SWAZILAND: Turning the corner on AIDS by using the youth

Johannesburg, 31 August 2006 (PlusNews) - In the past four months Gerald Ndwandwe, 22, has buried three friends he has known since primary school. He does not want to lose any more.

"So many of my friends have HIV. They won't admit it, and that makes my job harder," the peer educator told PlusNews. "But if I don't intervene now, they will suffer later, and they will die early."

Ndwandwe works in rural areas, where 80 percent of the roughly one million population live, teaching people about HIV/AIDS and how to prevent transmission of the disease. Testing is rare outside of urban centres, although UNAIDS puts the country's prevalence at 33 percent, the highest in the world.

He still mourns the loss of his friends, but their families refuse to accept that their deaths were AIDS-related. "They want to explain the terrible wasting away of their loved one's bodies by blaming TB [tuberculosis]. They still consider AIDS as payment for the sin of sex, so they say there is no proof of AIDS," Ndwandwe said.

"A lot of the stigma comes from a feeling of shame that you or your loved one is HIV positive. But a lot of it is people being irresponsible - they deny the disease because they don't want to change their behaviour."

One of the greatest challenges to his work is overcoming isolation in the field. "It is hard because I am on my own. I am a trained peer educator - the Health Ministry put me through a [two-week] course and gave me a certificate. But I work by myself here," he said.

It is a common complaint by the more than 300 unpaid volunteers. According to Marjorie Mavuso, Resident Representative of the United Nations Population Fund, "Swaziland has all these skilled and dedicated peer educators working with the youth of their communities, but there is no strategy of coordination."

An approach linking peer educators has now been formulated in partnership with the Swaziland Youth Congress. "The grassroots approach is the best. The peer educators know their communities better than administrators in [the capital], Mbabane. What will now be provided to them are resources," Mavuso told PlusNews.

The initiative is currently bringing peer educators together for refresher workshops on 'Youth Behaviour Change Strategy', which will run into next year.

Peer educators will also participate in nationwide campaigns by the health ministry on condom use, sexual abstinence and faithfulness to one sex partner. "Youth responds best to youth -people relate to their contemporaries," said Maxwell Jele, national director of the youth congress. "If we are to turn the corner on AIDS, it will be by utilising youth."

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Theme (s): Care/Treatment - PlusNews,

[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]