Today (December 8) the meeting focused on critical themes; food security, nutrition and HIV & AIDS. I have always appreciated how these important aspects are interlinked, and not understood why it has taken the world so long to ‘recognise’ it. Maybe they always have, and I know they did in fact, but the practices and interventions at the local level have been divorced from this fact.
A few years ago, HIV & AIDS programmers were convinced that young women in Africa engage in transactional sex in exchange for the three Cs; Cash, Cell phone and Chocolates, period! I have always thought this was a naïve argument to justify risk taking by young female adults in Southern Africa. I was in high school then, and when I went to college, I realized that indeed, transactional sex was rampant; young women would get into relationships with men much older than them. But it wasn’t for chocolates that they did, but for the most basic of things. Some needed money to sustain them through college i.e. college fees, transport, accommodation, food, sanitary wear etc. Due to the economic situation, parents would not cope with the demands from institutions of learning, but the young women were determined to complete their education because they believed that their achievements would help them rescue their own parents and siblings from the cycle of poverty. This remains a fact today.
So today, at the UNAIDS conference, experts took turns to explain how food security and nutrition support are an integral part of the response to HIV. I believe that the world already knows the answers, and all the preconditions for effective HIV responses. Adequate nutrition is certainly essential to maintain a person’s immune system, to sustain healthy levels of physical activity, and for quality of life.
The question is how ready are member states to address the root causes of vulnerabilities, i.e. among women and girls for example. I would give the example of sex workers. Just like school girls and students in tertiary institutions, sex workers are portrayed as greedy, reckless, lazy-money centered-whores who would put their lives at risk for the love of dollars. Just like that. So my government for example would from time to time ensure that there is an ‘operation Chipo chiroorwa’ which translates to ‘operation Chipo it’s time to leave the streets and get married’, that is targeted at ridding the streets of all the sex workers. Sex workers have been targeted as vectors of the disease (AIDS). The latest reports reveal that there is about 90% HIV prevalence amongst sex workers in Zimbabwe. And so it may seem right for government to launch this clampdown on sex workers. So yes, it’s not surprising when the Zimbabwe Republic Police tell you that in harassing the sex workers, they are simply doing their bit in ‘the fight against HIV’ more like ‘fumigation vector control’ in malaria programmes.
So the war has been wedged against women, mothers, sisters, and daughters who, as I have come to understand after a few months interacting with some sex workers on the streets of Harare, are trying to make ends meet. These women are human beings in the first place. They are women who are just trying to bring food to their tables, for their own children, siblings, parents, and for themselves. Zimbabwe has dollarized the economy, but still boasts an over 90% unemployment rate. Where does the food come from for those who do not have access to land because they are daughters, and women ‘traditionally’ who cannot inherit land? Where does the money to pay the rentals and other utility bills come from when no one in the household is gainfully employed? The women that try to sell tomatoes by the road side are harassed by the municipal police. The girls that walk the streets trying to sell eggs and vegetables risk being raped…still risking being exposed to HIV. And it’s sickening to try to compare the sentence that the men who stole a cow, with that of a child molester.
My point is, food security is an important determinant of health, both physical and mental; and where one’s system is compromised due to HIV infection, maintaining a good nutrition becomes even more important in reducing susceptibility to opportunistic infections. Women go on the streets to sell because they want food. With high unemployment rates, poor salaries, droughts, many families find themselves facing starvation. Sometimes they are doing it to raise school fees so that they educate their own, so that eventually, maybe, they can also escape the vicious cycle of poverty.
Our governments and all stakeholders should therefore stop fighting the women who are trying to feed their families, and ensure they address the root causes that lead women and girls to engage in risky behaviours.
• Fight unemployment, not the poor helpless women.
• Fight the poverty and stop harassing the women who are only victims of the state’s failure to deliver for its people.
A sister said at this meeting, where member states, civil society and the UN family alike, are well represented,
‘True leaders will not be remembered for the promises they made, but those they met’.
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