How gay Zimbabweans are fighting HIV

Posted on July 22, 2008
Filed Under Gay News Blog

“You’re the first caller I’ve had for a few days now,” Samuel Matsikure tells me from the GALZ health centre in Harare. The telephone lines in the city are working again after a 24-hour break in service, but despite the continuing poor line, Matsikure speaks in a bright, calm tone that belies his circumstances. “People are struggling with transport costs and things being so expensive, so they can’t come and see us.” He’s talking about some of the one in five Zimbabweans that are living with HIV-Aids and of those who seek to avoid infection. In a country with few jobs, scarce food and inflation upwards of 100,000 percent, even the cost of a bus ride can be a barrier to seeking help.

Economics, however, is not the only obstacle to seeking help for HIV-Aids in Zimbabwe. Despite an estimated 1.8 million people in the country living with HIV-Aids, stigma remains not only a significant obstacle to accessing treatment, but also a powerful force for dividing families and propagating conflict within communities. For the community served by Matsikure and his team at GALZ, however, stigma has always run deep. When Robert Mugabe threatened legal action against “sexual perverts” that he considered “lower than cats and dogs” in 1995, he was talking about GALZ’s community – the Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe.

“We have many challenges,” explains Matsikure, “but its not nearly as bad as it used to be in ’95 and ’96. Now we rarely hear of people getting gay bashed, it is more verbal abuse than physical abuse…and people are discussing the issue.” GALZ has played a significant part in this attitudinal shift by developing counselling for families that have become divided by an individual’s coming out or outing, and by providing ongoing advice for the individual that is the focus of the stigma.

The government has not shifted its position, however, which prevents GALZ from officially registering as a service provider. “This is not something they will want to accept,” explains Matsikure, his tone remaining calm, “because if they are to register us they have to recognise that we are in existence.” Given the difficulties in the mid-1990s, GALZ now operates at all times with caution. The tense political situation of the last few years, and particularly the uncertainty of the recent elections has put even more pressure on GALZ to remain invisible. Matsikure and his colleagues no longer invite their members to their offices for fear that the police will characterise their meetings as acts of political dissent, and they have dropped the advertisements for their services in local newspapers to minimise the possibility of a government backlash.

Trying to provide HIV-Aids services to a community that is either unaware of the service, or too poor or frightened to engage would appear an impossible task, particularly given that GALZ’s non-registration with the government puts public funds out of reach. “We have some donors,” explains Matsikure with an audible smile, “some good-hearted people, both locally and abroad. Some help us to fund our services, and some people come from abroad with unwanted ARV’s collected from their doctors.” As with all things in Zimbabwe, the cost of the anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs – crucial in slowing HIV’s effects on the body – are prohibitive for the majority of those in need, and without GALZ’s interventions a significant population would be without this crucial support.

How gay Zimbabweans are fighting HIV
guardian.co.uk, UK