International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cresent Societies - 26 January 2003
Andrew Macalister in Suva

But it will not just be a roof and four walls. It will also be a house of hope.

For this young man and his family are HIV-positive, and have been pushed out of their village because of fear and misinformation about the disease.

On this new plot of land, removed from the village, he is setting out, with help from Fiji Red Cross, to prove to his relatives and former neighbours that there is still life after HIV.

"With this sickness, it encourages me to prove them wrong, not to lie down," he says. "They think I cannot put my house up alone, that I will fail."

"But I want to show them that I can build my house, I can plant my garden."

Since moving to the new site in 2001, his achievements have been impressive. Battling occasional sickness and fatigue, he has dug out the hillside by hand to create a level section, dug post holes for his foundations, and put up the framing, walls and floor.

All this work has been done alone û because no one from the village will come to his aid. When he needs help to lift a heavy beam, he is forced to ask his wife, mother or sister to help.

Villagers and relations, he says, "just peep in and out to see what's happening and how I am doing".

"Relatives see we are fine and we are just like normal. What they expect is for me to deteriorate in my life. People don't understand really how it goes."

As well as being excluded from the village, he and his family continue to suffer other forms of discrimination. Neighbours will not share the same water supply with them. When he goes to town, he says he hears people whispering about him as 'that man with AIDS'. For this reason, this man does not want his identity revealed, for fear it may increase the difficulties his family face.

Discrimination common

Unfortunately, his situation is not uncommon for people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Fiji at present. To date, there are 130 official cases of HIV/AIDS in this small Pacific nation, but the disease has no public face. Those who are infected choose to remain in the shadows for fear of the reaction they will receive. Some PLWHA have told no one about their condition. Others tell only their closest family members.

In this atmosphere, this man says it was very difficult to absorb the news when he was diagnosed in 2001. "At that time, I felt that everything was coming to a close, everything was coming to an end...that my life would soon fade away."

He suspects the infection arose from a casual sexual relationship in 1999, but he only found out in the most tragic circumstances two years later - after he was married and their first child was born.

That young boy was admitted to hospital with an illness shortly after he was born, and blood tests subsequently revealed that he, and his parents, were HIV-positive. The boy died shortly afterwards.

This man initially only told a few family members of the situation but, in the tight social circles of traditional village life, rumours soon started to circulate.

"At one time, I was at a grog (kava) party in the village," he recalls. "We were sitting there and someone asked 'do mosquitoes spread AIDS?'"

In the traditional Fijian way, where people typically allude to feelings rather than expressing it directly, this was a clear hint that people were uncomfortable with him sitting around the kava bowl. "They think it's not safe to be with me at the grog party," he says.

Such oblique messages continued and, by the end of the year, he and his wife made the difficult decision to exile themselves from the village.

Turning point

The family was referred to the Fiji Red Cross home-based care programme for PLWHA by the Ministry of Health, which operates in the Suva/Nausori area, where about a quarter of Fiji's population lives.

That proved to be an important turning point in their lives, he says.

"The first time I knew I was HIV, I was feeling lonely, that there was no-one there to give support or talk to. But what the Red Cross did, they helped me to know there are people around who are very supportive and could encourage and help."

They have also assisted him and his wife materially, providing food, clothing and materials for his house.

Such a contribution is the least they could do, says Fiji Red Cross' Health and Care Co-ordinator, Kelera Nai Cokanasiga. "HIV infection and AIDS have become prominent public issues but, privately, an enormous level of misunderstanding exists in the community," she says. "Tragically, this prejudice leads people to lead hidden lives of sickness and, occasionally, of despair."

She says she is heartened by the fact that the family has come to terms with the discrimination and is now able to move forward with their lives.

"Equally importantly, by building a house by himself, in the face of scepticism and doubt, this man's actions speak louder than any words. He is really showing, in the best way possible, how wrong some of the ideas about HIV and AIDS can be."

Mrs Cokanasiga says that the Fiji Red Cross presently has 12 families in its care, representing about 25 of Fiji's PLWHA. That number is expected to increase as word gets out about the programme and testing for HIV improves.

The programme centres on weekly visits to PLWHA at home, which provides an opportunity to check on the health of families, and to provide any nursing materials that may be needed.

In addition, the Fiji Red Cross runs a training workshop for each family on what HIV/AIDS is, how it is spread, what the risks are for family members, and how to care for infected family members.

Monthly support group meetings are also held, bringing together all those people taking part in the programme, so they can share their experiences and know they are not alone.

But most of all, she says, the programme works on trust. "People need to know we are there for them because a lot of times they stay indoors and feel isolated. They feel that no-one else wants to talk to them."

And for this man who is building his house alone in the countryside, things are looking up. He and his wife have had a second, healthy child, and with the Government making anti-retroviral drugs available to all people living with HIV/AIDS, the future is looking distinctly brighter for this family.

And now, with the help of Fiji Red Cross, he wants to take this opportunity to make a real difference in his local community. "One of the most important things is to teach the public, especially people in rural areas, about the realities of HIV," he says. "To teach them to try to change their views and the way they see this sickness and people living with this sickness."

By building his house, he says, he hopes not just to change attitudes of people who are negative towards the disease, but also to change attitudes of people who have HIV. "I want to tell them it is not the end, that they can still do good things like this."

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