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People with disabilities set to benefit from AIDS awareness programmes
National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH)
April 13, 2007

In a move that might herald the beginning of implementation of HIV and AIDS programmes targeting people with disabilities in Zimbabwe, The Centre, a local HIV and AIDS organization, in conjunction with the National Association of societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH), and Africa Rehabilitation Institute (ARI), recently convened an HIV and AIDS workshop in Harare that explored ways to address the specific concerns of people with disabilities, who are largely excluded from HIV and AIDS intervention programmes and lack access to AIDS information.

The one-day workshop, which paves the way for the integration of people with disabilities into the country's existing AIDS awareness and prevention mechanisms and structures, is set to see more and more people with disabilities benefiting from The Centre's comprehensive training, information, advocacy and development, and treatment and care programmes. The move will see people with disabilities being trained in nutrition, life skills and sustainable agriculture as well as benefiting from the pretest, post test and supportive counseling that the centre offers. Clients will also be able to benefit from The Centre's vitamin support, immune boosters, and home based care and outreach programmes.

Among the recommendations made at the workshop, which brought together people with all categories of disabilities, participants undertook to form countrywide support groups of people living with AIDS; produce AIDS information material in disability friendly formats especially for those with hearing and visual impairments; carry out awareness programmes to the grass roots; train a sizeable number of sign language instructors to ease the information constraints of people with hearing impairments; lobby for disability policy back-up; and ensure the availability of accessible venues when holding workshops and meetings with people with disabilities.

The marginalisation and social exclusion of people with disabilities from the development arena has resulted in the masking and underplaying of an issue that has been addressed comprehensively in the wider society: the issue of the prevalence of HIV/AIDS among people with disabilities. Just as people with disabilities are a forgotten and invisible group in society, they are also forgotten in planning for HIV/AIDS programmes. In the majority of cases, people have found it convenient to wink at the issue of AIDS among people with disabilities, to find solace in the mistaken assumption that disabled people do not engage in sexual activity, or to just regard the problem as inconsequential. The reality, however, is that disabled people are just as sexually active as the rest of the society and are even more at risk of infection because of the obvious barriers that they encounter in accessing vital information on HIV/AIDS, not to mention access to health care.

The Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council that markets contraceptives, some of which are meant to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS, has not done much in their campaigns to cover people with disabilities. At one instance in the 1990s they produced pamphlets in Braille to benefit people with visual impairments but it was short-lived. No attempt is made to advertise condoms in sign language or to put the instructions for use in Braille. This therefore leaves people with visual and hearing impairments uninformed. Another example is ProFam, which launched a new product on the market - the Care Contraceptive Sheath. But that will only be used by able-bodied people. People with hearing or visual impairments will not be able to get the correct information on how they can use it.

Most of the advertisements in print and electronic media warning people about HIV/AIDS are excellent but do not mean anything to those who cannot understand the information. The extent to which investments in prevention target 'vulnerable' rather than susceptible groups should be examined. Investments in prevention may tend to be directed towards the group more visibly or economically affected by HIV/AIDS than those more at risk of AIDS. Allocating funds for HIV prevention is no different from any comparable public health decision. Information is needed on which these decisions can be based.

Furthermore, although programmes on HIV/AIDS have been running in the country since the early 1990s, these have tended to focus on the effect of the disease on children, women, the economy and other such aspects. No attempts have been made to consider the spread of HIV/AIDS among people with disabilities. The National HIV/AIDS Policy also does not capture people with disabilities as a sector that requires special attention in terms of information dissemination. People with disabilities, like any other people in society, have reproductive rights, but since HIV is spread mainly through sex it is important for them to have protected sex. Information about HIV/AIDS is spread all over the country but there is no attempt to provide this information in Braille or in sign language. It is against this background that NASCOH is making concerted efforts to educate people with disabilities on HIV/AIDS so that they can participate in the prevention of the disease. In order for them to participate, it is important to ensure that they are accorded access to information. The emphasis of the public education will be on people with visual impairments and people with hearing impairments who have for long been denied access to information.

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS among people with disabilities occurs against the backdrop of a host of exacerbating circumstances and this requires effective and context-specific interventions that can provide long term, sustainable solutions and takes into cognisance issues of diversity, disability rights, equality, dignity and respect.

Despite the systematic sidelining of PWDs from HIV and AIDS interventions, NASCOH, which has a well-coordinated network and structures that enables it to reach people with disabilities throughout the country and a pool of 80 volunteers covering every province of the country, has been engaged in a number of efforts aimed at mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS among people with disabilities. These include, the commissioning and the production of the first ever sign language video on basic HIV and AIDS information; the production of an HIV and AIDS video entitled 'Dancing with Danger' targeting people with disabilities; production of HIV and AIDS vocabulary in sign language; and production and distribution of two different brochures on HIV and AIDS targeting people with disabilities in general. In addition to including HIV and AIDS awareness issues in all its programmes, the organization is making concerted efforts to have people with disabilities included in the National HIV/AIDS policy.

Visit the NASCOH fact sheet

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