Did the "Miss HIV Stigma Free" actually help Botswana?, page 1

More than a year ago, Botswanna held a pagent for aids patients by aids patients, as Botswanna has the highest infection rate out of thoe tested. Yet, people are being treated as second class citizens based on whether they have the disease, and many refuse to get tested. The pagent's point is to show that AIDS patients can be healthy, even beautiful while being subjected to this disease. The biggest question is whether something like this would work.

lifestyle.iafrica.com
Miss HIV fights stigma, ignorance
Posted Thu, 28 Oct 2004

Meet Kgalalelo Ntsepe, a soft-spoken former nanny with a flashy smile and short-cropped hair who last year beat 13 other women to be crowned Miss HIV Stigma Free in Botswana.
....
In 2002, Botswana became the first country in Africa to offer free life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs. A little over 21 000 people are now enrolled in the 23 sites of the "Masa" ARV program — which means New Dawn in the Setswana language — and nine more clinics are due to open soon.
....
Ditsebe-Mhone contends that attitudes are not changing quickly enough and that men are reluctant to go for testing or take ARVs, leaving women to carry most of the burden of leading the fight against Aids.

"The message is not penetrating — there is no breakthrough. The infection rate is not going down," she says.

Please visit the link provided for the complete story.

This pagent was useful, yet it was not. Yes, it can show those who fear AIDS that they are mistreating those with the disease. It can show them that the effect of finding out that you have it before the disease before it kills you is a good thing, but it does nothing to stem the tide of infection in this country. Botswana has many other issues that they need to tackle before this will help. The president of Botswana contributes it to the following:"a combination of factors, which include economic power imbalances, lack of empowerment, insufficient access to information and services; and socio-cultural barriers, such as gender inequality and gender-based violence." He goes on to mention rape and other violence form both old and young males as another reason for the infection rate in women. (ref: SL 1)

To me, this was the least useful way to tackle the whole of the problem, but it was better than no action at all.

Sidenote: This is just now starting to ciculate American papers. This does not bode well for worldwide recognition of the AIDS "pandemic." (ref: SL 3)

Related News Links:
www.afrol.com
www.irinnews.org
www.t hestar.com

Related AboveTopSecret.com Discussion Threads:
SCI/TECH: "Positive" Results for Anti-Aids Pill
NEWS: India Begins AIDS Vaccine Trials on Humans
HIV/AIDS Conspiracy

[edit on 28-2-2005 by John bull 1]