governance, citizens and HIV/AIDS
news diaries from Sub-Saharan AfricaModels of Hope in Ghana
The Community of Practice for African media practitioners working on HIV/AIDS was recently launched in Livingstone, Zambia by Idasa’s Governance and AIDS Programme. Two of the participants speak in this video clip, about an initiative in Ghana called “Models of Hope” which provides positive role models for people living with HIV. See more here.
Granny’s decade of dancing
A 55-year-old Zimbabwean woman who learnt that she was HIV-positive in 1996 told IRIN about how joining Tsungai ['be strong' in Shona] support group led to her participation in the Murambinda Peer Educators Dance Group. “When I tell people I am a grandmother, they do not believe me because when I dance I have so much energy – there is no old and young when we are fighting HIV!” says Anna Matopodza, who didn’t think she would live to see her children reach adulthood and now has 14 grandchildren.
“Many people died of stress in the 1990s because there was not much information about HIV/AIDS … this is why I am part of Murambinda Dance Group, as old as I am.”
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86834
Story ideas:
As the year draws to an end and editors look for “lighter” stories, look for someone like Anna, who’s doing good work and having lots of fun at the same time. Dancing and singing lend themselves to great pictures too. If there’s nothing like this happening in your area, you could suggest that someone organises it and make sure that you’re there to write/record/photograph.
Condom message misinterpreted
The number of women presenting with unplanned pregnancies who have switched from pills or injections to condoms in response to messages promoting condoms for HIV prevention is very worrying, Dr Margaret Moss, who heads the Contraceptive and Sexual Health Services at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, writes in the October edition of Continuing Medical Education. “Some HIV-infected women said lay counsellors actively discouraged use of other contraceptives,” she says.
“Whether this is the true counselling message, or merely the client’s interpretation, is open to question. Whatever the case, it is an extremely worrying situation.” Advice should be to use “highly effective contraception, of the client’s choice, to prevent pregnancy, in addition to correct and consistent use of male or female condoms to protect against STI/HIV infection or reinfection,” she says.
Story ideas:
See if you can find out whether this counselling – or misinterpretation – problem in Cape Town exists in your area too. You could get accurate facts from medical authorities, making sure they are in language easy understood by the layperson, and use them in a sidebar to a story about HIV.
Documentary exposes sexual abuse of children
A Bulawayo film maker has exposed the sexual abuse of primary school-age children in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Thandazani Nkomo said he made his documentary, which revealed that more than 100 orphans at a school with
366 pupils have been abused, to prompt the authorities into action.
According to The Standard newspaper, the film forced community leaders and government officials to investigate and they found that 350 of the school’s pupils come from families that share a single room. About 10 people have been jailed for rape and other sexual offences but “some of the children do not report the cases of sexual abuse because they are being abused by people who provide them with accommodation, food and send them to school”, an MP was quoted as saying.
http://www.thestandard.co.zw/local/21915-sexual-abuse-scandal-hits-bulawayo-primary-school.html
Story ideas:
Research shows that Southern Africa’s increasing number of HIV/AIDS orphans drastically increases children’s vulnerability to abuse, particularly in situations of dire poverty. Probe rumours of abuse in situations such as this – Nkomo’s documentary illustrates the power of good investigative journalism to bring change – but be very careful to check your facts.
Social clubs for teens with HIV
A social club for HIV-positive teenagers in Gaborone has grown from 23 members in 2005 to more than 400 members and five satellite clubs have been set up in other parts of Botswana. Clinic staff and some of the older teenagers who serve as “teen leaders” run monthly events at the clubs, providing support and sanctuary to the vast majority of members who have never disclosed their status to anyone besides their caregivers. “Being a teenager is very hard; you have to keep up with the changing life, do what the others do,” said a 17-year-old girl from Gaborone, who was born with HIV but only learned of her status six years ago. “My school friends don’t know; if you bring up HIV they’re quite ignorant.”
http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=86861
Story ideas:
Are there similar facilities for teens in your country / region? The idea behind the clubs in Botswana is that teenagers’ needs are particular to their age group and teens should not simply be referred to adult clinics.
What’s the consensus on this in your area and what is being offered to HIV-positive teenagers?
Ask teenagers and other interested citizens how they can set up groups like those that are so popular in Botswana. How can teenagers help each other – in disclosing their status, adhering to treatment regimes, and simply getting together so they don’t feel isolated?
Prevalence still far too high
The latest HIV/AIDS statistics for South Africa show that prevalence is still far too high – 40% among women in their 30s, , with Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi saying that national prevention campaigns are not making a significant impact.
These new figures show that prevention strategies are not protecting young women – new infections among teens rose from 13% in 2007 to 14% in 2008.
Professor Helen Rees, director of the Wits RHRU Unit, called for new prevention strategies at an HIV Clinicians RHRU is currently conducting research on keeping teenage girls in school since three studies have shown that keeping adolescents in school protects them against HIV. Rees also suggested integrated male circumcision programmes as a prevention strategy for boys.
http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/hiv/2009/10/06/40-hiv-among-pregnant-women-too-high/
Story ideas:
What efforts are being made to stop girls having to leave school early in your area? Interview teachers, principals, parents and adolescents to gage awareness of the potential harm of teens not being in school.
If you’re not in South Africa, does your country have similar alarming figures for young women’s infection rate? If not, try to find out what your country is doing right where South Africa is failing. Look into the situation at schools – ask girls how they see their futures and the importance of finishing school to realising their hopes.
Learning lessons from Africa
In an interview in India, Michel Sidibe, executive director of UNAIDS , was asked about lessons India can learn from African countries about AIDS programmes. He told of Botswana’s success in outreach to mothers and said “another lesson to be learnt from the African experience is of leadership at all levels. It is not just high profile political leaders, but also effective leadership at the community and district level which is critical to the success of the fight against AIDS. “Also, the programmes cannot be effective in isolation in any country and it has to be part of a global agenda through political commitment, integration and convergence of government programmes. Africa has also shown that integration of health services and a broader programme covering diseases other than HIV – such as TB – is needed for capacity building.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Interviews/On-an-advocacy-mission/articleshow/5111239.cms
Story ideas:
Use this outside eye on what Africa is doing right in the fight against HIV and AIDS as a basis for a feature on how community leaders contribute to HIV programmes in your area.
Also, how is the integration of health services locally – are efforts being made to do this and what is being achieved?
Prenatal HIV tests should be mandatory
A Canadian journalist blogger, Stephanie Nolen, tells of how she expected to be offered an HIV test during her pregnancy in Johannesburg – and wasn’t. “I kept waiting for my doctor to suggest – or order – an HIV test. In Canada, after all, where 0.4% of adults have HIV, the prenatal HIV test is mandatory. I wasn’t worried about the results – I was tested for HIV every month or so in my six years in Africa, much of which I spent reporting on HIV. Every time I visited a new clinic or outreach centre, the eager staff would ask if I wanted to try out their counselling-and-testing model, or their new rapid result tests. I was quite confident I didn’t have HIV – but I was waiting for South Africa, the country with the worst AIDS crisis in the world, to ask me about it. Didn’t happen. Finally, around month seven, I brought it up. “Oh,” said my doctor – willowy, gorgeous, a Prada shoe junkie, she is the gynaecologist to hip black Jo’burg, or, in other words, the demographic most likely to be infected with HIV – “I guess. If you want.” http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/subcontinental/an-hiv-test-with-illuminating-results/article1317988/
Story ideas:
What does this woman’s experience say about stigma and discrimination? The discrepancy between her experiences in clinics she visited for work and her own medical care at a private hospital is huge. Talk to a wide range of citizens on the unexamined assumptions at play here and what impacts they have. Is this situation, where doctors in South African cities assume their medical-aid-covered, middle class patients do not have HIV, common in your country / region and if so is anyone concerned about it? If it’s not, interview doctors who do routinely test for HIV in all settings about their reasons for doing so. Are there any lessons that India can learn from the African countries in AIDS programmes?
Feeding her family
Celina Cossa – winner of this year’s Food Security Policy Leadership Award for “Civil Society Policy Movers and Shakers” – was one of thousands of Mozambican women looking for a way to feed her family. And she found one – through the age old method of farming. Along with 250 other women, they began growing crops and raising poultry. The women sold the excess and created a business that now has more than 2 000 women farmers.
http://africa.ipsterraviva.net/2009/09/01/female-farmer-scoops-award-for-food-production/
Story ideas:
Have you seen examples of people living with AIDS taking similar action in the communities where you live and work?
Ask people who are affected by HIV in your communities what makes it difficult for them to take action in this way.
What can government or local authorities do to make it easier for people affected by HIV to take collective action as citizens?
