Inter Press Service - November 6, 2002
Mario Osava

"It was terrible to discover that I was living with HIV five years ago, when my youngest son was only six months old and began to show symptoms of AIDS," Kelly Cristina Termiano told IPS.

Only then did she discover that she had been infected with HIV by her husband, who had died a few months earlier of meningitis, apparently without realizing that he had gotten AIDS from shooting up drugs.

Termiano already had six children by the age of 26, when she found out that she was a carrier of HIV. But only her youngest was infected, and he no longer shows any symptoms of full-blown AIDS.

Termiano was born in Florianópolis, the capital of the southern state of Santa Catarina, where she suffered heavy discrimination. Black people form a smaller proportion of the population in southern Brazil than in the rest of the country, and prejudices are stronger there.

Her childhood and youth were marked by isolation and few friendships, limited to people of her own skin colour. She was barred from entering nightclubs, and suffered when she saw her family and friends called derogatory names like "monkeys", and when other black women tried to "whiten" themselves out of shame.

"The fear of prejudice and of life with AIDS drove me to liquor and drugs. I figured, if they already discriminated against me for being black, just imagine with AIDS," said Termiano.

But under pressure from her family, who threatened to kick her out of the house if she did not seek help, she joined the Group of Support and Prevention of AIDS (GAPA), and began to be treated with antiretroviral drugs, which are made available by Brazil's public health system. She also got involved in volunteer work.

GAPA, a national network that operates throughout this South American country of 170 million, gave her "a meaning in life," says Termiano, who supports her family with a pension left by her late husband, an official at the local public university.

As a volunteer, she is active in GAPA's programme "Wake Up, Woman", talking about her own experiences and providing information aimed at preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and overcoming prejudice.

"Many black women hide their HIV-positive status out of fear of losing their jobs or their friends, thus increasing the risk of the epidemic spreading," she pointed out.

Although HIV does not distinguish between people because of the colour of their skin or their ethnic origins, the AIDS epidemic "is spreading in a social context that is racist," which means blacks and whites face different risks and consequences, explained anthropologist Osmundo de Araujo Pinho, a researcher at the University of Campinas, in the southern state of Sao Paulo.

The statistics reveal that in Brazil, the epidemic is growing mainly in the most impoverished social strata, and at an even faster rate among women.

That means the black population is hardest hit by the disease, since it is the poorest and least educated of all of Brazil's ethnic groups due to historical factors, said Pinho, GAPA's coordinator of projects for excluded populations in the northeastern state of Bahia.

Black women are the most vulnerable of all, because of the "feminisation" and "pauperisation" of HIV, and the stereotypical "black identity imposed by the predominant 'white' way of thinking," according to which blacks are considered more sensual and seen to have superior sexual attributes.

That stereotype contributes to the creation of situations of greater risk for black men and women, said Pinho.

Psychologist Odonel Ferraria Ferrano is in constant touch with that harsh reality, as the general coordinator of the Franciscan Centre for the Fight Against AIDS (CEFRAN), in Sao Paulo.

The majority of the 300 people living with HIV/AIDS that CEFRAN helps every week are black, Ferraria Ferrano noted in a conversation with IPS.

Black women, he added, suffer the worst ostracism, as their health status compounds the problems of racism and the greater difficulty they already face in finding a job or source of income.

In general terms, unemployment is higher among women than among men, but black women face even greater difficulties, because a greater proportion of them are heads of households, he pointed out.

Ferraria Ferrano said HIV accentuates the prejudice they suffer, and makes it even tougher to get a job, which drives many black women with HIV/AIDS to seek a state pension for disability or illness and retire early, as the only possible source of income.

However, the pension is tiny, as it is usually based on the minimum wage, which is now equivalent to just 55 dollars a month.

In order for someone living with HIV to be granted the pension, they must receive a doctor's certification of disability, or be diagnosed with one of the common opportunistic infections linked to AIDS, like tuberculosis or toxoplasmosis.

CEFRAN, which was founded eight years ago, provides HIV-carriers with assistance while helping to develop sources of income, like cooperatives in which services are exchanged.

In Porto Alegre, the capital of the southern state of Río Grande do Sul, the Cultural Association of Black Women, founded in 1991 to fight racism, gives talks on citizen rights and AIDS prevention, and distributes condoms.

The secretary of the Association, Luana Castro, said the organisation also provides courses, organises women's craft groups, and offers cultural activities to bolster self-esteem among blacks, like capoeira classes for youngsters.

Capoeira is a Brazilian art form or sport with strong African roots that combines martial arts, acrobatics, dance and music.

The Association is promoting the creation of a national movement. To that end, it is organising a Nov 29-Dec 1 conference in Porto Alegre on the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS, which will draw black women activists from across the country. (END/IPS/LA/HE HD/TRA-SO SW/MO/DM/02)

021106
IP021106

AEGiS presents published material, reprinted with permission and neither endorses nor opposes any material. All information contained on this website, including information relating to health conditions, products, and treatments, is for informational purposes only. It is often presented in summary or aggregate form. It is not meant to be a substitute for the advice provided by your own physician or other medical professionals. Always discuss treatment options with a doctor who specializes in treating HIV.

Copyright ©1980, 2002. AEGiS. All materials appearing on AEGiS are protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws and are the property of AEGiS, or the party credited as the provider of the content. .