African women are at risk of HIV due to poverty

• Elena van Gelder

  correspondent Africa

• Saskia Houttuin

  correspondent Africa

How do you ensure that fewer young women are infected with the HIV virus? In Africa, where the number of infections is still rising in some countries, women are trying to reverse the trend by all means.

On World AIDS Day, NOS spoke to so-called changemakers in Mali, Kenya and South Africa. “Fiancés we need to take more responsibility.”

Worldwide, more than twenty million girls and women are living with HIV. In a recent report the United Nations warns that 4,900 teenage girls and young women are infected each week, 82 per cent of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa. On the African continent, adolescent girls and young women are three times more likely to contract HIV than their male peers.

“In many countries, men are still dominant and there are unequal power relations,” says the activist Said Brown. The 27-year-old South African was born with HIV, but she only discovered it as a teenager. “If the man doesn’t want to use contraceptives, you don’t have much to say. There’s also a lot of sexual violence here.”

This too has everything to do with poverty, says Brown: “In South Africa many young women have relationships with older men who buy things for them. It is often assumed that these are girls with by Sugar Daddy, who want a luxurious lifestyle. But this also applies to young women who need 1.50 euros to buy bread. Even then it is difficult for the woman to make demands.”

The situation is similar in Kenya, says Lucy Njenga van Positive voices of young women. She founded this organization after she herself was infected with HIV ten years ago. Her goal is to warn Kenyan women about the dangers.

Teenage girls in slums are particularly at risk, Njenga says. Nearly a hundred Kenyan girls aged 10 to 19 are infected with the virus every week. “A horrible number,” says Njenga. As in South Africa, sex means an escape from poverty for many girls. “Sometimes it goes so far they already do it for a pack of pads.”

Furthermore, Kenya suffers from a shortage of condoms. Where these were previously distributed free of charge in pharmacies and hospitals, various sponsors have withdrawn in recent years. Health organizations warn that this could lead to an increase in teenage pregnancies and HIV infections.

“Let’s not forget about the lack of information, either,” Njenga says. “There are still a lot of misconceptions about how you get HIV and what the dangers are. Many people think that HIV is no longer such a big problem, because you can be treated and live with it. teenage pregnancy, which is why some girls may choose birth control but not condoms.”

Lack of information is also a major problem in Mali in West Africa. Adam Yattassaye, who works for the organization ARCAD-SIDA, sees that conservative influences also play a role. “For example, we see a lot of girls end up in polygamous marriages,” he says. “These are marriages with relationships between different generations, there is little talk of sexuality”.

The taboo surrounding sex in Mali makes it difficult for girls to understand the risks. This also applies to young sex workers, who increasingly flock to the gold mines. “14, 15-year-old girls,” says Attassaye. “Sometimes they sell their bodies to a man, sometimes to groups of miners. This is really something of the last few years. When we researched a mining region in 2018, we found extremely high HIV positivity.”

According to South African Saidy Brown, young women in her country are increasingly learning to protect themselves. “I’m asked regularly about PrEP, a daily pill you take to prevent HIV infection. But it’s not readily available. South Africa is starting a pilot project with a PrEP injection you take every two months, that would be a really big problem here. breakthrough,” says Brown.

In Mali and Kenya, organizations are focusing on a different priority: talk, talk, talk. “Not just with girls,” says Lucy Njenga from Kenya. “Parents need to be included too. Many think their daughter wouldn’t go out on the street to have sex so quickly. We often have to explain that it’s a real risk. fiancés. They also need to understand that they have a responsibility and that they are also at risk.”