Give a gift to support AngliCORD's overseas relief and development work.The challenge
The reasons Lesotho has a high rate of HIV infection are many and varied. With a national unemployment rate of 49% and 56% of the population living on less than US$ 2 a day, Lesotho is one of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable nations. For this reason a high percentage of men leave Lesotho each year to work in the mines of South Africa. While away from home they engage in sex outside of marriage, putting their wives and communities at risk when they return home.
However, this is not the only factor. Due to its remote, highland location, the Mantsonyane Health District is more traditional than the lowland regions.
Within the family structure men still own their wives and make all family decisions. Wives have little or no say in regards to sex or family planning which puts them at risk of HIV infection. Polygamy and wife inheritance is practiced. Traditional scarification, ritual blade shaving at funerals and mass circumcision rituals are also widely practiced. Cultural behaviours involving multiple sex partners and initiation ceremonies are common. These behaviours are all contributors to HIV transmission.
AIDS-related conditions have become the main reason for admission to hospital and also the main cause of death in Mantsonyane. While community attitudes to people living with HIV and AIDS is generally accepting, the typical stereotype is of a ‘sick’ person who goes into a state of depression after testing, deteriorates and dies fairly quickly.
It is not the experience of locals to know a ‘healthy’ HIV positive person. This experience is not conducive to behaviour change or voluntary counselling or testing. Rather there is an entrenched climate of fear, denial, fatalism and helplessness within the community and even among some hospital staff.
Our united response
Anglicord and St James Mission Hospital have been partnering to reduce the transmission of HIV in Mantsonyane since 2003. The project aims to:
- Reduce transmission rates by shifting from ABC (abstinence, being faithful and condoms) to SAVE (safer practices, the availability of anti-retroviral medication, voluntary testing and empowerment through education). The SAVE approach is needed due to the already high prevalence rate of HIV infection.
- Improve focus on hard to reach groups, including herd boys and initiation schools and focus more on men and male behaviour generally.
- Enhance support groups for people living with HIV and AIDS with more emphasis on income generating activities, home-based gardening and chicken rearing, financial independence and self-esteem.
Program progress
Voluntary testing programs and awareness-raising of the more isolated areas. Recently the remote Seteke, Motsoanakaba and Motau were visited to provide counselling and testing for villagers. Of 81 men tested, three tested positive. Of 154 women tested, four tested positive.
Both men and women are responding favourably to the availability of improved services. Where mothers are testing positive they are being counselled and supported to ensure they don’t transmit the virus to their babies. Additionally, strategies are being developed to target groups known to be high risk including business men, taxi drivers, road workers and herd boys.
Workshops for support groups and traditional healers are being held across the 10 health centres. They are both well attended and participants are demonstrating improved
knowledge and understanding about the causes of HIV transmission, how to prevent transmission and how to improve health outcomes for infected community members.
At a glance
| Project partner: | St James Mission Hospital, Anglican Diocese of Lesotho |
| Location: |
Mantsonyane Health Area, District of Thaba Tseka |
| Target populations: | 20,100 |
| Partnership began: | 1992 |
| Start date (current phase): | July 2008 |
| Anglicord target (2010/11): | $20,323 |
Donate today
Make a donation to support Anglicord's response to HIV and AIDS in Lesotho.