Kansas woman helps AIDS patients in Africa

June 09, 2011|By Dave Roberts | KWCH 12 Eyewitness News

(WICHITA, Kan.) — In South Africa, living with AIDS is a way of life. But for Penny Dugan, who lives in Kansas, helping people AIDS patients in South Africa is a passion.

She's been helping AIDS patients for the last twenty years. From volunteering in a homeless shelter in Newton, to where she is now, a hospice in a township outside of Durban, South Africa.

"I just find the face of AIDS is the same, " she said to Eyewitness News over Skype. "It's a face of fear. It's a face of shame. It's a face of hopelessness."

Dugan became passionate about fighting AIDS after her husband died of the disease in 1993.

"I felt like the Lord was saying people need help and why don't you go and help."

She started the New Jerusalem Missions to help people with HIV and AIDS get the medication and other services they need. In 2009, she took her work to the Durban township where nearly half of the population has the disease.

One of the biggest challenges Dugan faces is getting people to take their medication on time. AIDS patients have to take a combination of pills at specific times of the day. If they miss even one dose, the virus could become stronger and drug resistant.

She says that one of the most important parts of her work is the AIDS education she provides the township. Since the virus was discovered 30 years ago, she fears that sex education around the world is lacking.

"I have seen it change from when my children in the 80's were highly educated on it, probably more so than the average child. When I began to talk about AIDS to junior high or high school groups, they don't know very much about it."

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