Author: Erika Villanueva
Everyone in the focus group knew what HIV was. They also knew what it meant: extradition from family, disconnection from community, isolation, and pain – God’s punishment for the promiscuous.
The youth from the Tanzanian town of Mpwapwa were far from ignorant of the consequences of unprotected sex. Everyone knew someone living with HIV. They learned of the illness through magazines, radio talk shows, and through community-based organizations, including PATUU, a group dedicated to HIV/AIDS awareness through dramatic presentations and lyrical rhapsodies. With PATUU, we – a group of eight Canadian students – conducted focus group sessions with the youth of Mpwapwa in hopes to learn and convey what issues mattered to them the most.
HIV/AIDS was one of a few issues the youth brought up. Money was another, because without money, they could not purchase condoms to protect themselves from the virus. Condom use was one of their main concerns, because without an efficient health care system, prevention of HIV was their only mode of action.
When asked about how the community felt about HIV/AIDS, the youth replied that the disease was ‘saddening’ because everyone who had it would die from it. There was a stigma with HIV; those who had it were labeled prostitutes or sinners. It was the fault of the person if he or she contracted the virus. People would die before they sought help. Children orphaned by parents who had HIV were shunned by relatives who were uneducated about the virus. These children were left to fend for themselves, prone to growing up as street-workers and prostitutes exposed to the risk of contracting HIV or any other STI. With no money or time for education, orphans fell victim to wayward tales of HIV being a widow’s disease or that intercourse with virgins may cure the virus.
Some members of the community felt that condoms truly only prevented pregnancy. Condoms available in stores were considered “too small”; men would use their hands to cover the unprotected part, an act that would not ensure safety from sexually transmitted infections. They believed that abstinence was the only guaranteed method to prevent HIV; however they also felt, “no one has the choice to abstain”.
They explained that children as young as four or five years old imitate what they see their parents do at night. They become witnesses to their parents’ actions because most houses in the village have only one room. The children become curious about it, so they go out and copy their parents. They discover that they enjoy it, and continue to have sex before they are old enough to know how to protect themselves. Parents do not educate their children about sex unless they themselves are educated and know that they should talk to their children at an early age.
Because of these facts, the youth felt that sexual education about condom use and about what HIV was, would benefit the community. They also felt that nagging about abstinence would tire the crowd because it simply will not happen, regardless of how many “ABC” campaigns have passed through the town. Some women depended on paid sex for survival. Women would have unprotected sex to keep their boyfriends or husbands happy and hopefully, faithful. As it was difficult to access HIV medication from the capital city – a nine-hour bus ride away – those infected would often think, “If you are going to die anyway, why use a condom?”
Mpwapwa’s problems were poverty, healthcare and education. When the youth asked what Canada’s problems were, we were sheepish to admit that they were the same: poverty, healthcare and education, though not nearly to the same extent.
It is true that the Canadian impoverished face a different set of difficulties. We too have people living with HIV/AIDS, but we are not without treatment or protection. Our government helps ensures that those with HIV are able to obtain the necessary treatment to avoid AIDS and other related health implications that might otherwise force patients to quit their job. We have a welfare program that arguably provides the unemployed enough money for a decent life. Condoms are free. Households have as many as eight bedrooms. We have a public education system and a universal health care program that may be seen as flawed and inefficient to some, but to others, such as the youth we met in Tanzania, these programs are seen as part of an otherwise impossible achievement.
The eight of us from Canada learned to appreciate what we were lucky to have back home, for we were introduced to people whose lives were lived without such luxuries. However, life in Canada is far from perfect, as there are populations within our own country that will suffer the same fate of rural Tanzanians if our government does not help protect them. We need understand that individual responsibility is limited to the system they are subject to. We must not be quick to judge what we cannot comprehend.
Many Tanzanians retain a perspective that everyone has a choice when it comes to sex. Either abstain, or use a condom and risk getting infected with HIV. The youth in Mpwapwa were very considerate of the risk; however, without reasonably safe alternatives to street work and prostitution, nor free access to condoms, the risk seemed inevitable.
The truth is, everyone in the focus group knew what HIV was, for they did not know of a life without it.
© Copyright, PeopleMenders, 2007. All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
Erika has a major in health studies, studying topics that range from public health policy to population health program planning, genetic, physiological and environmental assessments. She is currently working toward a minor in international political science to achieve a greater major in global public health. Erika has worked overseas in Peru and Tanzania collaborating with both rural and urban communities on planning projects concerning water sanitation and HIV/AIDS education.
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