An estimated 34 million people are living with HIV/AIDS in Africa and 59 per cent of those above the age of 15 are women. Of that 34 million, roughly 10 per cent are children below the age of 14¹ Women and girls are physiologically two to four times more susceptible to HIV infection as compared to men and boys². Furthermore, “Adolescent girls aged 15-19 are six times more likely to be HIV positive compared to boys the same age³”

Disproportionate numbers

The staggeringly disproportionate number of females infected with the HIV virus as opposed to males has been shown to be related not only to physiological factors, but points directly the power disparity resulting from cultural attitudes as well as income and educational status. These figures relate to sub-Saharan Africa in general and Uganda is no different in this regard, except that it has gone a step farther in bringing the AIDS pandemic under control. In Uganda, studies show that married women now find themselves more vulnerable due to cultural practices like polygamy, a fact that increases the risk of exposure to HIV/AIDS.

Impact of Education

Furthermore, in a study specific to Uganda 4, there was a consistent finding between educational levels and domestic violence: the higher the educational attainment and control over their resources, the more protected women were from domestic violence, which was also related to the presence of drugs and alcohol.

However, in rural areas, where the attitudes toward education are still evolving, educational level actually provoked abuse. The literature is rife with evidence highlighting the relationship connecting domestic violence, drugs and alcohol and gender power imbalances all of which contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS. So what is the solution?

Integrated Solutions Needed

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and a multitude of other organizations working in the areas of gender and children recommend integrated solutions including improved maternal and child health education and medical care combined with general education and sensitization. One of the ways recommended to curb these frightening statistics is to encourage initiatives geared towards promoting education of the girl-child and women.

Any program addressing these issues with women and girl-children must also address these factors with consideration to the male population. Training women and adolescent girls of their rights is inconsequential as long as they men are not involved in the same process.

Therefore:

Programs that address these issues should include:

1. Programs that promote income generating opportunities and other economic opportunities -for instance Village Saving and Loan Associations (VSLAs) – for women to achieve a greater degree of financial independence – making it easier to avoid abusive relationships and therefore reduce their exposure to HIV/AIDS;
2. Sensitization of girls and women on the relationship between violence and HIV/AIDS;
3. Training of law enforcement officials and duty bearers (i.e. first point of contact that community go to when they get problems for instance local leaders, paralegals, the police) on the relationship between violence and AIDS, as well as HIV/AIDS prevention and training on post-exposure medical treatment;
4. Strengthening of the legal environment to support not only improved legislation but enforcement of existing statutes; and
5. Involvement of organizations working to reduce gender based violence in organizational structures involved with HIV/AIDS reduction. Literacy and Adult Basic Education, (LABE) is working at the grass roots level to influence cultural change and promote gender equity. LABE is an indigenous NGO committed to bringing functional literacy to Northern Uganda’s underserved populations. With a focus on women and girl children, LABE helped compile and translate audiotapes on HIV/AIDS prevention and then distributed them with radio/tape players to its Adult Learners in communities throughout Gulu, Nwoya and Amuru districts.

Learning forLIFE (L4L) Programs:

Through previous community outreach programs, Learning for Life (L4L) and Learning to Live (NPL), LABE has distributed tapes and tape players to approximately 60 schools and Home learning Centres reaching thousands of remotely located beneficiaries who would otherwise have no access to such information.

Women group in Palenga Sub County, Gulu District listen to HIV/AIDS programme using the radios and tapes supplied by LABE. (LABE Photo).

Women group in Palenga Sub County, Gulu District listen to HIV/AIDS programme using the radios and tapes supplied by LABE. (LABE Photo).

The content, offered in Acholi, addresses the issues of:

• HIV/AIDS prevention
• Avoiding early sex and marriages
• Encouraging voluntary testing and counseling for HIV/AIDS
• HIV/AIDS care

As an integral part of all of its programs (Mother Tongue Education, L4L and NPL) and in partnership with Straight Talk Foundation, LABE has also distributed pamphlets to each of the schools involved in their programs. Via this partnership alone, roughly 30,000 – 40,000 school children and educational personnel have been reached.

Deep Cultural Change

The process of reducing the spread of HIV/AIDs will require deep cultural change because the issues are not just treatment related, but imbedded in deeply held cultural beliefs and attitudes ranging from education to gender roles.

Grass roots programs such as those offered by LABE, Straight Talk Foundation and others combined with government initiatives, workshops and mentoring both men and women are essential in moving forward.

END

References:

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I’ve been struck lately by the re-discovery that everything one does in life comes back around at some point to contribute.  I’d hoped that my “toolbox” of skills would be useful here.  Some of you heard me say that I wanted an opportunity to put those to work in a really organic way, one that didn’t require me to re-design them to make them more commercial or temper them in some way so as not to step on toes.  Basically I wanted to put them into play in a manner which didn’t involve income generation.  So here I am and and I will say that everything comes around.

The point is, the next time you think you’ve been doing something that doesn’t matter, a job that’s not taking you anywhere or where you might be bored or spinning your wheels, you’re probably learning something or experiencing something that will be useful later.  I call it a body-of work, but as someone who’s name I can’t recall said, “It all matters.”

Thus far, I’ve helped re-write three resumes, am consulting to help a Ugandan finish book – starting with editing, have taught a woman to knit and make dolls to sell, am re-organizing an office and creating a filing system,  consulting on a literacy program, re-vamping a website, have fixed a toilet, taught a healing class, written a proposal for starting reading programs and will soon embark on organizing a book collection in a local library and a project to set up libraries in schools.  I’ve used skills I didn’t know I had, like a tiny widget  that fell into the bottom of the box and you find it when nothing else will work.    Sometimes one has to dig deep and use skills in new ways, but they all matter.

The most surprising thing is that as I find myself working in a literacy program, the “skills” I’m relying on are not those I consciously developed.  These are things I learned from my mother, a life long advocate of early childhood reading and a career librarian.  Mom went back to get her graduate degree when I was about still young.  She actually saved money from baking pies to save her tuition for LSU.  I didn’t know this at the time it was happening – I just knew there were a lot of pies being baked! And I couldn’t understand why she sat in the middle of the floor and sobbed one day when our cat (who mysteriously disappeared the next day) managed to jump down from a perch and land with each foot in a different pie. Note: it was the last cat we ever had.  Anyway – from that point on we were hauled around the LSU campus trying to keep up.  We did our homework in the library and shelved books in the main library where she worked as a Reference Librarian to keep out of mischief.  My first job at University of Texas was writing the Dewey Decimal Numbers on the spine of the book, but they didn’t like my printing so that was the end of that.

Years passed and she became the Children’s Librarian, starting and managing story hour and passing on her love of reading.  Evie and I practically raised our kids reading to them from discarded library books sent our way by the box load.  I’ve always known this background shaped my children’s lives and informed my adulthood, but I’d not thought I would be so directly using every shred of it in Africa.  I can just about hear my mother’s voice and feel her excitement over the chance to get into a library and organize a collection.

So – Mom, this one’s for you.  Are there cat’s in heaven?

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There is no lack of possibilities for help here, but I am reminded daily of how fundamental the tools must be.  We met a parade on the way to one of the schools – with band playing, hundreds of children marching behind.  I finally found out that that particular school had won a celebration because their school had been the cleanest in their practice of washing hands before eating and after bathroom.  Today  as it turns out, was National Hand Washing Day….BECAUSE lack of hand-washing in a country of pit latrines, eating with the hands and no running water – well you get the picture of how it relates in a serious way to disease control.  

We drove around to schools to monitor the program and see how things are progressing and what the challenges are.  It was telling:  11 sub-standard latrines for 1116 students, no text books, teachers have not been paid for last month, under-motivated students, poor discipline – but they are trying and slogging through the swamp of despair in the process.  The government has passed legislation that has removed caning from the schools and that’s the good news.  The other side of that coin is that they know of no other ways to discipline.  

Hoping to offer ideas on behavior modification… with positive feedback and when I very tentatively brought it up, it was met with “hmmmm – like a reward system?”  So there is some hope.  Also, this is not a reading culture and when students DO want to borrow books they are often not allowed because there is no education on how to treat a book (yet another opportunity).

There is no lack of possibilities for help here, but I am reminded daily of how fundamental the tools must be.  We met a parade on the way to one of the schools – with band playing, hundreds of children marching behind.  I finally found out that that particular school had won a celebration because their school had been the cleanest in their practice of washing hands before eating and after bathroom.  Today  as it turns out, was National Hand Washing Day….BECAUSE lack of hand-washing in a country of pit latrines, eating with the hands and no running water – well you get the picture of how it relates in a serious way to disease control.  So yes – we’re starting with skills that in the western world are common knowledge and we’ve forgotten that cleanliness is a cultural and economic perk.  In PC training we were taught how to build a tippy-tap, a home-made hand-washing station made with sticks, string and a jerry can.    So – training meets practical world.

And that’s it for tonight.  The boom-boxes have not started yet (rained earlier – everyone is searching for lantern gas) and I plan to take advantage of the calm.  Also, the rubbish pile is wet, s no toxic fumes tonight!  Yes indeed, it is a night to celebrate.
N

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