Responses to the AIDS pandemic: some random thoughts

I am not an expert on the subject of AIDS, my expertise is rather in the area of information dissemination and information systems. However, since we are on a war footing as far as this disaster is concerned (or ought to be) it seems to me that any "battle strategies" even coming from a lay person like myself, could be the subject of further discussion. I would therefore like to share some ideas on responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic with our readers. These thoughts have come to me as a result of my research on this issue and of my discussion with a number of concerned persons.

First, I would like to share some ideas with respect to the dissemination of information on AIDS. As I have said in the Editorial, the Kenya AIDS NGOs Consortium is doing quite a bit as far as the dissemination of information is concerned, but it is not nearly enough. They must be assisted much more, both financially and in other ways. I learned a lot myself while doing research in their Resource Center but how many people have such a chance? Yet much of the available information (on causes of HIV infection, on methods of combatting it, on changing attitudes and behaviour) is material that should be widely disseminated in different formats and by using various methods.

In the evaluation which was done of the Resource Center, the need for repackaging of information was stressed: information needs to be specially designed for specific target groups. Also emphasized was the fact that much more needs to be done to bring information to the rural areas (where the majority of the people live and which therefore have the highest number of people affected) and among people who have difficulty understanding either Kiswahili or English.

In this connection, I was wondering whether an E-mail conference could be set up (for those who have access to E-mail and they are now many) on the topic where lay people can share their ideas. (I am assuming that NARESA, the Network of AIDS Researchers of Eastern and Southern Africa, already is exchanging information in this way.) Much could be shared among concerned people: on ways to reduce discrimination, on companies and organisations that discriminate against HIV-positive people, on methods of awareness raising. Of course, such topics could also be explored in Partner, the KANCO newsletter.

From my reading as a lay person I have, for example, learned a lot about methods of awareness raising that work, especially those of peer counsellors. (See the article on "Youth to youth prevention strategies".) These methods could be shared with more people if there were an E-mail conference. For instance, how many people know about the method called Fleet of Hope? (Versions available in French and Swahili). Information about drama presentations and puppetry could also be shared.

One of the contributors to this issue, Anne Owiti, makes the observation that information is never enough. The Coca Cola company spends millions on advertising. We should find many more imaginative ways of getting the message on AIDS across to more people without spending millions. For example, recently the people on the Mfangano islands (Lake Victoria) complained that they had never even seen a billboard with a warning on AIDS, yet people on the islands are very vulnerable to the infection.2

What needs to be discussed much more as well is the whole question of how information on someone's HIV-positive status is divulged and to whom. On the one hand, one reads about the careless divulging of such information; on the other hand, the people who need to know are not told. As one AIDS victim, Edwin Odera, said shortly before he died: "I was shocked when I learned that one in five secondary school boys and girls in Siaya District were testing HIV-positive when they donated blood at the hospital, but they weren't being informed. How could they change their behaviour if they didn't know they were HIV-positive?"2

Also needing to be questioned is the appropriateness of some of the Government's responses. The Government projects that by the year 2000 half of our hospital beds will be taken up by people with AIDS. Is this a correct response? Shouldn't (as some individuals and organisations advocate) people rather be cared for at home where they can be with their family and die in dignity? If so, should we then not be preparing people medically and psychologically to give this care? Moreover, it happens that people are kept in hospital even when there is nothing that can be done for them there, simply because they cannot pay the bill. Surely, this is adding unnecessary suffering to families already burdened enough.

Finally, it is important that the question of the interrelationship between poverty and AIDS should be explored in much greater depth. As the authors of The church and AIDS in Africa : a case study: Nairobi city, say:

"Poverty and AIDS ... are inextricably interrelated in many ways. The elimination of poverty must be the ultimate goal of the churches. But in the meantime it is perhaps more realistic to speak of the alleviation of poverty. This should not be a traditional 'charity approach' by any means but it must take the form of the economic empowerment of the poor. It is possible that a reduction of poverty will be crucial in reducing the spread of AIDS in Kenya."3

Numerous other examples can be given of this interrelationship. For example, in the book Youth to youth: AIDS prevention and young people in Kenya, an 18 year-old asks the question: "What would you have done in my shoes?" She started selling sex after she had to leave school in Form 3 because of pregnancy. Her parents were dead and she had six younger brothers and sisters to take care of.4<P> In the literature about HIV/AIDS there is quite a bit of discussion about the economic consequences of the pandemic but not nearly as much about its economic causes. It is the latter which should be addressed much more if we are to reduce its consequences.

Notes

3. The church and AIDS in Africa : a case study: Nairobi city, p. 131

4. Youth to youth, p. 36.

---

A JOURNAL OF SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS CONCERN
Published Quarterly by DR. GERALD J. WANJOHI
Likoni Lane - P .O. Box 32440 - Nairobi - Kenya
Telephone: 720400

---

The Online publishing of WAJIBU is by Koinonia Media Centre.

---

GO TO WAJIBU HOMEPAGE