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Letter: From Nysha

Dear Katie,

My wish is to participate again in the nine-day School for The Work for July 2014 so as to further gain experience in anticipation of working towards certification.

Because of The Work I am a changed person in terms of relationships, diet, and exercising. The work done in 2013 helped understand more about my environment and myself, whereby introspection on self is involved, thereby ending up with self-realisation through the turnaround. Not all the stress that I experience is because of the “outside world” but I realised that I was contributing to that stress. Thanks to Katie and The Work I now have forgiven my late father, late husband, and aunts, for I found out that holding on to the past actually stressed me more and hindered my health status.

The Work also took me through the process of accepting reality, for I was a person who would question “Why me?“ but failed to have fulfilling answers. I would end up blaming myself that God / the world is unfair. This would cause more stress on me, for some of the issues were not even my business. Some of the issues were really my siblings’ to handle, but I ended up in their realm. As a result of The Work, I now allow my brothers and sisters to work on their own challenges.

I now look at challenges differently than before I did The Work, accepting them as they come for I now have space to do The Work with myself before getting into mood swings or crying a lot without hope.

After the School I accept circumstances as they unfold and move on with life. At my workplace I had a last-minute change of class when I had already planned for another one allocated to me. Some workmates were surprised that I did not confront my boss on the issue but accepted and began to plan for the given grades, which eliminated stress and helped me manage the situation better

When we came back from the school in 2013, we set up two groups of people living with HIV to deal with self stigma. This course led me to freedom – there was lightness rather than heaviness in my heart pertaining to how HIV was transmitted to me. At first my perception was to help out our mates with self stigma as a facilitator, but then I realised that The Work is for both the participant and the facilitator. It helped me reflect back to the early days of my diagnosis with HIV. I discovered that they are some instances where I was stigmatizing myself and those around me where acting/commenting on what I would have started myself.

My vision for moving forward The Work among people living with HIV as part of the leaders of the community of the work of Zimbabwe in future is to expand it so that many will benefit, beginning with the support groups of People Living with HIV in Harare Metropolitan Province. Also to have more local facilitators receiving training at the School for The Work, for I would also wish to see The Work cascading to the other 9 provinces of Zimbabwe, ZNNP has its membership in the ten provinces of Zimbabwe. I also dream of having Zimbabwe as a resource centre for The Work in southern Africa and Africa as a whole, “thereby bringing The Work to Africa.” To counter “discrimination,” I would also like to see ourselves working with other groups, i.e. diabetic, cancer patients, divorcees, the bereaved, and youths, and partner with more organisations, for I have learnt that The Work is for all.

My commitment to moving The Work is holding sessions during some weekends excluding public holidays and some afternoons during the week with the communities including the groups we formed in 2013. I would also remind people of our meetings, i.e. time and venue, and also post some messages from BK and urging them always refer to the books she wrote. The other commitment is the translating of materials where needed from English to Shona for the general understanding of the participants. So far I assisted in translating the yellow card when we did the self stigma course. Currently I am working on the self stigma sheet on “instructions on doing The Work.”

I hope the given information will meet your expectations and favourable consideration.

Yours Truly
Nyasha T.

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