Open your eyes to HIV/Aids

WHEN Microsoft founder and entrepreneur Bill Gates and his wife Melinda visited Chennai in India some years ago to talk to a group of women about Aids, they were on a learning curve.

They were familiar with the statistics about HIV and Aids, but wanted to hear first-hand from the women what it was that made them vulnerable to the disease, and what could be done about it.

What probably struck the Gates starkly was the cruel and senseless stigma of Aids.

All the women at the gathering had been ostracised by their families and neighbours and were desperate to learn how to protect themselves from the deadly virus.

There were many lessons to be learnt from that gathering in Chennai that day, the most profound of which was encapsulated on a poster on the walls of the room, which read: “Open your eyes to HIV/Aids”.

It is a lesson that resonates with the findings of a new study by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in South Africa which found that members of the Indian community were generally in denial that Aids was a problem among them.

According to lead author of the study, Dr Dhee Naidoo, many Indian women face the risk of being infected by the virus because they are trapped in relationships with abusive and promiscuous husbands or partners.

The women are unable to negotiate the terms of sexual encounters with their partners, and this type of power dynamics was playing a role in many women contracting HIV.

With HIV and Aids, silence and ignorance can be your worst enemy.

As Dr Naidoo has advised, it is important for men and women to start talking about it, educating themselves and not making it seem like it is “someone else’s disease”.

A significant point to come out of the HSRC study is that many Indian men in the community are socialised into believing women are inferior. That brand of caveman thinking has to stop. It has no place in a country like ours which purports to strive towards equality in a non-racial and non-sexist society.

When we talk about ideals like equality in post-apartheid South Africa, we are not talking merely about race and income levels. We are talking about equality in a home – between members of a family, between men and women.

We can all play a role by helping to change attitudes and mindsets in our homes, our schools, the workplace and in our community.

We should open our eyes to HIV and Aids.