AIDS IN AFRICA

Care for caregivers

Zimbabwe has one of the highest adult HIV/Aids prevalence in the world at 34 percent, second after Botswana with 36 percent. Together with poverty, Aids is one of the greatest challenges that Zimbabwe is facing. This resulted in the formulation of a National Aids Policy in 1999 and community home-based care policy in 2001, with Zimbabwe becoming the only African country to respond comprehensively to the deadly pandemic. While the concept of home-based care lessens the burden on medical institutions and pressure on the scanty health professionals, this has increased the burden on women, girls and grandmothers, particularly in the rural areas. They are known as the unpaid “home-based carers”.

Zimbabwe has over 40 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) dealing with HIV and Aids and if these were divided equally amongst the provinces, the result would be an improved provision of home care services. But most of these NGOs are in Harare and yet it is a fact that the majority of the people afflicted by the illness are condemned to the rural areas as soon as it becomes evident that they will no longer be able to fend for themselves. The recent demonstration by people living with HIV and Aids for more resources should be taken seriously. There is need for speedy disbursement of these funds to intended beneficiaries because the pain suffered by home carers and their patients living with Aids is indescribable. People living with HIV and Aids require a good and healthy diet to complement the anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) they would be taking. But some NGOs, which ironically are run by women who fully understand these concerns, are not well co-ordinated or monitored. Most caregivers do not have protective clothing and detergents to prevent transmission and yet we have seen an increased figure in orphaned children who would have cared for both Aids-stricken parents.

It is imperative that the Government sets a standard care and medical kit for home-based caregivers as they risk infection or re-infection through caring for a patient. Unconfirmed reports say that some elderly people are known to have contracted Aids through caring for their adult children. The sad thing about home care is that it is a woman's problem as there is no payment for their services. Member of Parliament for Rushinga Cde Lazarus Dokora defended this belief by noting that caring for the sick by women was part of the country's culture. But what is so cultural about having a girl leave school in order to take care of a sick mother or father? And is it cultural for a woman who is already burdened with household chores to double up as a caregiver?

Why we should care about caregivers may sound like a new issue, but for millions of women and young girls in Southern Africa facing serious challenges of HIV and having to shoulder the burden of care, this is definitely not a new experience. Unpaid care work is a major contributory factor to gender inequality and poverty. The assumption that unpaid work is elastic and valueless is a cause for concern to women. There is need for research to focus on home-based care so that it can provide concrete evidence of the situation and how Government budgeting processes can take the needs of women and communities into account. It is immoral to cut costs by encouraging home care and at the same time not use the funds saved on hospital care to further finance home care, which is still cheaper. If done properly, with adequate back-up, home care is a good and noble concept, but dumping people in their homes in the name of home-based care goes against the traditional role of any government.

Perhaps what the Government should be working on is to find ways of ensuring that the infected remain on constant ARV supply so that they stay alive longer to see their children into adulthood.

8 October 2004

 

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