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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 1987)
Whoever met a T-cell on the street? Zimbabweans insure their future with a widely accessible campaign to prevent the spread o f AIDS. “ We hand out straightforward information says Ministry o f Health spokeswoman. ’ Massive mail response to the program has piled bundles o f letters in the Health Education Department office in Harare. “ Listeners misinterpret what they hear on the n 3 July, 1987. as the American public radio. We read and answer letters on the air and launched their Independence Day others, with the same question, are satisfied." fandango, the Ministry of Health in Zimbabwe the spokeswoman said. kicked off an event of far-reaching consequences Detailed AIDS literature is sent in response The Ministry’s Health Education Department to each letter not aired on the radjo. created a five-prong nationwide AIDS aware The Health Education Department creates ness campaign. According to a Health Educa and distributes a series o f 2' X 4 ' AIDS posters. tion Department spokeswoman, her office be In all comers of Zimbabwe, these can be seen gan with a survey to find out what the commu strategically plastered on the walls of govern nity knows about AIDS. and based on findings, ment buildings, clinics, movie theatres, provides missing information. churches, schools, police stations, bus stations, “ We started out with a pamphlet for health beer halls, on telephone poles and sign posts, personnel and found it to be too technical. Who Here is just a sampling of the more hard ever met a T-cell on the street? Now we hand hitting poster slogans: out straightforward information,” she said. ' AIDS has no cure Don't help to spread Zimbabwe Broadcasting Company (ZBC) AIDS. Choose your partner carefully.” airs a weekly AIDS panel discussion by doctors “ Beware! Your next sexual partner could fee and other health professionals as well as broad that very special person, the one that gives you casting AIDS spots every evening at 6:45. The AIDS.“ most popular and effective depicts anemaciated And yet another poster depicts two women man lying in a hospital bed as a voice implores. waiting in a dark alley. It reads: “ AIDS kills. "A ID S It attacks all races and classes. Avoid Avoid multiple partners. Always insist on using casual sex ” condoms*’’ Twice weekly. Zimbabwe Radio No. 3 airs a The creators o f these posters do not mince call-in program. “ AIDS and You.” The usual words and distribute them in English and the format follows an interview with doctors on two major languages. Shona and Ndebele. certain topics not limited to blood transfusions. “ We didn't have time to test these lposters] AIDS in children and symptoms and prevention as prototypes. We borrowed partial slogans o f the virus in adults. from Uganda and other countries we share in Listeners jam telephone lines asking ques formation with. There is no time to spare— the tions on the air. word must get out,“ a spokeswoman said. B Y D O R I S O W I S H E R Lastly, the Health Education Department writes a short, concise Ministry of Health infor mation message for national distribution in the Harare Herald. The messages always begin with a hideous picture of a skull and crossbones — with one minor update. One of the bones is a syringe. Each message clearly states the bare truth about AIDS, especially prevention, trans mission and. o f course, certain death from infection. An excerpt. “ We are fortunate in Zimbabwe in that blood used from the Transfusion Service is screened prior to use. In fact, we were the third country in the world to carry out routine testing o f every single pint of blood donated. This test is carried out at every donation.“ For an emerging nation like Zimbabwe, the financial expense of this action only proves the sincerity o f Prime Minister Mugabe’s anti-AIDS policies. Returning to the questions Zimbabweans pose to the Health Education Department in the mails, it seems people did not know the differ ence between AIDS and cancer. Another common refrain centered on prosti tutes and prostitution causing AIDS. The Health Education Department has their work cut out for them in trying to clear prostitution, the planet ’s oldest controversial profession, as the stile transmitter o f AIDS . Many letters revealed a mixed attitude about the use o f condoms. One testified that using condoms is like sucking sweets before remov ing the plastic wrapper Another letter writer admitted not knowing how to use a condom. Several comments support the thought that AIDS was brought into Zimbabwe by foreigners. To expose the enormity of the misinformation problem, an American medical researcher in Zaka district in Masvingo province in the south of Zimbabwe was approached one dusty after noon by two grade school teachers in their 20s. Her lab coat ripped them off as to her assumed medical expertise. They politely inquired about “ the dreaded disease.” The bolder o f the two asked, “ Is it true that AIDS is an American invention to keep Afri cans from having sex and not populating our continent? Nonplussed, the researcher stared at him in disbelief and finally replied. “ Americans are trying to invent a cure. We did not invent the disease." In the same vein, letters expressed a desire for mandatory blood testing or screening at the airport. This attitude is reminiscent of the American Midwest during the dust bowl ’30s when Gypsy caravans were met at the outskirts o f town and intimidated away. Further, misinformed responders produced inquiriles on transmission. People felt they could acquire AIDS by sleeping on carriers’ bed sheets. The Zimbabwean drinking tradition of sipping a beer from a mug with a fellow beer drinker was posed as a feared transmitter. At the same time, people detailed their fears o f shak ing hands with a stranger, new friend or mere acquaintance. Common among the inquiries was the need to know how to identify an AIDS infected indi vidual on the street. And along with this, came volumes o f inquiries about symptoms. The ma jority o f these letters revealed panic in the hearts and minds o f folks with a single perceived symptom. “ People vacillate between fear and apprecia tion over the information we send in response. They want us to set the record straight yet argue w ith our position of fact when we do,” said a Health Education Department spokesman. What it all boils down to is Zimbabweans craving information as to whether they have AIDS or not and the Health Education Depart ment satisfying this craving. On the provincial level, all eight provinces initiated AIDS awareness campaigns inccxirdi- nation with the Ministry of Health. Workshops, town meetings, parades and mass media coordi nation fill out the action plan. A hopeful result is the involvement o f the Youth Advisory Board in schools These Boards o f pupils disseminate information pertaining to AIDS-related preven tion issues like combining condoms in Family Planning (a non-governmental nationwide program) and Sexually Transmitted Disease. Zimbabwe's AIDS campaign received US $850.000from the United States Agency fo r International Development. One project will fund printing o f thousands o f pamphlets in three languages fo r the Health Education Department. Photo Images b\ Doris Wisher Photo Montage Illustrations Jt Cover Design by E.Ann Hinds Just Out • 14 • Ocu>bef. 19*7