He went home and pondered if it was possible to take Jeremiah (his partner) to the clinic. He imagined what reaction the gay couple would get from health care workers. “I did not have the guts to take Jeremiah to the clinic because I knew what would happen to us .The society we live in is so homophobic and I could not dare try returning the same clinic,” he said.
“It took me four months to get treatment – after I was privately introduced to a certain male nurse who works at Parirenyatwa hospital. The nurse then visited my place where he administered the medication on both of us. If it had not been for his generosity, I do not know what would have happened to me,” said Dimingo in a recent interview.
Access to health
For a long time, key populations that include sex workers, prisoners, gays and lesbians, have complained that they are being left out of health programmes – despite the country’s laws stating that access to health care services is a right for all citizens.
The national health policy clearly states that there must be a special priority for marginalised populations in all health programmes. But this is not happening on the ground because of the politics surrounding some key populations – particularly the gay community. Zimbabwe has an estimated 1.3 million people who are living with HIV-AIDS, with at least half of them being on ARV treatment. HIV prevalence has been reduced from over 27% in 1997 to 15%.
But more efforts are required in educating health care workers and society in general about the need to avoid stigmatising sufferers. Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe GALZ director Chesterfield Samba recently told The Zimbabwean that their members were forced to visit other countries for health care when they contracted Sexually Transmitted Infections because of the stigma and discrimination they faced at health care centres in their home country.
Not interested
Former deputy Health Minister Dr Paul Chimedza said in December that the government was not interested in hearing about the gay community issues. He was responding to complaints raised by GALZ that they were afraid of publicising the results of research they conducted last year, detailing challenges they were facing in accessing health care services in public health institutions.
Chimedza said hospitals were not interested in knowing the sexual orientation of those seeking medical attention.
The Global Fund, a key donor to HIV and AIDS work in Zimbabwe and around the world, said one thing they expect from all countries they help is that marginalised populations receive priority in regard to health programmes. The French Ambassador for HIV/Aids, TB, Malaria and transmittable diseases, Philippe Meunier, who was in the country for a health programmes’ assessment, told The Zimbabwean last week that the inclusion of key populations in health programmes would increase the country’s chances of accessing funding to support its efforts to eliminate the pandemic.
Key priority
“It is a key priority that what we want to reach out to the marginalised populations. If we do not do it we won’t be efficient. It is also a question of investing in human health so it is really a high priority,” the western diplomat said.
“The question is equal access to health and this means we must have a level playing field. We cannot have stigma, discrimination and things like that. We mean normal access to health.” But government of late seems to have realised that for the country to reduce new HIV infections they need to involve everyone in the fight against the pandemic.
Dr Owen Mugurungi, the head of HIV and AIDS and TB unit in the Ministry of Health and Child Care, said government was going to introduce some programmes targeted at these key populations.
“We might deny that there are men that have sex with men but we know that with men in confined spaces specifically in prisons and others that thing does happen .So we need to work together with Prison authorities and others to see how we can do that,” said Mugurungi.
Don’t politicise
This development was welcomed by GALZ. Samba said government was now realising that health issues should not be politicised.
“This is what we have been saying all along – that AIDS programmes should not be politicised because health knows no politics and we applaud the Health Ministry for ensuring health for all,” said Samba in a recent interview.
“This programming should address issues of stigma and discrimination which have been a major problem. The response should also address the structural and programmatic barriers that not only prevent the prisoners from accessing services that address their health care needs including access to information that is relevant but also the LGBTI community,” he said.
Ambassador Meunier said there were other countries in Africa that have special health programmes for key populations, which Zimbabwe could learn from.
Doing well
“As you are aware the situation in all countries including Eastern Europe and Western Europe, the question is the situation in prisons because you get contamination .To give you an example, in several African countries like Cote D’Ivoire we have programmes within prisons to get diagnostic and treatment for prisoners,” he said.
He added that Zimbabwe was included in a case study of countries that had put Global Fund grants to good use. Zimbabwe gets AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria funding from the Global Fund, of which France is the second largest contributor to the pool.
“Zimbabwe is doing well. We changed the procedure of Global Fund to what we call the new funding model and Zimbabwe was one the countries chosen to experiment with the new model. We rely on Zimbabwe and we are really making progress,” he said. “Your experiences here can be useful to other countries including those in the French-speaking African countries.”
Post published in: Gender Equality