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Burundi: Refugees Suffer As Aids Takes Toll in Botswana
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The Nation (Nairobi)
30 August 2007
Posted to the web 29 August 2007
Kitsepile Nyathi
Harare
Jacques Aringeye sobs uncontrollably as he takes a glance at the lifeless body of his wasted wife in a dimly lit hut at the Dukwi Refugee Camp in northern Botswana.
Mr Aringeye, 35 and his wife Antoinette who fled the civil war in Burundi in the late 90s were diagnosed with HIV/Aids in 1999 when they were expecting their first born child.
Their son only lived for one year before he succumbed to tuberculosis, which was complicated by an HIV/Aids infection he acquired from his mother's womb.
And the family's misery piled at the beginning of this year when Antoinette was admitted at the camp's hospital for three months suffering from pneumonia.
She was released from hospital after the doctors said they could not do anything to improve her life as her immune system was severely weakened. Their plight is shared by hundreds of refugees at this sprawling camp where the deadly pandemic is taking its toll.
Their misfortune is that the Botswana government says it can not provide life prolonging anti-retroviral (ARV) therapy to foreigners.
Attracted by its long history of peace, refugees fleeing civil strife from as far as Somalia find their way into Botswana in their thousands.
"If my wife had enrolled under the Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission programme during her pregnancy maybe our son's life could have been spared," said Mr Aringeye holding back tears. "We see many children dying every day and most of them who are born here do not reach the age of five because they are infected with Aids."
President Festus Mogae's catch phrase at the 2001 United Nations Assembly: "We are threatened with extinction. People are dying in chillingly high numbers, it is a crisis of the first magnitude," seems to find expression at this remote camp more than anywhere else.
Sub Saharan Africa countries, hit by a devastating HIV/Aids pandemic are stepping up prevention programmes to stop foetuses being infected and leading the initiative are countries such as Botswana, Malawi and Zambia where priority has been placed on children.
UNAids and the United Children's Fund say 2.3 million children in sub-Saharan Africa are HIV-positive, most of them infected by their mothers because they did not receive drugs taken for granted in wealthy countries to prevent transmission of the virus.
Globally, an estimated 530,000 children were newly infected last year and 380,000 died of Aids, the vast majority in Africa and without treatment, half of the infected infants die before age two.
Throughout southern Africa, child mortality rates have soared because of Aids reversing health gains from better sanitation and immunization even in relatively prosperous countries such as Botswana and South Africa.
But the situation seems more severe at this refugee camp where the numbers of people infected keeps swelling every day as some new arrivals are consigned to the centre already infected.
"We have lost hope in life," Aringeye said. "I am just waiting for my wife to die and my only wish is that she goes first so that I can be able to bury her.
"A number of requests have been made to the Botswana government to provide us with ARVs just as it does to its citizens because we have no other home but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears."
Mr Victor Ilunga, a Namibian refugee and community leader at Dukwi camp says they bury more than five people each week at this centre of about 1,000 families.
"We are resigned to fate," Mr Ilunga said. "The government says its hands are full. The hospital here is overwhelmed and they have no choice but to release terminally ill people to die at their homes.
"The number of orphans is swelling each day and we have a crisis on our hands." He called on the United Nations to mobilise funds specifically for HIV/Aids programmes at refugee camps especially in Botswana where infection rates are among the highest in the world.
In Botswana, 24 per cent of adults between the ages of 15 and 49 are infected with HIV Aids. However, the mortality rate has been significantly slowed down by an aggressive treatment programme, which has seen a number of infected people getting access to ARVs.
The Minister of Justice, Defence and Security, Mr Pandu Skelemani says the government cannot provide foreigners with free access to ARVs as it was still struggling to reach out to its own people.
"As much as the government desires to provide ARVs to refugees who have fallen victim to this pandemic but cannot do so at the moment because it is still struggling to reach out to every Botswanan due to financial constraints," said Mr Skelemani during an address at recent World Refugee Day commemorations at Dukwi.
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What compounds the problem faced by people like Mr Aringeye is that they are not allowed to seek employment while in Botswana.
"It is very difficult being a refugee because you cannot get a job and you have to rely on the little food that you are given, and although it is not enough it is better than living on the edge," said Mr Solomon Mathe from Zimbabwe. "Issues of access to health are secondary to most of us and terminally ill people just wait to die."
The Botswana Centre for Human Rights (BCHR) says although Botswana has long been a safe haven for refuges fleeing turmoil from other African countries it needs to do more to address challenges such as HIV/Aids. This can be done through with the involvement of United Nations agencies that deal with the pandemic, BCHR said.
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