AIDS action: People living with AIDS march against stigma

Thursday, 31 May 2012

People Living with HIV (PLHIV) have sensitized people yesterday, during a march in Dakar [Senegal], on the need to end stigma and exclusion. They also called for the leadership and accountability of HIV positive people.

This march is something new and highly symbolic. For the first time [ in Senegal], people living with HIV were marching in the street, with the sole goal of calling public opinion to remove their blaming eye on them. They were all there, HIV+ people and actors involved in the crusade against AIDS, with a clear will to be understood for some, to be heard for others, while assuming their positive status. All together, young girls and young boys as well as older people marched to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS.

Different messages were displayed, including about accepting their HIV status and ending stigma.

For Amadou Moustapha Dia, the Chairman of the National Network of People Living with HIV (RNP+) in Senegal, people benefit from this approach as it helps check, to some extent, the progress of the disease. As, he goes on, " we are, through this march, on the front of the stage and so, beyond the work of fighting against stigma, people will know the HIV status of each."

Senegal has currently about 50,000 people living with HIVs, said Mr. Dia, stating that the fear to disclose their HIV status leads fathers and mothers with families to live with this disease. As a result, "you find presently more new HIV related infections in traditional families than in vulnerable segments", stated the Chairman of RNP+. In his speech, Ousmane Tounkara outlined the objectives of the march, which revolve around community awareness, as “living with a PLHIV is like living with a normal person."

As to him, Maguette Thiandoum, the coordinator of the Population and Development Network (Resopopdev), the structure that initiated the march, insisted on the need to fight stigma. He said he was “tired of stigma. According to him, “it is now high time to come together to fight it.”
Dr. Ndèye Fatou Ngom of the outpatient treatment Center (CTA) in Fann expressed, with a voice full of emotion, her pride at seeing "PLHIV march openly and say they have had enough of this inquisitive look that people have on them."