News / National
People living with HIV-Aids urge govt to give them land
10 Aug 2011 at 11:20hrs | Views
People living with HIV and Aids have urged the government to allocate them land so that they can start income generating projects and stop relying on donors, The Standard reported.
Stanley Takaona, the vice-president of the Zimbabwe HIV and Aids Activists Union (Zhaau) said the agriculture projects would help patients improve their nutrition.
"Most people weigh between 35 and 40kg when ill and they get admitted into NGOs' nutrition programmes where they are given food to boost their nutrition," Takaona said.
"But when one's weight improves to 60kg, they are told that their CD4 count is now fine and thus get weaned off from the nutritional programmes.
"We thus need land where we can toil and maintain good nutrition because there are no jobs in our country."
Some non-governmental organisations assist those on HIV treatment with cooking oil, groundnuts, peas and mealie-meal, among other food items.
Takaona was speaking at a Zhaau awareness campaign on positive living and anti-stigma and discrimination at Epworth's Overspill Shopping Centre.
Takaona, who tested positive in 1996, told the gathering that he had fallen ill in 2006 and his condition got so critical that his relatives thought he would soon die.
This, he said, encouraged him to join forces with other colleagues in 2006 to form Zhaau, which advocates for the rights of those infected and affected by HIV.
He said it was important for policy implementors and other stakeholders to include people living with HIV in all decision-making programmes if they were to succeed.
"You do not need a degree for you to understand how a pregnant person feels and you do not go to university for you to understand how it feels to be a widow," Takaona said.
"The same applies to HIV and Aids.
"I was once critically ill and I know what my ailing colleagues are going through and that is why we say 'nothing for us without us', but many people still find it difficult to respect that principle.
"We fight hard to be involved in various committees dealing with HIV and Aids issues and continue to fight hard to remain there."
He added that the stigmatisation of HIV-positive people was now very low in communities and among the general public but very high among HIV and Aids service organisations.
"Stigma is now very little among the people we live with in our communities but is still rife in service organisations," he said.
"They make you feel very uncomfortable because they know that we can do some of these things for ourselves and they are competing not only with us but with each other.
"We have lawyers, nurses, accountants and various other skills among us so we can do some of the things they do by ourselves."
Stanley Takaona, the vice-president of the Zimbabwe HIV and Aids Activists Union (Zhaau) said the agriculture projects would help patients improve their nutrition.
"Most people weigh between 35 and 40kg when ill and they get admitted into NGOs' nutrition programmes where they are given food to boost their nutrition," Takaona said.
"But when one's weight improves to 60kg, they are told that their CD4 count is now fine and thus get weaned off from the nutritional programmes.
"We thus need land where we can toil and maintain good nutrition because there are no jobs in our country."
Some non-governmental organisations assist those on HIV treatment with cooking oil, groundnuts, peas and mealie-meal, among other food items.
Takaona was speaking at a Zhaau awareness campaign on positive living and anti-stigma and discrimination at Epworth's Overspill Shopping Centre.
Takaona, who tested positive in 1996, told the gathering that he had fallen ill in 2006 and his condition got so critical that his relatives thought he would soon die.
This, he said, encouraged him to join forces with other colleagues in 2006 to form Zhaau, which advocates for the rights of those infected and affected by HIV.
"You do not need a degree for you to understand how a pregnant person feels and you do not go to university for you to understand how it feels to be a widow," Takaona said.
"The same applies to HIV and Aids.
"I was once critically ill and I know what my ailing colleagues are going through and that is why we say 'nothing for us without us', but many people still find it difficult to respect that principle.
"We fight hard to be involved in various committees dealing with HIV and Aids issues and continue to fight hard to remain there."
He added that the stigmatisation of HIV-positive people was now very low in communities and among the general public but very high among HIV and Aids service organisations.
"Stigma is now very little among the people we live with in our communities but is still rife in service organisations," he said.
"They make you feel very uncomfortable because they know that we can do some of these things for ourselves and they are competing not only with us but with each other.
"We have lawyers, nurses, accountants and various other skills among us so we can do some of the things they do by ourselves."
Source - The Standard
