Back to Index

ZIMBABWE: AIDS awareness programmes exclude disabled people
PLUS News
August 13, 2004

http://www.plusnews.org/AIDSreport.asp?ReportID=3765

JOHANNESBURG - Zimbabwean NGOs have called for the needs of disabled people to be urgently addressed in HIV/AIDS awareness programmes.

Farai Gasa Mukuta, president of the National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH), said contrary to popular belief, disabled people were also sexually active, but had little access to sex education to protect themselves.

Mukuta noted that instructions for people with visual impairments on how to use condoms had never been distributed in braille, and no attempts had been made to advertise condoms in sign language for those with hearing difficulties.

Research shows that more than 1.2 million people in Zimbabwe are disabled, of whom 300,000 are HIV positive.

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP