Badru Mulumba
29 July 2008
Juba — In the low-roofed, wall-draped hall in the centre of Juba, Angelina Dwoki Terso dances to the rhythm of the music blurring out of the giant speakers placed next to the exist.
She is only one among dozens of people shaking to the music, at a party organised by Southern Sudan Network for People living with Aids, formed by 15 organisations that teamed up in October 2007, to mark the end of the Global Aids Week in May.
"To be informed is empowering," Ms Terso had earlier told the audience. "I feel courageous about asking questions, even to protest."
But the fun at the celebrations unmasked the complexity of South Sudan's war on HIV/Aids. The data, where it exists, is unreliable; ignorance of the disease fuels stigma against people with HIV and the church that is helping fight that stigma is also fighting the use of condoms.
On Thursday, at an HIV workshop, Dr Lul Riek, a director general at the South Sudan Ministry of Health said a lot of stigma surrounds HIV/Aids patients.
"The South is too sensitive to HIV since it has just recovered from war. We need to work hand in hand and control the rapid spread of the disease," Dr Riek told participants.
"We must remind ourselves that HIV is a problem that needs more than one head to get rid of." But as the south tries to come to grips with the disease, the people living with HIV continue to be stigmatised, while potentially many others pick up new infections.
"The war against Aids can not be fought individually," lole Laila Lole, the chairman of the HIV network said. "It requires team-work."
Dr Emmanuel Oriema Lino, Director of Care and Treatment in the Ministry of Health said they estimate HIV/Aids prevalence at 3.1 per cent.
That is half a percentage higher than was estimated at the end of 2007, by the South Sudan Aids Commission. "We are fighting Aids in phases," Dr Bellario Ahoy said during the celebrations.
"We are still at the preparatory phase." The biggest problem is the unavailability of data on HIV. "Surveys have not been done to establish the most vulnerable groups but anyone between the ages of 18-45 years is vulnerable," Dr Emmanuel Oriema Lino, the director of care and treatment in the Ministry of Health said.
According to Dr Kuol, during the last two years, no functional national HIV/Aids programme existed. But even Dr Kuol agrees that putting up a system in a region warped by 21 years of war would never be easy.
This has meant that the region has other priorities competing against the fight on HIV/Aids. Such priorities include peace and stability, infrastructure and governance, says Dr Kuol.
"The church is not ignorant of the existence of HIV/Aids and Aids is not a sin as believed by many people," Rev. Martin Moga, a chairperson of a provincial branch of the Sudan Council of churches said during the celebrations.
While the church has taken a first step towards fighting the disease, it has its drawbacks. "A condom is like a life jacket on a plane," Rev. Moga said, adding that it has little use when tragedy strikes. The church' verdict: one sexual partner.
The challenges may remain, but as they showed on a Sunday evening in May, the people living with HIV, such as Angelina Dwoki, are taking the hurdles in their stride.
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