Inter Press Service - July 25, 2003
Ananilea Nkya

She was quickly branded as an uncultured young women wanting to solicit funds by any means.

"My daughter I saw you on the television saying you are HIV positive. Oh! You have become such a bad woman to the extent of pretending that you are suffering from such a dangerous disease -AIDS? How dare you young girl, are you cursed? Can a person with AIDS look like you?" her confused and angry stepfather, Bahatia Mikaeli, asked her.

Mikaeli is a Roman Catholic Church Community chairperson in the Mgeta village in the central region of Morogoro. However Antonio says her step father's disbelieving attitude towards her changed after Antonia's ex husband died few months later and one of her two children tested positive for the virus.

Antonia's step father was not the only one appalled by Antonia's public testimony. AIDS is not openly discussed in this East African country of over 34 million people where the first AIDS case was discovered 20 years ago but communities still call it "Slims".

Following Antonia's public statement there was a barrage of criticism - both in the media and in communities - with some saying the young woman had been bought off by the state to threaten men so that they refrain from sexual activities.

"President Mkapa must have must have given you money to terrify us. If you, who looks so healthy have HIV, will there be any woman without the virus, one irate and nervous man asked her.

Antonia says she is constantly asked by young men she meets on commuter buses if she is the woman seen in several televisions shows and newspaper photographs talking about HIV/AIDS.

Nevertheless, even today some people who meet her do not believe that she is HIV positive. "If you are positive, I don't think I am safe," noted Sadiki Saidi from the Gold Mining area in Shinyanga who met Antonia in June when a team of youth, including People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs), were climbing the Africa's highest mountain-Mount Kilimanjaro. He says after talking to Antonia he was so inspired that he decided to go for an HIV test.

Antonia 's courage to go public on her HIV status is a result of counseling, care and support she has been receiving from PASADA, a Catholic Church centre in Dar es Salaam, since she discovered her status in 2000. The centre offers services to people and communities affected by HIV/AIDS.

"I decided to go public because I am determined to save other people from contracting the virus," Antonia told a press conference organized by the Tanzania Media Women's Association (TAMWA) in March last year.

TAMWA embarked on an HIV/AIDS campaign in 2001 with a focus on gender-based violence and its impact on the pandemic. Since the campaign was launched 20 people, including 12 women and eight men, have publicly declared their status.

The group recently registered its association known as Mashujaa wa UKIMWI Tanzania (MUTA) meaning HIV/AIDS heroes. "We are tying to raise funds to mount a campaign which we believe will mobilize more people, including big shots, who are HIV positive to declare their status openly," says MUTA's Chairperson Bakari Seif.

"I believe we will make a big impact if we have in our movement a high ranking people like Bishops, Sheikhs, Ministers, MPs and big businessmen," he added.

The United Nations General Assembly, which was held in June 2000, resolved that each member country of the UN body should strive to ensure there is a greater involvement of PLHAs in HIV/AIDS national programmes.

Interestingly, the reactions Antonia received after disclosing her HIV status has encouraged her to become an HIV/AIDS activist. She says she decided her first task would be to make people understand the difference between living with HIV and living with AIDS.

"I told myself that whenever I get chance to speak I am going to try to persuade people to go for voluntary Counseling and Testing because by just looking at someone it is not possible to establish their HIV status," she says.

Antonia has begun her work in her own home, Goba village, which is situated 45 kilometers North East of Dar Es Salaam. She says she has had enormous success thanks to the understanding and support she receives from the village leadership, PASADA ( A Roman Catholic Organisation based in Dar Es Salaam working with PLHSs) and a team of journalists working with TAMWA.

According to her, massive sensitization was achieved through 10 meetings organised by the village leadership, womens group sessions and Child and Maternal Health sessions in which she was allowed to spread her messages.

Antonia says she received training in counseling skills by attending a series of workshops organized by PASADA. She says the work done within a one month period saw 150 people out of 898 adults in the village with population of 2,500 making the decision to go for an HIV test.

Although there are no Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT) services at the village, she said, she consulted PASADA who agreed to bring to the village a mobile VCT service to enable people to take the tests.

Surprisingly, she said, the results showed that out of 150 who took the test 64 (40 %) were HIV positive and six of them had died by June 2003.

She attributed such high infection rate to the village culture of engaging in unprotected sex as well as to high levels of poverty. "A man could buy a crate or two of alcohol and drink with his colleagues in the bar and in return the woman who sold it would have sex with the man even without condom to please him for offering her good business," says Antonia.

She says other cultural contributory factors to the high rate of infection include issues such as wife inheritance, forced marriage, witch craft beliefs and "nyumba ndogo" (concubines).

The country's National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) 2001 report indicates that 2.1 million people are infected with HIV of which 48 percent are married couples.

Goba village Chair, Suleiman Mbava, admits that following Antonia's efforts people in the village have changed their attitudes and perceptions towards HIV/AIDS. "Some of the women who were engaged in alcohol selling have changed to other business such as selling the Tanzania's women common cloth, Khanga, and others are trading in vegetables".

He said before Antonia had declared her status and had begun to conduct sensitization activities in the village people would stay in the bars until late drinking but today not only is alcohol becoming more difficult to get but there is a notable reduction in the practices which contribute to HIV infection," he said.

Antonia's commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS has gone beyond her village. Members of her organisation, MUTA, are often invited by Non Governmental Organisations fighting AIDS, private sectors, ministries, Tanzania AIDS Commission (TACAIDS), National AIDS Control Programme (NACP) and religious organizations to provide testimony to their experiences.

During the just ended 2003 Dar Es Salaam International Trade Fair, Antonia and other members from MUTA were engaged by TACAIDS, Walio Katika mapambano na Ukimwi Tanzania (WAMATA) - an NGO for HIV/AIDS affected and infected people to sensitise people who were visiting the trade fair grounds to go for VCT offered there free of charge by the institutions .

TACAIDS Director for Advocacy, Information Education and Communication, Suzan Maganga, admits that the involvement of people living with HIV in the fight against the pandemic has added dynamism to the struggle against AIDS.

She cites an example of VCTs conducted by TACAIDS at the trade fair which show that the number of people tested increased from 50 last year to 639 this year and the reason cited is that People Living with HIV/AIDS have played a major role in advocacy and counseling to the commissions clients this year compared to last year when they were not involved at all. She noted that during the fair 34 people tested positive, 21 of whom were married and 13 single.

Antonia's resolve to use media to spread her messages on HIV/AIDS and the stigmas attached with the disease have been relatively well received not only in the Tanzania Mainland but also in the Island-Zanzibar.

In Zanzibar Salma Jabir Hamad, 21, has initiated her own crusade against the disease. Also having tested positive she says this is the start of a long journey for her during which she cannot afford to languish in misery and self-pity. She would rather spend her time providing awareness to unfortunate people living with the virus. Salma says she was infected by her first boyfriend when she was 16.

Young people are admiring the role being played by the young women who have decided to say openly that they are living with the HIV virus. "One thing that strikes me about Salma and Antonia is that they are so jovial, charming and full of energy. A fast glance of them tells you how much potential they could have had in life," says Betty Oyugi, a Kenyan journalist working in the country. "They have taught me a lesson to carry back home," she adds.

The Head of Information and Communication in NACP, Dr Benet Fimbo agrees that people living with HIV/AIDS who are open about their HIV status demystify the myth that AIDS is a killer disease. "The way they are living positively and openly make other people understand that AIDS is no longer a killer disease," says Fimbo who has worked on HIV/AIDS issues for more that 10 years.

Antonia has just moved to Yombo Vituka ward, in Temeke , one of the most highly populated suburbs of the city. She says she has started on a small scale to implement what she did at Goba village and she has convinced her organization MUTA to put up a proposal which will enable them to embark on intensive community HIV/AIDS advocacy work in the district which could be used as a pilot to measure the impact of involving PHLA's in fighting AIDS in the country.

"I am optimistic this idea will get support especially from TACAIDS so that soon Yombo Vituka ward will becomes a Uganda of Tanzania where the country's citizens can see for themselves how PLHAs empower communities to further reduce HIV infection," she said. (ENDS/IPS/AF/EA/WL/AN/SM/03)

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