3 March 2008
Maputo — Mozambican civil society organizations are launching this week a new approach in the fight against HIV/AIDS to include special attention on the plight of disabled people.
Data from the World Health Organization (WHO) show that there are about two million people in Mozambique suffering some degree of disability, and organizations that work with these people claim that this group is being excluded from actions to fight against the AIDS pandemic.
Those organizations note that disabled people are at a greater risk of infection by HIV. The Forum of Mozambican Disabled Associations (FAMOD) says that these people are being stigmatised, which gives them less opportunities to get married. Thus they tend to have more than one sexual partner and have unstable sexual relations.
Furthermore, disabled women and children are more likely to become the victims of rape, and disabled people in general have less access to quality health services and to information on HIV/AIDS.
According to the 2007 statistics on HIV prevalence in Mozambique, at least 324,000 disabled people are also HIV positive.
FAMOD, in partnership with the European NGO Handicap International and other partners has scheduled a workshop for this week to launch the African Campaign on the Disabled and HIV/AIDS.
The aim of the workshop is to divulge the guidelines of the African Campaign on the Disabled and HIV/AIDS in Mozambique and bring awareness to political leaders and the public at large on the vulnerability of disabled people to the pandemic.
A further objective is to ensure better access of disabled people to HIV testing, medical assistance and treatment.
The African Campaign is being coordinated by the secretariat of the African Decade (1999-2009) for the Disabled and by Handicap International.
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