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Experiences of Mrs Claudine MUYALA TAYAYE BIBI, Chairperson of the Platform of NGOs, Programme Appui aux Actions Féminines Our country, the Democratic Republic of Congo is limited by nine
countries: Angola, Burundi, Republic of Congo, Republic of Central Africa,
Sudan, Zambia, Rwanda and Tanzania.
Its population is 50,075,029 inhabitants in 1999, with 52,6% women.
Besides
46% of the population is less than 15 years old. The majority of the
population lives in the villages. 80% of women are illiterates. (1)
The triple infectious killer diseases which are: HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria
are responsible for about 45% of the mortality in Congo. For a long time
it
was typical to describe the Aids epidemic in DRC as mysterious
and invisible, but that could hardly be further from
reality.
The former cases were discovered in 1983. the first rumors drifted out of
the people working at the Bank of Kinshasa in 1983, telling of a
bewildering
illness that sapped its victims to the bone. Since then, like a vast
thresher, Aids has churned through our fertile land with ruthless force,
cutting down the young, the educated, so many of our people in prime of
their productive life. In December 1997, 470,000 people have died.
And
now
our country the DRC has the heartbreaking distinction of having the largest
population of such orphans because of the war between Rwanda, Uganda,
Burundi and the effects of HIV/AIDS is predominant. Women and
children in
Congo perished, young people notably women are the leading victims of this
epidemic. We have all shared the suffering of dying brothers, sisters and
childhood schoolmates. There are empty seats at all of our tables, empty
desks in our offices, many professors died at the University; We
mourned our loved ones at nearly 100 funerals a day.
No one among us could have imagined the far-reaching devastation of the
human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV), but some facts are now clear. In December 31st 1998, 47,292 people died to Aids. Almost millions of children have lost their mother or both parents to Aids over the course of the epidemic. To lose one or both parents to Aids is to face a childhood of pain and peril. That to say thousands of orphans are simply abandoned to fend for themselves, like many children called Children of the street; because they use to live in the street. HIV/Aids is a major social and economic catastrophe in our country: AIDS predominantly kills the productive age group of the population and creates millions of orphans. AIDS-related mobility and mortality will have dramatic impact on public health as well as privates lives on communities, families and individuals. During those years, the estimated number of persons infected with HIV was more than 47.292 cases, 2,5 % the world score. The global Aids strategy of WHO& and BCC/AIDS in Congo now defunct Global Programme on AIDS already argued that an effective response to HIV/AIDS had to go far beyond the health sector: education, religion, culture, all facets of Society would have to play a role in responses to the epidemic. The impact of HIV/AIDS on Congo education sector is increasing sharply. From 1997 to 2001 Congo experienced a twofold increase in teacher deaths, most likely as a result of HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS among professors at the University of Kinshasa is increasing absenteeism, disrupting university scheduling and costing more for training new professors and other education officers to replace those lost to the epidemic. Students, too, are affected by the epidemic. We have the same problem in secondary schools. Many teachers are ill-equipped to integrate HIV/AIDS into their classroom and extra-curricular activities. Policy and programmatic responses In Congo, the education sectors, NGOs , Government ministries in the process of finalizing HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support policies and implementation strategies. The governmental as well as the non-governmental programmes provide a wide range of reproductive health information, knowledge and skills training to youth aged 10-24 years. In spite of this, service gaps and omissions continue. For instance, few psycholosocial counseling services exist for young people younger than 14, although youths in their early teens are sexually active. Integrating HIV/AIDS into the work of development organization A key objective and obligation on development NGOs such as PAAF, CONAFED, REFOS, CNOS, FDES, ABEF, Femmes Plus, UCODEFF, play a leading role in addressing the epidemic. All these NGOs together with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Family , the Ministry of Health try to integrate HIV/AIDS into their programmes and develop specific strategies to deal with the epidemic, not least because our own staff are also dying from the epidemic and need support. The Platform of NGOs PAAF works poverty alleviation because in Congo many areas have experience increases in numbers of orphans due to Aids and the war with Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. We have experienced increases numbers of households classified as extremely poor &, child and women-headed households, and ill health and death. Communities increasingly spend time attending funerals instead of participating in development activities. Poor people have limited access to preventive education and services. That's why NGOs are well-placed to help communities plan for the long wave nature of the epidemic: first, by identifying the factors that increase vulnerability to HIV infection and of AIDS, and this by always integrating gender dimensions. Next, PAAF programme planning takes into account the possible impact of HIV/AIDS on the development process and the sustainability of development outcomes, as well as how community development activities might in turn affect the local epidemic. Many initiatives are important and therefore includes these key recommendations. Key recommendations for NGOs, government public institutions, universities: To hold workshops for staff on AIDS and development To increase understanding and internalization of rights based perspectives to challenge cultural practices that increases HIV vulnerability To involve and inform NGOs that specialize in development work in rural areas on the local trends and impact of the epidemic. To explain the impact of HIV/AIDS on livelihoods and promoting positive living. To provide ongoing support and training to staff and communities, using resource persons from AIDS organizations. To encourage responsible behaviour among the staff of different services: Universities, enterprises, schools, etc, e.g. by placing condoms in toilets, hotels etc To give a response by the agricultural sector to shift to mitigation of the impact of HIV/AIDS at the household and community lives. Thanks to FAO a new clientele for smallholder agriculture is emerging, mainly comprising adolescents, the elderly, widowed, women and sick or weakened adults. Agricultural extension services focusing more on appropriate technology available for adaptation by resource-poor agricultural systems. This includes inter-cropping to reduce weeding, zero or minimum tillage to reduce the need for expensive ploughs and oxen, and using trap crops to attract pests away from other crops. Agricultural extension services also needs to integrate gender issues into their programmes, since women and youth are emerging as the leading players in smallholder agriculture in the HIV/AIDS era. The creation of the Platform of Agricultural Women in Congo which work
together with FAO presided by PAAF, help to develop technologies and
extensions programmes to help mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS. To avoid that many ill urban dwellers return to their villages where
family members witness the final stages of the illness. Personally, I can
enroll for a peer educators course so that I
am
in
a better position to help people in counseling and teaching on the
dangers
HIV/AIDS. In order for me to contribute to efforts to contain the spread of the
HIV/AIDS I have to make sure my views, opinions and ideas about Aids reach
other people around me. Acquiring, cheap, plain, T-shirts and having
catchy
messages about AIDS printed on them would communicate the messages to the
public whenever I wear the T-shirt while I'm teaching at the
University, students to a football match, church or any other public
place.
For my messages to reach all the people in the nations, I can also write
stories, play and articles for publication in nationwide newspapers
and
in
local languages ( Kikongo, Lingala, Swahili, French, Tshiluba, Yansi etc)
By using the local television and radio stations for some airtime so
that
we can recite short poems on AIDS. We will invite the ladies from the NGOs such as
Femmes
Plus,
AMOCONGO, which members are suffering of
AIDS. Together
with
them we will give talks and offer advice to adolescents.
These willing people, ladies and gentlemen living with AIDS can be seen
and
heard by the public. The fact that the public may realize that AIDS is not
as mysterious and invisible as
they thought in
1983 all this will allow them to see that the disease is a reality that is
at their doorsteps and they can be persuaded to give up their reckless
ways
and adopt lifestyles. NGOs have to work to contain the spread of HIV/AIDS by asking our
Government to change the law about the Legal Age of Majority of young
girls
which is 14 in Congo. Because of this law the government is responsible
for
the explosive rate of spread of the AIDS virus.
Because at 14, teenagers are assumed to be mature and able to think
rationally and to take care of themselves. This, in a way gives the
teenagers a right to defy their parents, as legally they are free to do
what
they want. Parents therefore lose control over their children who are in
most cases, still immature and likely to make decisions they will
later
regret. The Legal Age of majority must therefore be pushed up from 14
to
21
or such a time that the parents deems the child mature enough to stand
independently. To increase of the amount of revenue to the state, the improvement in
the
living standards of the people by increasing the income will reduce the
number of people dependent on selling sex to survive. To convince men by telling them that using condoms does bring pleasure
and doesn't alter the sexual intercourses, its a
problem of
changing their mind. To stop the war in Congo and make peace with our neighbors
Rwanda,
Uganda
and Burundi will help to prevent the problem of refugees and expending
AIDS
by soldiers suffering of AIDS who use to have sexual intercourses
with
Congolese women and young girls to decimate the population of Congo.
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