J. Nandawula Okumu
1 July 2008
opinion
Recently in a meeting, a male youth asked representatives of Christian Children's Fund and Baylor College of Medicine Children's Foundation why men are not considered as active participants as women are in the fight against HIV/Aids.
It is Africa's concern that at grassroots level, men are not as active participants in the fight against the pandemic despite their high potential. Somehow, women and children are bearing the burden more even though men are better positioned to mitigate the problem. Some HIV/Aids programmes in countries such as Zambia and Senegal have proved that men's contribution remains largely wanting. The situation is no different in Uganda.
One Charles Kakande, a trained HIV/ Aids home-based counseller in Kirinya Parish, Wakiso district, said at his residence recently that HIV positive men in his area would rather not seek help from anybody. He said that although he makes extra effort to persuade HIV positive men to access HIV/Aids care, they constitute the least of the total numbers of his clients. As of June 2, Charles said he had 40 HIV clients (patients) but only 12 of these were men. The rest were women and children.
According to him, men fear to disclose their sero-status mainly because they think that once people know, they won't be able to convince any girl for sex. In the course of his home-based care voluntary work, Charles bathes, counsels, sensitises HIV/Aids affected and infected people. Evidently, he is a good example towards the fight against the scourge but his fellow men are yet to emulate him.
However, some men will probably not do more until someone counsels them not to fear injections. My colleague, who works closely than I do with HIV/Aids affected and infected persons, revealed recently that injections make men cry.
She worked on a project of a trial drug against HIV progression to Aids, where many injections needed to be made on the participating clients. During this project, my colleague saw men cry for fear of injections while others dodged, consequently dropping out of the trial project.
Obviously, there are reasons that are limiting men's participation in the fight and one of them is that most men will not value a sensitisation session on HIV except if in such a session, they will also learn about topics that they consider more relevant like income generation.
Issues of HIV/Aids alone are not very popular with most men, making sensitisation and mobilisation efforts among them less successful. Men's biggest concerns are how to make money and how to provide a future for their children.
But little do they realise that without tackling the HIV/Aids monster in the midst, they won't be able to achieve such a future for their children.
Studies have it that men in many communities have more sexual partners than their women counterparts up to an average of 6.7 partners as opposed to 2.2 partners for women. What this might mean is that averagely, a man will spread HIV about three times more than the woman! Such behaviour need the world's continued attention to support men in making them realise their contribution in the HIV struggle.
My hope is that these views will not be used to castigate men but rather to seek to understand their dynamism. Men are influential. They have power, money and time. They also have energy and knowledge. What they lack is interest and courage to improve on Africa's efforts against HIV/Aids.
The writer is Communications Manager, Christian Children's Fund Uganda
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