The plan has a multi-sector focus, mobilizing the efforts
health, education, social welfare, agriculture and rural
development, transport, industry, and defence sectors.
Salama¹s
work in Ribaué involves a number of initiatives,
including the training of female volunteers and traditional
mid-wives to raise awareness for community and reproductive
health care in remote villages.
Salama
has recently gathered together about 50 volunteers, scattered
throughout the district, who appear to be making significant
progress with their campaign to spread anti-AIDS messages.
Its current project in Ribaue is addressing the high level
of maternal child mortality and morbidity caused by poor
family planning, birth complications, diarrhea, parasites,
respiratory infections, malnutrition, malaria and STDs/HIV/AIDS.
Micael
Sale, executive director of Salama, said many methods have
been used to spread the message to communities. "We
used theatre pieces, charts, and brochures in most of our
activities. It¹s not easy, but people end up understanding,"
she said.
According
to Sale, an understanding of sexually transmitted diseases
is viable. "Gonorrhea and syphilis are the most common
STDs here, and they lay foundations for our activities,"
she said.
An
AIDS activist working with Salama in Cunle said it was difficult
in the early days but now people are getting more interested.
"People
here really care about AIDS education although they are
not sure about the circumstances," said one activist.
"Taboos and other traditional factors are still a major
hi-cup but this will be ironed out as time goes by. They
secretly come to us and ask for condoms and information
related to STDs and AIDS."
The
rural population has begun to respond positively to the
possibility of preventing many additional infections and
reducing the impact of existing ones.
Villagers
in the locality of Mape have embarked on activities that
include information, education and condom promotion. The
village secretary, Jorge Iaumuriua, said the advantage lies
in the attention paid to vulnerable groups‹namely sexually
active young people, itinerant traders and prostitutes.
'For
us AIDS is so scary, although none of us has actually seen
anyone infected or dying in this region,' he said. 'We¹ve
heard about it on radio, but that doesn¹t stop us from
insisting that people prevent its spread by completely abstaining,'
he said.
According
to Iamuriua, high levels of illiteracy and poverty, limited
budgets, inadequate communication and transport, and a limited
skilled labour force makes it difficult to implement effective
prevention initiatives to deal with current and future HIV
infections.
"For
us here, we rely on Salama," said Iaumuriua. "We
are making significant progress with our efforts to break
the taboos. People know about AIDS and they are deeply concerned,
but cannot talk openly about it. We are very happy to see
our young people, although few of them, when they stick
to the radios whenever AIDS programs are being aired. It¹s
a step forward."
The
low status of women in many communities makes it difficult
for them to protect themselves. Many women get involved
in premature marriages.
Belinha
Jorge, a 16 year old primary school drop-out and mother
of two, says she doesn¹t use condoms but would like
to protect herself from AIDS contamination. "I've seen
it but I didn¹t know what is it for. I thought it was
a balloon and each time I saw it, I gave it to my son to
play around with it," she said.
But
her enthusiastic neighbour, Almelia Joao, a 25 year old
single mother, praised Salama for its efforts to launch
the anti-AIDS activities. "I did know what AIDS was
before Salama came here,"said Joao. "I used to
have unprotected sex with various partners, but now I've
been taught to stick to one partner and use a condom for
occasional sex."
The
same sentiments were shared by another village headman of
Cunle, Daniel Janeque, who said the massive anti-AIDS campaigns
are changing sexual behaviour.
Janeque
met the Reuters reporter at a local bar under a tree, on
a hot sticky afternoon in Cunle, where an elderly woman
was selling Kachasu, a concocted traditional brew made predominantly
of mealie-meal, fertilizer and battery acid. "We talk
about it at our drinking sprees," said Janeque, "which
is the easiest place for one to talk freely. We also distribute
condoms and urge people to use them. This is our contribution
to boost the government's and NGO¹s efforts to spread
the message and break the silence."
"Meetings
bringing together women and men are always held here. This
is to facilitate and simplify the messages brought here
in the form of brochures by these NGOs," Janeque added.
The
government estimates that between 600 and 700 people become
infected with HIV in Mozambique every day, of whom over
seventy per cent are economically active adults over 20
years old. Twenty per cent are children under the age of
four who are infected by mother to infant transmission.
At least two million people are believed to be living with
AIDS.
The
government fears that development of the Nacala and Maputo
corridors, as well as other major economic projects, could
stimulate the growth of the pandemic. Other factors include
disrupted family and community life caused by a brutal war
that relegated Mozambique to the poorest country on the
globe, causing massive population displacement and the influx
of migrant labour.
Like
the trucks that rattle through town, Salama spreads its
message, encouraging people, above all, to talk‹to
their neighbours, in their homes, while lining up at the
well for water, or while drinking at the local bar. And
it does seem to be working. In North America, the availability
of television ensures that messages get delivered on a mass
level. In rural Africa, people talk. Understanding the importance
of this simple, traditional method of communication is one
way to ensure that the battle against AIDS continues.
This
article was written as part of a collective World AIDS Day
effort by CARE Canada, COCAMO (Cooperation Canada Mozambique),
ICAD (the Interagency Coalition on AIDS and Development),
and PAC (Partnership Africa Canada).
