MUTARE-Out of the screeching noises made by passing vehicles and street vendors shouting in rowdy conversations, emanates a tired, painful and sorrowful rhythmic tone that has become a permanent feature at every street corner.
Kupa kunemufaro/ kunokunda kugamuchira,is a song by 32 year old Unice Magariro (not her real name). The song is taken from a biblical verse that says giving with love is greater than receiving.
Magariro is usually accompanied by her child Tanaka (5) who continuously extends her plate to passersby for donations.
Magariro has been begging on the streets ever since she was abandoned by her relatives due to her visual disabilities soon after the death of her parents in a car accident.
She said she gave birth to Tanaka after she was raped as she loitered alone at night. However, Tanaka has been a gift from God, she said. At first I couldnt deal with the pregnancy but now she has become my eyes and my companion, said Magariro.
However, despite being exposed to the risk of contracting the dreaded HIV virus every night from potential rapists, her daughter may even miss her education because she does not have a birth certificate.
Magariros case epitomizes the disadvantages faced by people living with disabilities who constitute 1,3 million people.
The National AIDS Council (NAC) chief executive officer, Tapuwa Magure admitted that the current Zimbabwe National Aids Strategic Plan (ZINASP) does not cover the Most at Risk Populations (MARPS), in which blind people fall.
However, the National Association of Societies for the Care of the Handicapped (NASCOH) executive director Farai Mukuta bemoaned that up to date, no research had been conducted to establish the number of disabled people who were HIV positive and those in need of the life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs.
Most visually impaired people living on the streets are seen in the company of their children. The number of the children is increasing by the day, a sign that they are engaging in unprotected sex thereby exposing themselves and their children to HIV and Aids, said Mukuta.
Activists and human rights groups have been calling on the government through the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, to use part of the Aids levy to formulate brochures and booklets in Braille, if the country is to have a sound HIV prevention strategic plan.
We cannot talk of a solid HIV prevention strategy when people living with disabilities are not covered and expect the HIV prevalence rate to decline. The parent health ministry should devise on establishing a system with a bias towards those with disabilities. There is need of HIV informative booklets, a massive campaign to urge all the visually impaired people living in the streets to undergo HIV counselling and testing. These groups like any other normal human beings are sexually active, said Tonderai Mureza, an activist for people living with disabilities.
It is also imperative to note that this group is vulnerable to the pandemic due to various cultural myths. It is believed that if someone living with HIV sleeps with a person with disabilities, the disease will be cured.
Policy irregularities Article 25 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities says that governments should provide persons with disabilities free or affordable health care and offer them programmes in sexual and reproductive health.
However, the Disabled Persons Act, a piece of legislation that was crafted by the government remains largely underutilized while the disabled continue to be marginalized.
Post published in: News