Written by: Archana Lingendran (Ryerson University, Bachelors of Social Work)
For my international placement I went to Ghana, which is located on the west coast of Africa. During my stay, I worked for a non-profit organization called the Sankofa Center for African Dance and Culture (S.C.A.D.C). “Sankofa” is an ancient African proverb characterized by a bird looking back on its past. It asks people to revisit their past in order to correct the mistakes that may affect their future. The organizations objective is to teach preventative education to the rural and urban population about HIV/AIDS through traditional African dance, music, and theatre. The program also provides free counselling, HIV/AIDS testing and is aiming to provide free drugs for people living with HIV/AIDS. S.C.A.D.C works to encourage open communication, give accurate information, and promote healthy behavioural change. In Ghana, HIV/AIDS is not a topic that is openly discussed and is quite taboo. Through the various forms of art used in the program, HIV/AIDS is discussed openly in a culturally relevant context bringing HIV/AIDS out of the closet. Dance and dramas provide a successful way to have open conversation about HIV/AIDS issues such as safer sex practices, ways of transmitting HIV/AIDS, tolerance of persons living with HIV/AIDS, enhancement of women’s role in sexual health, and exposing the social and economic factors involved in daily Ghanaian life.
My placement at S.C.A.D.C allowed me to witness extreme poverty and its consequences on the nation. The number of people living with HIV is rising, in the year 2007 there were thirty-three million people infected by HIV (United Nations, 2008). Many factors make Africa particularly susceptible to AIDS, some of them innate to the communities where the disease flourished, and many others imposed from outside. The key factor is poverty. Put simply, millions of Africans are living with HIV that they might easily have been protected if they had access to education, or to the means of defending themselves. At the same time, their lack of resources led them to do things, such as, to sell sex, to stay with a philandering husband, to leave their families to seek work far away in which they might not otherwise have done. These factors mentioned increase the spread of HIV/AIDS. The massive international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary fund have African nations in continuous debt which makes it harder to have treatment available to combat HIV/AIDS due to the lack of funds available. The pandemic amplifies the damage because it targets the young, productive generation. AIDS robs African countries of the people who grow the food and work in the factories and teach in the schools. It makes existing epidemics of tuberculosis and malaria a thousand fold more lethal. AIDS is stealing away the hard-won gains of the past couple of decades, lowering school enrolments, productivity levels, life expectancies, child survival rates and economic growth. There are many cultural and political reasons why the spread of HIV/AIDS is so devastating in Africa. As the prevalence rate is rising, the number of women infected by HIV/AIDS is also increasing. The response to the pandemic remains muted. Few people outside of Africa seem to understand the scale or the epic gravity of what is happening in the nation. Many individuals have feelings of hopelessness when it comes to the pandemic of HIV/AIDS in Africa, but there are many successful stories as well. For instance, in Ghana the prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS is four percent, which is much lower compared to the other African nations (The Sankofa Center, 2008). Also in comparison, the HIV prevalence rate for Canada was 0.3% in the year 2005 (World Health Organization, 2010). By continuing to take preventative measures Ghana and other African nations can have lower HIV/AIDS prevalence rates that are similar to North American and European countries.
Working at S.C.A.D.C allowed me to commit to HIV/AIDS outreach within the education system as well as in the villages. Through my placement I learnt to inform the population with facts about HIV/AIDS, provide preventative measures; such as condom distribution, and HIV/AIDS test. Informing the individuals in Ghana about HIV/AIDS creates a ripple effect, meaning that if at least one person understands the message they can spread the word to others, therefore, increasing the awareness. Educating the younger population has a great advantage because these are the children that will become the productive population, which in turn, can increase the economy of Ghana. Also, more generations will have a better understanding of HIV/AIDS and can make better decisions. Most often people with HIV/AIDS do not survive other diseases that are common to Ghana because their immune system is weakened by the deadly HIV infection, therefore, making malaria, tuberculosis, and other diseases lethal. Providing the drugs can enhance ones quality of life dramatically which has many positive effects. For example, individuals living with HIV/AIDS can successfully be productive in society by being able to maintain a job, which can lessen the struggles of poverty. Poverty and HIV/AIDS are interconnected because people living with the infection have difficulties producing income which has many negative outcomes, such as drops in school enrolments for children, food supply, and being unable to purchase medication. HIV/AIDS pushes the poor into further poverty with little hope. By combating HIV/AIDS we are also combating poverty.
While living in Ghana I lived among the poverished in the town of Dome. Ghana is a very religious and patriarchal community, much like Sri Lanka. The victims of HIV/AIDS are often blamed by religious leaders who are ignorant to the facts of poverty. The corruption of the government also has a huge impact on the poverty because funds are not distributed to the citizens but are pocketed by the authorities. The women in Ghana often did not have access to the same rights as men and had fewer opportunities to succeed in life. The poverty in Ghana was very detrimental on the lives of women because often they were the ones not sent to school and were forced to work on the streets selling in order to have the basic necessities of life. Going to Ghana has made me realize how much people take things for granted in the Western world. During the HIV/AIDS testing in the villages, many people were diagnosed as HIV positive which was a heart breaking shock for me. There were women and children who tested positive at such young ages. Some were scared but the majority took it as another setback in life. Due to poverty, many people do not expect much from life and are not that devastated when they find out they are HIV positive. Many people die from diseases such as TB or malaria, therefore, this is just another reality for them. I hope one day that poverty is eradicated. Poverty has many consequences to the lives of many. The Sankofa Center is working to provide medication and transportation to clinics for those who test positive in the near future. The program coordinator, Ronnie Shaw is working towards this goal by selling products made by HIV positive individuals. The website for the Sankofa Center is www.thesankofacenter.org.
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