Mary Sandasi, who has been working with women living positively since the 1980s, said death in the community pushed her into HIV/AIDS activism.
“People were dying in my community but the problem was that AIDS was a hushed subject, people just whispered about it back then. Women were very ignorant as they thought it was a disease that was just found in the beer halls – but the disease was now in the home,” said Sandasi.
A teacher by profession, she began to find ways of equipping women in her community with information about the silent killer.
“Women absolutely had no idea of their rights and how they could protect themselves. This was made worse by the fact that most Zimbabwean women have limited control when it comes to sexuality in the marriage,” she added.
She was ostracised mainly for trying to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, but she persevered I the fact of hostility. “My heart was really troubled because couples would only get to know about their status because of a sick child,” she said. In 1989 Sandasi joined WASN and became highly active in providing women with information.
“I joined WASN as a research assistant and worked in Gokwe – a fast growing growth point where there was a high rate of sexual transmitted infections,” she said. In 2003 she became director.
“The problem today is that women are forced to stay married to men who are unfaithful because they have no economic independence,” she said. The organisation is also targeting schoolgirls because it is best to empower them with knowledge at an early stage.
“We have been engaging the society because men worry about which woman would have infected them instead of feeling awful about infecting other women. We are moving in rural areas talking to women about HIV and its precaution. We feel that the women in rural areas are marginalized when it comes to this issue,” added Sandasi.
Women living with HIV/AIDS still face severe social discrimination. “We dealt with an issue recently where a 36-year-old woman who was tested positive. When her in-laws got to know about it, they forced her to move out of the house,” she said.
Post published in: News