Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2003. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 8 May 2003
Jessica Barry in Abidjan
"This work allows me to get out of the house and meet people," she says. "It means a lot to me just to be able to come here."
As someone living with HIV, Victorine is well placed to know about the loneliness of being HIV-positive in a society where discrimination towards people like her is endemic, and where discussion about the subject is largely taboo.
"Being able to lead as normal a life as possible helps to take away the stigma attached to AIDS," comments Liliane M'Boa, president of Lumiere Action, a 250-member Ivorian association of people living with HIV/AIDS.
According to Liliane, a sense of belonging is also crucial for maintaining hope. "Coming to terms with our condition," she says, "and believing that life can continue depends 25 per cent on the doctor, 25 per cent on careful living and 50 per cent on being accepted by the community."
One of Lumiere Action's main aims is to provide practical support to people living with HIV/AIDS. At the organization's modest offices down a crowded lane in one of Abidjan's poorer neighbourhoods there is a laboratory where HIV tests are done upon request. There is also a consulting room with a psychologist on hand to give counselling, a community pharmacy, a documentation centre and a TV room.
Experts are available to give legal advice about rights, inheritance, and other matters that affect not only those living with the virus, but also their families. Lumiere Action's volunteer social workers make home visits to follow up on new cases, while 164 children who have lost one of both parents to AIDS are being helped through school.
Lumiere Action, founded in Abidjan in 1994, is not only involved in fighting the stigma attached to AIDS through finding work placements for its members, it also carries out public awareness campaigns and has participated in two roundtable radio talk shows hosted by the Red Cross Society of Cote d'Ivoire.
Broadcast on local networks and abroad under the title 'Life Continues', they brought together medical experts, artists, advocacy groups, non-governmental organizations and people living with HIV/AIDS to discuss the physical and psychological effects of discrimination.
Funded, amongst others, by the Spanish Red Cross, the most recent programme was broadcast over a two week period, starting on World AIDS day on the 1st December last year. It took as its starting point the negative effects of discrimination within families towards people living with the virus, using the slogan 'live and let live' to illustrate its theme.
As one local artist who appeared in the show put it: "Only the love of one's family can help the person who is HIV-positive to come to terms with his condition."
Overcoming the stigma attached to HIV lies at the heart of the Red Cross of Cote d'Ivoire's own HIV programme. It also focuses on AIDS prevention using poster campaigns and peer-to-peer education. With hundreds of trained volunteers deployed around the country, it is well placed to get its message across, even in the most remote, conflict-affected areas.
With more than 10 per cent of Cote d'Ivoire's adult population living with HIV/AIDS, promoting understanding about prevention and combating discrimination are both crucial, especially given the unstable security situation in the country, which has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes in recent months.
So concerned are aid agencies about the longer-term risk of increasing infection rates and stigmatisation, both within Cote d'Ivoire and in neighbouring countries to where many of the displaced have fled, that they are stepping up their prevention and awareness-raising activities.
At the end of February 2003, the regional delegation of the International Federation in Abidjan signed a joint plan of action with the West Africa inter-country team of UNAIDS to ensure a coordinated approach in their support to the various national Red Cross Societies and partner organizations involved in making the truth about AIDS better known.
Local musician, Netth Soul, put it succinctly at the end of last December's round table radio programme, hosted by the Red Cross, when he emphasized the importance of sharing knowledge about AIDS as a way of overcoming discrimination: "Ignorance kills hope".
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