Benjamin got sick with TB after arriving in Norway. - It took the doctors a long time to find out that I had TB, says Benjamin. Read Benjamin s story of how he mastered his disease here
Benjamin Ocaya (27) comes from a small town up north in Uganda (Gulu), close to the Sudanese/Ugandan border.
Benjamin enjoys working with documentaries. (- To make a living, I also make wedding movies and those kind of things, he says, smiling). Through his volunteer work with the Peace Corps in Uganda, he got appointed to an exchange program with the Norwegian Red Cross. He went to Norway to do volunteer work. learn more about movie production and editing.
Benjamin was diagonised with MDR-TB after arriving in Norway.
- It took the doctors a long time to find out that I had TB, says Benjamin. - It was a difficult time, and the medication got harder every day to take although I do not regret anything of it. Through my disease, I learnt a lot. Now I want to help others, using my own experience. When i reflect on what I have gone through during the treatment period, more than 50% of sickness is phsycological. Think positive, and the following day will just be a normal day, he says.
And, certainly, he is not wasting his time. LHL (The Norwegian Heart and Lung Patient Organisation) currently work with a health communication project, where one of the activities is to produce booklets on TB, made by and for TB patients and their family, in close co-operation with health personnel.
- In my project, I intend to interview doctors, nurses and other patients both in Noway and in Uganda. The project intends to assess the administrative, professional and personal challenges in dealing with TB. Back in Uganda, I will have an opportunity to interview the minister of health, and the WHO country representative. The objective is mainly to asess the political and administrative commitment to tackling TB in our country. The outcome of the movie I hope will be an assessment of how the experience and patients´ rights are being taken care of. I also intend to use the movie as an educational tool for both Norwegian nurses and those in the south, especially those who are going to working in the departments of infectious diseases, and who more vulnerable to disease like TB.
Commenting on challenges, Benjamin says: -We Africans tend to keep things concerning our health to ourselves, but one of the purposes of my documentary is to help people become less shy about their diseases, since only then can we get help and be cured.
- Despite the fact that i cant afford to make this project succesfull, I am doing my best to find possible sponsors.
Benjamin certainly is in line with the slogan for World TB day 2008: I am stopping TB!