K Sani
The sharp contrast in the synchrony of a young girl’s dulcet voice and a man’s husky voice numbed the cold silence of the night and the sporadic rain outside. “Life is worth living, and I can face tomorrow because He lives…..” The soulful song of the two distinct individuals, while touching hearts and provoking the tear ducts of their awed audience, temporarily transported the small audience to their world of Courage, Faith, and Hope. One of them has lived a better part of his life, and the other has just begun her life. There is very little similarity between them, but HIV had somehow wriggled its way into them.
After sharing a brief testimony of his struggle with rejection and insecurity, to finally find Courage, renewed and renewing Hope, to the people gathered, and especially to people like himself with HIV, Tokhugha Yepthomi officially released the documentary entitled “Living reality - stories of Hope and Courage” in the presence of bureaucrats, social activists, doctors, People Living With HIV, lawyers, media persons, musicians, business men and lay mans. Started in 2003, the NSACS funded documentary based on the lives of People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA), and compiled by ‘Morung for Indigenous Affairs and JustPeace’ culminated on the night of 8th April 06 in a small function at Hotel Japfii Ashok.
The release of the documentary signified the end of the documentary’s journey. But, not of the journey of the process which inspired it – to draw strength and courage from PLHAs, while bringing home to the people about the happenings in the society and to evoke more positive responses from our people towards an HIV free and PLHA friendly society – as Dr Kumuni, the Project Director of NSACS pointed out. The documentary, despite its shortcomings, brings into focus, our human instinct to face challenges and to go on, regardless of how deep we may have sunk, or is made to believe so. It brings out the fact that HIV, indeed, has no regard for who we are or even what we are; ironically it is us that discriminate. But the underlying message is clear; it is about people facing life with courage with hopes of leading a normal life.
HIV/AIDS is borderless, with no country or individual beyond its reach. HIV/AIDS was, is, and will always be a challenge that confronts all sections of the society. Besides others, AIDS is a symptom of weak/limited health services, and prevalence of stigma and discrimination in a society.
Health seeking behaviors are obstructed by Stigmatization and discrimination and thus early diagnosis of HIV and treatment is still a far cry from reality. This has been fuelled significantly by the fear about living publicly with the virus. And this fear is very real because of the prospect of job discrimination, loss of benefits, and ostracism, leading to increased psychological suffering for individuals and families. For those living with HIV/AIDS, access to adequate support, care, and treatment remains a central issue: many have experienced discrimination in receiving care, or find it difficult, if not impossible, to access the available treatments. A system for easy access to treatment, and effective monitoring mechanisms is thus a prerogative in effective treatment and adherence to treatment.
The stigmatization resulting in the marginalization and discrimination of commercial sex workers, gay and bisexual men, and intravenous drug users that characterized the early response to HIV helped the virus to spread rapidly within these vulnerable groups, and consequently within the general community. Many have died in silence, many are silent, and many more are being forced to remain silent. However, a certain amount can be achieved through the legal process in overcoming the stigma and discrimination attached to HIV/AIDS and the People living with HIV/AIDS. Thus, People Living with HIV/AIDS lacking knowledge of their rights in society need to be educated and empowered, so that they are able to challenge the discrimination meted. As such, formation of monitoring mechanisms that can enforce the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS can be quite helpful, in providing some means of mitigating the worst effects of discrimination.
Fortunately we are now moving towards a paradigm shift, and thus need to push even harder, towards creating enabling environments for them (vulnerable groups and PLHA) with the objective to empower them enough to make them visibly start demanding their own rights (be it treatment or against discrimination); and all the while, making them aware of their crucial duty in maintaining responsible behaviors. We therefore need to re-check and re-define our restraining moral/traditional principles and antagonistic laws to make them complementary to the process of preventing HIV from further penetrating our society.
But in the long run, No policy, or No law, or No outside effort alone can provide solution in the endeavor to prevent the spread and ill effects of HIV/AIDS. The most viable solution will emerge and take shape when the people living with HIV/AIDS come together on a common platform; to seek, to lobby, and to demand for those things rightfully theirs’, besides being responsible enough in not spreading the virus. “An HIV+ person is not the problem but a part of the solution”, these words spoken by Tokhuga Yepthomi while concluding his speech, touches the core of the issue. And these words got etched in my mind even while Tali’s husky voice and Sentila’s dulcet voice continued singing in my heart long after the song and the music ended. The night that saw the release of “Living reality – stories of Courage and Hope” was and will be, for me, a night signifying Courage and Hope; Courage and Hope that I earnestly hope, will snowball...
