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Zambia

Spreading the circles

13/04/2007: DCA partner Circles of Hope in Zambia is working to improve awareness of HIV/AIDS, to encourage people to attend counseling and testing, they fight against stigmatization by openly declaring their status. They encourage positive living and try some income generating activities to help the affected families.

By Antony Grange,
agr@dca.dk

Circles of Hope is a local NGO founded by Joy Lubinga, who is HIV positive. The members of Circles of Hope work through the churches, where people living with AIDS (PLWHA) are holding speeches delivering testimonies of their lives.

Followers of different faith are involved and as such ask their churches to give them the possibility to testimony.

Testimonies

During a church service in United church of Zambia situated in Lusaka we had testimonies and life stories from different persons:

Facts on Zambia and HIV/AIDS
Since 2003, ARVs are available free of charge to the population but not all have access to it: estimated numbers of people who should have ARVs is 250 000, only 70 000 are under ARVs. The lack of acces to ARV is mainly due to remoteness and transport costs to reach the clinic that deliver the medicine. Another difficulty that comes with taking ARVs is the need to follow a balanced diet: the right food is not always available or accessible due to the cost.

Facts on Zambia and HIV/AIDS

Since 2003, ARVs are available free of charge to the population but not all have access to it: estimated numbers of people who should have ARVs is 250 000, only 70 000 are under ARVs. The lack of acces to ARV is mainly due to remoteness and transport costs to reach the clinic that deliver the medicine. Another difficulty that comes with taking ARVs is the need to follow a balanced diet: the right food is not always available or accessible due to the cost.

Angela and her husband Chris. Chris is HIV positive, Angela is negative. They have 4 children, all of them HIV negative. Chris has been sick for five years before going for voluntary testing and counseling.

The test was done in 2006 and since then, Chris is under ARVs. ARVs has changed his life: he does not fall sick any more, has gained weight, and feels strong again.

During the years when he was sick, Chris lost his job and Angela also had to quit her job to take care of him.

Knowing Chris’ status has not disrupted their marriage. They stand together and face the disease, using condom to avoid that Angela gets infected. They decided to give their testimony together, to encourage others to live openly and positively.

Fear – and astonishment

They gave their first testimony two weeks ago in front of their congregation: their relatives, their friends, were there.

The reaction of the church and church goers was a mix of astonishment that they could go public, some reacted with fear, while others admired them.

Angela and Chris’ children are well informed of the disease that is affecting their father. They are very supportive and help, encourage him.

Elisabeth is 32 years old and a widow, her husband died in 2005. She is HIV positive. She has been under ARV for two years now.

She has a son who is now 8 years old. Elisabeth and her husband went for testing when, after having lost a baby during her pregnancy: both were HIV positive.

Elisabeth is the chairlady of the Circle of Hope club in her church. She is full of life. She believes in love and is convinced that she will fall in love again, that a man can love her in spite of her status. She has learned to live with the disease.

Elisabeth and her group meet twice a week, after church service on Sundays and on Wednesdays. And every month with Joy Lubinga from Circle of Hope.

They are talking about positive living, how to help the others. And they have a project to open a grocery to raise some funds. Most of them don’t have a regular job, they live from small piece of work.

Newcomers

After the church service where these testimonies were made, five church goers, three men and two women, approached Circles of Hope and declared – for the first time- their status as HIV positive to someone. They also want to join forces. Men are generally more reticent to openly talk about their sero positivity. But there is a clear indications that this is changing also.

According to Joy Lubinga, stigmatization is on the decrease, especially in the urban areas. In the rural areas, witchcraft and cultural beliefs can still create favourable ground for stigmatization.