In some ways, the African village she lived in was developed, with running water, transportation and even a movie theatre about five miles away. Namibia, having gained independence 14 years ago, has established one of the freest and most open economies in Africa, according to the Peace Corps.
Eileen Harrington returned from the African country of Namibia, where she worked as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years in a village called Keetmanshoop
Trying to stop a killer
By Jennifer Mann
Thursday, December 8, 2005
Eileen Harrington has traveled far since graduating from Arlington High School in 1992.
The soft spoken 31-year-old returned in May from the African country of Namibia, where she worked as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years in a village called Keetmanshoop.
Now back in the United States, and living temporarily in Somerville, Harrington is trying to ease back into life as it was before she left, acknowledging "some things took some getting used to - like how many things you can do here."
In some ways, the African village she lived in was developed, with running water, transportation and even a movie theatre about five miles away. Namibia, having gained independence 14 years ago, has established one of the freest and most open economies in Africa, according to the Peace Corps.
But the country’s approximately two million people face one colossal challenge: AIDS.
Harrington’s charge, after three months of overseas training, was to teach village children and families about the disease and its virus. The prevalence rate of HIV is at 20 percent and growing in the country.
"One of the greatest things about teaching about AIDS there is they want to know about it, and the teachers want to know about it, and you have a very attentive audience," she recalled, sitting within the cafeteria at Harvard Law School. She is working in an administrative capacity at the school on a temporary basis, while pursuing job options in international development in the health sector.
While in Africa, Harrington worked with the Namibian government’s Ministry of Education, which is working to create AIDS education programs at its schools. She was the only Peace Corps volunteer in her village, although there were others throughout the country. After three months of training in language (Afrikaans, which was predominant in the village), culture and technology, she began making visits to local classrooms, leading discussions in sex education.
Sessions with the teachers, she said, were more straightforward: teaching them about the disease, transmission and protection, and resources within the country. The volunteer also taught them ways to bring the discussions back to children in the classroom.
Meetings with the children revealed a new challenge, which Harrington said made her feel both helpless and powerful in her work. Many of the children had not been taught the basics from their teachers or other adults in their life, because the topic has been, and in many ways still is, taboo in the country.
She remembered one time asking the students questions to get a sense of their knowledge. One boy kept raising his hand, but never got the answer right. As Harrington left the classroom, she asked the teacher about the student, and learned his mother had just died of AIDS and his father was sick with the disease.
"My stomach just kind of dropped then - knowing how affected he was by the things we were just talking about."
Because of the age of the students, and the conservatism that still exists in the country toward talking about the disease, Harrington taught the students what would be considered a basic sex-ed class here in the United States.
She taught them the "ABCs": "Abstain, Be Faithful and Condomize." There was also talk about puberty, the differences between boys and girls and "how to say ’yes’ and how to say ’no,’" she explained.
"It’s the building blocks and the foundation, so then they can start talking about AIDS," she added. At times, Harrington said, break out sessions with the children could last for hours because of their non-stop questions and discussion, which was a rewarding aspect of the job.
"The work experience was amazing," she said, while adding it taught her "the challenges of doing development work."
Yet helping others is nothing new to the young woman. After graduating from Smith College in 1996, Harrington spent two years working with Americorp. She spent the first year in Texas writing grants and fund raising for AIDS organizations, and the second year teaching reading and writing at an elementary school.
From there, she spent six months teaching in Prague, then returned home to take a full-time job at IBM, while attending night and weekend classes at Suffolk University for her master’s degree in public administration. Prior to serving in the Peace Corps, she worked for a year at the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, a human rights organization.
The plan now, she said, is to look for a job, based in Boston or Washington D.C., that would allow her to work on international issues with the option of traveling overseas to help in situations.
"I think it is important that people know more about what is going on in other countries, and the impact that the U.S. does have internationally," Harrington said of what other people might learn from her experience.
Yet she admitted when people ask, it is still hard to summarize her encounters in Africa.
She explained: "How do I respond in two minutes or less?"
