Georgina’s Story: HIV never stopped her volunteering as a sewing teacher in Africa

Georgina Whitchurch has been living with HIV for seven years. Her story begins in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland), in southern Africa.After a career in hospital management in Australia, Georgina followed her passion for sewing and joined the Australian Volunteers Program. As a 64-year-old retiree, she took on the role of teaching sustainable sewing skills to women at an Eswatini village, but the charms of a local man, soon changed her life forever. Effective HIV treatments gave her back her health, and Georgina did not end her commitment to volunteering. She soon returned to Africa as a volunteer independently and for two years continued teaching sewing skills to rural women. After returning to Australia, Georgina put her management skills to good use and recently took on the role of chair of Positive Women Victoria. Podcast – Our Stories: Ending HIV StigmaEpisode 5: Georgina Whitchurch StoryTranscript (begins below AVP response) For people living with HIV who are interested in volunteering with the Australian Volunteers Program, the following response was received on 4/09/2020 People diagnosed with HIV are able to volunteer on the Australian Volunteers Program, provided that they are medically cleared, and deemed fit for a particular assignment in a particular country. Our current medical clearances and thresholds are issued by International SOS, our specialist medical screening and emergency assistance service provider. International SOS have been working with the Australian Volunteers Program since 2017, and prior to that date other providers were used. International SOS assesses individual medical situations in the same way, irrespective of what conditions or illnesses a prospective volunteer has. The medical decision by International SOS to approve a volunteer to go on assignment takes into consideration:- Is the person fit to work and deploy overseas?- Will any conditions be exacerbated by an overseas assignment?- Can any required medications be obtained overseas? The Australian Volunteers Program has a firm commitment to equality. This commitment is balanced with our obligation to ensure that program participants (volunteers, and their supported partners and family members) are safe and healthy, and that we do not put them in situations where they cannot be provided with the required medical facilities and support. These determinations are made on the basis of medical assessment by medical practitioners. If a volunteer’s health situation changed while they were on assignment, the same considerations would apply, and these would be based on the advice of a medical practitioner. Whether the volunteer is still fit to remain in-country, and whether we would we be putting them at unacceptable level of risk by keeping them on the program, would be considered. I hope this provides clarification and is helpful for your listeners.Patrick Gallus PublicistT [phone]Australian Volunteers Program - Melbourne office160 Johnston St, (P.O. Box 350), Fitzroy, Victoria, 3065, Australiawww.australianvolunteers.com Episode 5: Georgina Whitchurch StoryTranscript Heather EllisHi, I'm Heather Ellis, your host on Our Stories Ending HIV Stigma, a podcast by women living with HIV, where we share our stories of our adverse lives and challenge the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma. Our Stories is part of the Women and HIV Tell The Story project made possible by Gilead Sciences and produced by Positive Women Victoria in Australia Georgina Whitchurch has been living with HIV for seven years. Her story begins in Eswatini, formerly Swaziland in southern Africa. After a career in hospital management, Georgina followed her passion for sewing and joined the Australian Volunteers Program. As a 64 year old retiree. She took on the role of teaching sewing to women at a village, but the charms of a local man soon changed her life forever. While effective HIV treatments gave her back her health, she did not end her commitment to volunteering. Georgina soon returned to Africa as a volunteer independently and for two years continued teaching sewing to rural women. After returning to Australia, Georgina put her management skills to good use, and recently took on the role if Chair of Positive Women Victoria, Welcome, Georgina to Our Stories Ending HIV Stigma. Georgina WhitchurchThank you, Heather. Heather EllisGreat to have you as a guest. You’ve got such an interesting story. I just want to start by asking with volunteering in Africa. It's not the usual choice for somebody going into retirement. How did this come about for you? Georgina Whitchurch I guess it was something that was in the back of my mind. For a long time, I enjoyed reading people's stories about volunteering overseas. And one night just out of the blue as things happen, I was on the computer. And I decided to open up Australian Volunteers International and just have a look and see what was there. And I had to sc