Aiding Those With AIDS

Every Peace Corps Volunteer in Mozambique will end up doing  some kind of work around HIV/AIDS.   In classrooms, education volunteers usually instruct lessons on HIV prevention and awareness.  Some of the health volunteers work one-on-one with people living with HIV and AIDS.

During PST, we volunteers had many lectures that covered the HIV/AIDS problem in our host country.  Here are some reasons as to why there are about 360 new HIV infections everyday in Mozambique and why they need help with HIV/AIDS projects:

1. Lack of Knowledge About how HIV is transmitted

Along with not knowing how to use a condom properly, many people don’t know that HIV can be transmitted during pregnancy, delivery, and breastfeeding.  For instance, neighbors and family members sometimes help with the delivery of a baby.  These people may get HIV from the infected mother’s blood during this process if they aren’t careful.

      Here are some examples of the myths that have been circulated about how AIDS/HIV in communities here in Mozambique:

1.    AIDS is transmitted by supernatural means.  For example, some believe that a person curses an enemy with HIV/AIDS with the help of a spiritual healer

2.    Transmitted by the sharing of food with a person living with HIV/AIDS

3.    Like malaria, AIDS is transmitted by mosquito

4.    A healthy-looking person can’t have AIDS

5.    There is no such thing as AIDS and this fictitious idea was created by White people to scare Africans

2. Low cases of male circumcision

The foreskin on the penis is a mucous membrane and research shows that removing this area will reduce HIV transmission.  Many programs are promoting safe means of male circumcision in Mozambique to help lower transmission rates.

There are higher circumcision rates within Muslim communities in Africa.

3. Multiple Sex Partners

A big problem is that some men spend more than one month away from home and have extra-marital affairs. Some of these men work in South Africa and have unprotected sex with people there and bring home the virus to their wives.

In the last 12 months 3% of women and 20% men reported that they have had more than one sex partner in Mozambique, according to a recent study

4. Stigma

Like everywhere else in the world, there’s a stigma against those living with AIDS or HIV positive in Mozambique.  Many people are afraid to get tested for the virus because they fear they might be HIV positive.  Being HIV positive may mean that their friends and family might stop talking to them.  In effect, a person may not know he/she is positive and may transmit it to other sex partners.  Further, some believe that doctors give people HIV when they get tested.  This idea also prevents people from getting tested.

What some organizations are currently doing to reduce prevalence of HIV/AIDS in Mozambique:

Condom promotion, availability of male circumcision, basic care for orphans whose parents died from AIDS, food security & nutrition, increasing income generation, social protection, psychosocial support, education interventions, safe-sex negotiation and reduction of sexual risk behaviors, promote income-generating activities, and much more.