Learning to survive AIDS

AIDS, not the border war with Angolan rebels, is the real threat to people’s security in Namibia’s northeast Kavango region. Galvanised by the crisis, a group of 130 HIV-positive people, most of them between 15 and 25 years, declared their status publicly at the border town of Rundu over the weekend. The event put a face on official statistics that Kavango bears the distinction of having one of Namibia’s largest HIV-positive populations. Around 16 percent of pregnant women from Kavango tested HIV-positive during the last survey by the Ministry of Health and Social Services. Nationally, some 19 percent of Namibians between the ages of 15 and 49 are living with the virus. The real impact of the Rundu event was felt when the group, some with poverty written all over their faces but singing ‘I surrender all’, entered a packed St Mary’s Parish Church on Saturday, to the applause of around 600 people inside. They gathered, some out of curiosity, others to sympathise and a few concerned that they might have had sexual intercourse with one of the 130. The group is the Kavango branch of Lironga Eparu. It means “learn to survive” and was established nationally by people living positively with HIV/AIDS. “Our people suffer and our children weep. AIDS is the wolf and we are the sheep,” Father Dennis said as he opened the gathering with a prayer. The 130 members answered, “Lord, give us knowledge and strength”. They wore t-shirts on which was printed “I’m living positively]. Do you?” They prayed to be armed with courage, compassion and care. Spurred on by now veteran HIV-AIDS campaigner, 26-year-old Emma Tuahepa-Kamapoha, as well as a frail yet courageous former secondary school principal Roswitha Maswahu Ndumba, the Kavango group’s main aim is to break down the stigma, take care of the infected and affected and to set up a counselling centre. “In five years’ time, we want to eliminate HIV [from the face of Kavango]. Coming out is the first step to do away with discrimination,” Ndumba said in what reflected their clear statement of intent. Better known as Roswitha, the 40-year-old lost her soldier husband two-years ago due to an AIDS-related illness and now depends on the R1,000 (US $125) contributions each month by her two brothers and two sisters. “The R4,000 pay for my medication only,” the mother of three said. During the ceremony she warned those contributing to the stigma that “you don’t know whether you are the next”. Roswitha vowed to lead until she dies. “If I die, one of you will take over,” she told the group who responded with ululating. There were concerns that Roswitha would not make the ceremony, and her dream simply became that of staying alive to be part of Saturday’s “celebration of life”. She has had to fight off several bouts of opportunistic diseases, with bruises from the latest still visible on her arms. Health Deputy Minister Richard Kamwi was touched by what he saw and described the objectives of the group as “noble”. “I admire you. You may be subjected to difficult situations, but please keep up your good spirits. Your sacrifices will be worth it in the long run. You help us save lives. You have, indeed, taken on a great responsibility,” he said. Kamwi said it was important that the infected and affected came together to share experiences and called on the Lironga Eparu national leadership to establish similar groups all over the country. “Welcome to our extended family. We must work together to fight AIDS. There is no choice about it,” he said. He urged the church in the country to reclaim its historical role of leading the fight as it had against the apartheid regime in the past. Kamwi said it was important to note that behind the statistics were humans. “They need to live with dignity,” he said, through practical support that must be rendered by the community. “Prejudices reduce a human being to a thing - a thing like a disease. It destroys the dignity of a sufferer”. Emma, the first Namibian to publicly declare she had contracted HIV through sexual intercourse, called for love, care and support for the group. “Don’t isolate us. Don’t throw us away,” the young woman with an education diploma said. She urged group members to keep the virus to themselves and to abstain from unprotected sex. “I told myself ‘it is my virus, I’m not gonna infect somebody else’,” the young woman, who discovered her status eight years ago, said. Most importantly, she pointed out that the group’s move would be worth nothing if there was no supportive mechanism from both government and the community to keep them going. Catholic AIDS Action national co-ordinator Lucy Steinitz said Lironga Eparu would change the face of AIDS in Namibia, a country with a total population of just 1.7 million. “By going public, by sharing one’s status with friends and family, the person who is infected with HIV breaks down the barriers of isolation and can live longer, more positively and more supported by others,” she said.