, as well as stigma that is associated with HIV/AIDS, those who seek an HIV test do not receive counseling as part of the testing procedure, Rhodes said in an e-mail from Maradi, a city 30 miles from the village of Dan Koussou, where she lives.
"I have hear stories from locals who know people who have received a positive result and were told by the doctors simply that they were sick, and to go home, there is nothing the hospital can do," Rhodes said.
Witnessing the suffering of Nigerian women is the most difficult part of her job, Rhodes said.
According to statistics kept by the CIA, Niger is one of the poorest countries on the planet, and it has the highest birth rate in the world.
"Women, especially in the bush, become pregnant year after year with no time to rest in between pregnancies. They spend hours every day pounding millet," Rhodes said in her e-mail. "The girls are married, at the latest, by age 15, with their first child by 16."
Meanwhile, only 13 girls attend the primary school in Rhodes's village, compared with 56 boys, she said. Men in her village have several wives, who each have about four children, she said.
"Sometimes I find peace in the fact that I am doing something, yet other times doing what I can is not enough," Rhodes said. "But I have yet to wake up and not be shocked by how much women suffer here."
When this story was posted in April 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: Green Valley News
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