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People living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) and employed by AIDS NGOs can be marginalised within their organisations, a new study has found.
According to a Population Council Horizon's study, most PWAs involved in service delivery were volunteers often working on an informal basis, and relatively few were employed as professionals by NGOs.
Other barriers to greater PWA involvement were the "judgemental and paternalistic attitudes" displayed by professional health and social workers. There was also a lack of institutional will and policies to create opportunities for PWAs to be involved, the study noted.
Nevertheless, study respondents from 17 NGOs in Burkina Faso, Zambia, Ecuador and India reported a therapeutic effect after becoming involved in NGO activities.
PWAs were not just involved as beneficiaries or users of services, but as support staff and volunteers in non-HIV/AIDS activities or as occasional volunteers in HIV/AIDS service delivery, the study found.
"I came to realise that they were normal people just like any other human being. I could eat with them and share plates with them. Now I think I understand HIV much more than I did," an HIV-negative service provider in an AIDS NGO in Zambia was quoted as saying.
Although use of PWAs as volunteers may be cost-effective for NGOs, it can have "an adverse effect on service quality if volunteers are poorly trained", the study warned.
Poorly trained HIV-positive staff could convey inaccurate information or impose their own solutions during counselling, it added.
Any strategies to promote the greater involvement of HIV-positive people in developing countries must consider the social context, especially conditions of poverty, limited access to health care and treatment, gender inequality, and stigma and discrimination, the research report said.
Gender inequalities prevented many women living with HIV/AIDS from becoming involved in NGO work, the study noted. Fear of stigma and discrimination also inhibited many PWAs from involvement in NGOs perceived to be "PWA organisations".
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions