HIV/AIDS

1. HIV/AIDS The Politics of Disease and Culture in Africa

2. What is culture? a system of interrelated values active enough to influence and condition perception, judgment, communication, and behavior in a given society

3. Culture and society play a role in sickness and healing Language plays an important role in the understanding of illness concepts One’s cultural belief system influences one’s social roles and relationships when one is ill Medical practice is a cultural production, particularly with respect to the focus on the body rather than the contexts that define and shape the body Why is it Important?

4. Culture and African contexts of HIV/AIDS prevention, care and support The Trouble with the ABC Approach

5. How it works • Abstain from Sex • Be Faithful to one uninfected partner • Condom use

6. shortcomings • relationships and expectations • cultural identity • cultural empowerment • A failure to recognize the role of the collective rather than that of the individual in health behavior

7. How do African cultures define theroles of persons and their expectations in family and community relationships? Personal actions are examined as functions of broader social cultural contexts. Relationships and expectations

8. Cultural empowerment • “Culture” is often represented as a barrier and “empowerment” as strength. • Culture as an instrument of empowerment? • Goal of cultural empowerment: Ensure that an intervention is developed with the idea of not only the bad in mind, but to also to promote the good and recognize the unique or even indifferent aspects of culture.

9. Cultural Identity The cultural identity domain helps determine the point of entry

10. Some Success Stories

11. TASO • THE AIDS SUPPORT ORGANIZATION

12. TASO founders reached very few people, but for each of the ones they reached, they made a difference in their lives.

13. TASO, HIV/AIDS and Poverty High levels of unemployment and an inadequate welfare system have led to widespread poverty, which renders people more vulnerable to contracting HIV

14. Major Factors • The daily struggle for survival overrides any concerns people living in poverty might have about HIV. • Strategies adopted by people made desperate by poverty, e.g. migration in search of work and “survival” sex-work, are conducive to the spread of HIV/AIDS. • People living in deprived communities where death through violence or disease is commonplace tend to become fatalistic • Poverty is generally associated with low levels of formal education and literacy. Knowledge about HIV and how to prevent it, is subsequently low in poor communities.

15. THE CYCLE OF POVERTY AND ILLNESS Poverty deepens A vicious cycle for poor people Vulnerability to disease increases Ability to protect against further economic losses decreases

16. How TASO Helps BREAK THE CYCLE OF POVERTY Education Poverty deepens A vicious cycle for poor people Vulnerability to disease increases Ability to protect against further economic losses decreases Medical Care Psychosocial Support