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48 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, January 27, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend May 11, 2004 Ashland Dr. Bill Sager and his wife, Sue, visit orphans at Kananga, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Sagers have returned after a three-year mission to Africa. Soccer helps medical mission Gift of game balls opens the door for an Ashland couple to teach African kids about AIDS risks By BILL KETTLER Mail Tribune A raggedy homemade soccer ball gave Dr. Bill Sager an idea for fighting AIDS in Africa. The retired Ashland physician saw the devastating impact of HIV during a three-year medical mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Sponsored by the Presbyterian Church, he treated patients and trained young doctors while his wife, Sue, taught English as a second language. "About 5 percent of the population is infected," he said last week, just days after the couple returned home. "Fifty percent of the population is under the age of 15." Several Congolese pastors were organizing church meetings to teach young people how to avoid AIDS, but most kids stayed away, he said. "There might be 13 or 14 boys and girls inside, but outside the church there would be hundreds who could be coming." One day, he noticed a group of kids in an impromptu soccer game kicking a "ball" made of used plastic bags and rags wrapped with twine. The game sparked a memory of an old friend who gave away soccer balls in Thailand in a wildly successful promotional campaign to sell Coca Cola. Advertisement The doctor said he would come back to the village in a week with two new soccer balls — one for the boys, one for the girls — if all the kids would come to a three-hour AIDS meeting. "When we came back the next week we had 150 kids standing in the church," he said. "It was so crowded you could hardly get in." By the time the 70-year-old couple left Congo, they had given away more than 500 soccer balls and introduced thousands of young people to the dangers of a disease that has ravaged sub-Saharan Africa. "That was the most exciting thing we did," he said, "and the most satisfying." The Sagers also spent several months in Malawi, a landlocked east African nation, and worked in Louisville, Ky., for a time on mission projects before returning to Ashland. They went to Africa in 2000. He had just retired from medicine; she from teaching English as a second language at Rogue Community College. The Presbyterian Church USA asked them to go, partly because their children were adults. Younger missionaries with children had already fled the violence in Congo. They set up shop a few miles outside Kananga, a provincial capital in the south of one of Africa’s largest countries, also known as Zaire. "There were police checkpoints, but we always got through because we were in a hospital car," Sue Sager said. "It was very difficult for many ordinary people, but we never felt unsafe." Congo has been hit especially hard by HIV/AIDS, but not nearly as badly as some other countries south of the Sahara, where the infection rate stands near 20 percent. The overall prevalence of HIV among sub-Saharan adults between the ages of 15 and 49 is estimated to be about 8.4 percent. Dr. Sager said HIV/AIDS presented a challenge for him as a physician and as a Christian. "Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. Medical science says we can live to 105 if everything goes well. When life expectancy falls into the 30s because of AIDS, that is not life and life abundantly." Cultural traditions in many areas make the spread of AIDS difficult to contain, he said. Men often take more than one wife, and many are sexually promiscuous. Condoms are looked down on; and men who leave home to find work seek gratification with prostitutes. Teaching young people how to avoid AIDS is the only way to rein in the disease, he said. "You’ve got to get hold of the kids and rattle them by the ears so they’ll get scared of risky sexual practices." Americans who have not visited undeveloped countries can’t begin to grasp the poverty that is a fact of life for most Africans, Sue Sager said. People live in mud-brick houses with dirt floors and eat outside because they have no furniture. She recalled a conversation with a cab driver who asked her, "Are the villages in America like our villages here?" "Where do you begin to answer a question like that?" she said. "How do you explain that our poor people have cars and TV sets?" Despite Africans’ dire poverty, they may have things to teach us, Dr. Sager said. He noted that during three years of treating patients, he never saw a single case of coronary artery disease, one of the main causes of death in industrialized countries where people eat a high-fat diet. Many Africans are vegetarians, he noted, "although not by choice." The Sagers would like to see the soccer-ball program continue and expand because it’s inexpensive and keeps Africans in charge of the teaching. "You don’t need a million dollars to do this," he said. "All that money just gets in the way." They’re taking some time now to tend to their Ashland home, and visit family and friends. They have no firm plans for the future, but missionary work isn’t out of the question, Bill Sager said. "Part of the fun in life is not knowing exactly what’s around the corner." Reach reporter Bill Kettler at 776-4492, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities Student Loan Consolidation Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers