WHAT WENT WRONG?

Dozens, if not most HIV/AIDS education campaigns are geared towards communicating messages of hope; love; prevention; care and support for the affected and inflected (including the general public). These preventative measures by themselves are a commendable strategy, considering the extent of the pandemic in our communities. The Africa continent is said to be experiencing one of the highest incidences of HIV/AIDS infection in the world. Fortunately though, all is not bleak and gloom, we have witnessed some phenomenon strides spearheaded by ordinary people on the ground to curb the spread of the AIDS infections.

In most instances, the people behind these philanthropic voluntary work lack facilities and don’t even have enough resources to sustain their projects. On the contrary these impediments do little to dissuade these AIDS activists. More than most they pursue their goals of arresting the exponential infections with verve and unsurpassed dedication. There is this unexplained inane spirit embedded within these AIDS activists that burns like a candle that burns itself to save the nations. To this day I still cannot fathom what makes these individuals to surge on.

Our neighbourhood boasts countless committed AIDS activists inspired by the ever-mushrooming legions of volunteers ready to educate their fellow countrymen and women. From this brigade emerges some of the most extraordinary counsellors, AIDS educators, care givers, health workers and promoters drawn from the ranks of the youth, the frail and pensioners, men of cloth and just about everybody from all walks of life.

To date, some donor funding and government resources have been availed to strengthened grassroots care and preventative interventions. Driving these campaigns are role players who propagate “a world free of AIDS” dictum. Essentially these AIDS ambassadors include work hand in hand with a network of various sectors: Non Governmental Organisations, People Living with HIV\AIDS. Business communities, media organisations, artists and musicians, local and national government, faith-based organizations and all strata of civil society. These structures have undoubtedly laid a solid foundation for all to know how to mitigate the spread of AIDS.

Ultimately all the gains achieved, put simply, need to be sustained. As with all challenges, there are of course other areas in need of exploring to the fullest. For instance the road we treading on, is exploding with innumerable dynamics. There is a worrisome tendency from others who still prefer to take the middle road. These are fellow travellers, travelling on the same plain as us, and have conveniently used culture to swerve from the main road.

Frankly speaking, the road does not get narrow; instead single individuals add their own lanes. As such there is so much convincing that still needs to be done, to make our road safe. The major challenge we face is to change the mindset that seems to demystify and leave stains of trepidations on others. On the surface, all looks well, whereas there is still more we can do to turn the tide in the fight against AIDS.

The test for everyone of us is to elicit a collective response from all concern. The biggest challenge facing all in the fight against AIDS is to involve all strata of the human family. In all honestly, more work has been done in the fight against AIDS. Yet daily we leave behind a critical mass in our interventions because once on the road we don’t want to look back. The tendency is to stay on course and convince oneself that its worth moving on. In everything you if it does not work change the strategy.

(Un)fortunately though, for some, our interventions unintentionally gloss over pertinent issues affecting certain segment of our society. This must be pointed out though; in most instances the oversight is not by design. One of the hindrances characterising our effort to effect maximum behaviour change in the frontier, is the fact that the terrain, don’t necessarily embrace all and sundry. Therefore it’s not easy to arrive at the gateway of influencing men if our approach short charges them.

For some strange reasons, all endeavours profiling HIV\AIDS have tended to steer clear of taking men in their fold. In reality, men tend to receive scant attention. The education dosage given to them is generally not sufficient. As a resultant we are unable to cure the ills and perceptions, which are ingratiated in their mindset.

To all intent and purposes it must be acknowledge from the onset that it defeats the mind: why comparably are men not given the same attention as women. From where I am seated there is no scientific conclusion to give one a clear-cut interpretation of this misdemeanour. Well some praise must be given to dozens upon dozens men who remain committed to the cause. But, in reality these men are minuscule compare to women participation in the area of work.

The trailblazers in the fight against AIDS are men who work tirelessly within the midst of women folks. Daily these activists confront AIDS working tirelessly and giving their all. These voices reverberate in churches, schools, taverns and everywhere to raise awareness. These men are intersperse; they are in the minority you could count them. The question is: where are other men? The levels of AIDS infection in our communities need many voices. We are not in need of lonesome baritone voices moving like shifting sand.

On the contrary though, daily one witnesses, how most advocacy campaigns churned out by different organizations simply omits to deal with a deluge of issues affecting men. This compelling scenario plays itself everywhere in our workplace, home, places of worship etc. A closer examination at men’s attitude around AIDS reveals a disturbing and yet interesting trend.

Most seem to believe they are infallible and are untouched by AIDS. Even to this day you still come across men who seem to believe they are immune and perceive AIDS as an epidemic that affects predominately women. Other men shrug off their responsibilities, because to them AIDS is inconsequential. A legacy of leaving men in the lurch has been left to manifest itself; this state of affairs overwhelms the mind.

This assumption gives rise to the lackadaisically and non-committal stance that envelopes men. Nonetheless, there are other factors though fuelling some hands off attitude from males. This is an attitude the rest of the world has grown accustomed to. Surely this preposterous culture cannot be allowed to continue. Currently, lots of arguments have been advance about the route to be taken to correct this scenario.

Quite interesting though, for some strange reasons, most campaign (un)wittingly focussed on women, children and youth. These groups are targeted with a wide range of messaging. Overall women are said to be the most vulnerable and susceptible to infections. The youth on the one hand we are told accounts for a sizeable number of those at risk of contracting HIV\AIDS. Children on the one hand are portrayed as voiceless souls who need our love and support, and we need to guide them. Men in this crusade are treated as outside players.

On there are no dialogue or campaign targeted at men species from where presence is pronounced in places like clubs, soccer matches and boys clubs. Even when sex workers are targeted, no effort is undertaken to talk to clients of these ladies of the night. In reality numerous men even when ill don’t consult the sector and continue to neglect their health purely because health facilities for years tailor made their services to cater for women. If men are incline to continue to embrace a unhealthy lifestyles, and engaging in unsafe sexual escapades, its because they feel they beyond reproach. Culture, with the patriarchal sentiment also adds to the confusion.

The question that comes to mind is – what campaigns are meant to talks directly to men while faced with these discrepancies?

Certainly, the world begs for a vehicle specifically tailored made for men. For a long time now – men have been robbed of an opportunity of sharing their experience on AIDS. On World AIDS Day and other AIDS calendar days the majority of individuals giving testimonials are mainly women. Considering this state of affairs, it is worth nothing that men are also key players in the AIDS epidemic.

How then do we hope to harness dedicated cadres from the ranks of men? Frankly we can do more to engage men as oppose to giving them condoms. The time-tested strategy of dishing condoms to men has run its own cause and needs to be examined. This strategy to a larger extent has left many male species oscillating and not knowing how to respond to the AIDS environment. We need to capacitate men in various ways.

Various education campaigns aimed at addressing men’s fears, aspiration and goals have yielded so little results. What we normally witness is a campaign that catches on a handful of men and later be left to haemorrhage. There has never been any move in any circles to capture and sustain men’s involvements in the fight against AIDS. Reality is, if we continue and foray leaving this essential group behind we will have ourselves to blame. Without any fail the incidents of AIDS infections will continue surge unabated.

It is common especially for men to shrug off their responsibility especially in situations where ground rules are set whilst they are not encourage to play their part. It is therefore easy for men to cushion themselves by thinking they have no role to play and can look the other way. If there is anything, there are indicators suggesting men have taken a high moral ground. This attitude is there for all to see.

Men have a tendency to blame their partners in the event of a girlfriend, spouse or live-in lovers testing positive. Haven’t we seen a groundswell of women with children thrown out of their dwelling for revealing their status to their partners? There are many anecdotes told by women who are subjected to untold misery for daring to talk openly about their status.

Several theories have been advance as to the braveness of women to live openly about their status. No one has dared to examine why are our brothers electing to be silence. No one can argue the fact that there are countless support groups, which are also the domain of women. To make matters worse at the helm of these organisations are women. Another look at the home based care initiatives reveal the same pattern. What gives rise to this scenario, one may ask? This question will be answered as we wrestle with this issue!

There are many compelling issues that men have to deal with around sexuality. The stage is now set to engage as many men in the trenches. What needs to be done to have a semblance of committed men fighting AIDS alongside women? Time is now to have a strong drive in the men folks. Denial about the existence of AIDS within the men sector has it root on some of the communications material relayed to date.

A closer look at some of the material makes for an interesting reading. Whenever statistics are bundle about, the means of extrapolating such figures and the size of the epidemic is through women attending antenatal clinics. This has sort of given men a measure of thinking they are not to worry. So women would go to the clinic and test on behalf of men. On the other hand the voluntary testing and counseling programme can offer an incredible opportunity for couple testing. But, is there an effort to do rapid test in cinemas to target lovers

In conclusion I suppose our intervention and education campaigns need to embrace and accommodate men. One has witnessed how willing and read are females to go the whole hog. The willingness is basically given impetus because there are plentiful project spearheaded by women. Arts and culture, is another powerful medium that can influence men folk to come to the fore and play their role. I will expand on this later.