On a recent trip to Africa, first lady Laura Bush and her daughter, Jenna, toured the Development In Gardening (DIG) project, started in Senegal in February by San Diegan Steve Bolinger. Bolinger led the U.S. dignitaries, along with Senegal’s first lady, Viviane Wade, during their visit to the garden project at Fann Hospital, in Dakar, which helps to provide food and bolsters the nutrition of those infected with HIV/AIDS in the sub-Saharan African country.

“It was a great honor for the first ladies to choose to tour our project out of the hundreds across Africa,” Bolinger said. “For them to take a particular interest in what we are trying to accomplish with DIG shows us that we are making a difference in the world.”

Bolinger started the hospital garden while in the Peace Corps and returned when his duties were over to implement DIG, a San Diego-based organization that helps people living with HIV/AIDS in Africa maintain quality of life. The project, which harvests healthy produce and supplements the meals of more than 6,000 patients per year, has grown to include a total of three gardens that are now sustained by HIV/AIDS outpatients at three Senegal locations.

Senegal has one of the lowest infection rates in sub-Saharan Africa. DIG’s most recent garden started at an outpatient treatment center in Ziguinchor, a southwestern region of Senegal, home to the highest concentration of HIV/AIDS in the country. Here the disease affects more than three times the national average of 0.7 percent, with 2.2 percent prevalence among the general population. The rate in women is twice as high as men at 3.4 percent, according to the 2005 Demographic in Health Survey.

After her trip to Africa, Bush, who was there to support the president’s malaria initiative, voiced support and promised more aid for nations struggling with HIV/AIDS and malaria. She also spoke highly of the work Bolinger is doing so many miles away from home.

“[Bolinger] is a great example of how one American citizen can use his creativity and compassion to support our government’s aid programs abroad,” the first lady said in her journal entry on iVillage.com. “When I met with patients at Fann, I was touched by their gratitude for all that the American people are doing to help them ‘live positively’ with HIV.”

The U.S. government provides antiretroviral medications for Fann patients through USAID. Through the gardens, nutritious vegetables, such as kale and collard greens, have been introduced into Senegalese cuisine. Bolinger shows patients how to get the most from their labors and how to use the entire plant for food.

“Nutrition is a key factor to the effectiveness of HIV antiretroviral regimens because some medications must be taken either with or without food to assist with absorption and getting the medications into the bloodstream to fight HIV,” said Dr. Davey Smith, of UC San Diego’s Division of Infectious Diseases.

According to the The Power of Nutrition, published by the Association of Nutrition Services Agencies, “Asymptomatic individuals with HIV are likely to have energy needs 10 percent higher than that required to maintain weight under illness-free conditions. During symptomatic HIV and/or presence of AIDS, energy requirements are expected to be 20 to 30 percent higher. Presence of opportunistic infections further increase caloric need by causing fever and respiratory complications, which independently increase metabolism.”

“Given that medications are the single most effective factor in reducing morbidity and mortality from HIV/AIDS, and the absorption of that medication is increased with proper nutrition, it is critically important to provide proper nutrition,” said Alberto Cortes, executive director of Mama’s Kitchen, which has provided 4 million meals locally since 1990.

As DIG has developed, the organizers said that they have begun to see some positive and rather unexpected outcomes at garden locations.

“The sites are becoming a social gathering place for the outpatients where they can give and receive support from their peers,” said Sarah Koch, who helped Bolinger found DIG while working with Peace Corps. The gardens have also developed a safe space for HIV-positive people in Senegal because the disease is still not often talked about and large stigma is attached to the illness, she said. “Most of the people aren’t open in their community or even to their families about their HIV status. So for them to participate in the gardens is a big deal.”

Both Koch and Bollinger said that DIG would not be able to do this work without the help from those in San Diego who have contributed, volunteered and given support to the project in the past year.

“Big Mike” Phillips, Michael Mack and Nicole Murray-Ramirez, along with the Imperial Court de San Diego, spearheaded the initial DIG fund-raiser at Lei Lounge, raising $22,000 for the project.

“I’m proud of the fact that [Bolinger] is helping people out on the other side of the world with the funds that we helped raised,” Phillips, a DIG board member, said of the former Bourbon Street barback. “We plan to continue to raise money for the project, and the community can expect a larger fund-raiser some time in the future.”

For more information or if you would like to help by contributing to Development In Gardening, call 619-274-7218 or visit www.developmentingardening.org.