MALAWI: HIV positive journalists form network to fight stigma

Record ID: 402277

  • Title: MALAWI: HIV positive journalists form network to fight stigma
  • Date: 1st December 2008
  • Summary: BLANTYRE, MALAWI (RECENT) (REUTERS) 14. VARIOUS OF RADIO PRESENTER AT WORK
  • Embargoed: 16th December 2008 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Malawi
  • Country: Malawi
  • Topics: Communications,Health
  • Reuters ID: LVA45UUSS5JHGSTXZKCU7PFB373S
  • Story Text: As the world focuses on the various facets of the AIDS pandemic on Monday (December 1), Malawian journalists have formed an organisation to help create awareness about the disease and fight the stigma associated with it.
    Matilda Mkandawire is a member of the Malawi Network of journalists living with HIV. She works in Blantyre and found out that she was HIV positive five years ago.

    "Many people are coming out in the open. There is no need to hide, we need to take part. When one has the disease it doesn't mean that it is the end of your life. Many are living positively. We have done a lot of talking as journalists and we can be role models so that many people would are saved," said Matilda Mkandawire, from the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC).
    The organisation was started in September this year. So far only 15 journalists have joined though the number of infected journalists is high across the country.

    "It is important for us to be exemplary. The general public will be encouraged if we come out in the open and tell them that we journalists have not been spared from this scourge. When we tell and show people that we are also affected and infected, it would carry weight and in so doing we could effectively fight the pandemic together," said MBC radio journalist Elias Bweya.
    Many HIV positive Malawians are afraid of revealing their status because of discrimination. According to UNAIDS, a million of the country's 12 million people are infected.
    In recent years, AIDS activists have encouraged people to talk about the disease. Former President Bakili Muluzi also did the same in 2004.

    "It took us almost ten years for government to speak about it. I remember the first time, it was 1994 when I said to the people of Malawi 'beware of AIDS, AIDS will kill you'. And my bitter experience is the loss of my brother Dickson who was working with me in the private sector. He was in business and he died of HIV/AIDS," Muluzi said at the time.
    More Malawians also want to find out their status. At rural clinics like this one in Thyolo [pronounced Tee-o-lo] a counselling session is mandatory before any HIV test. This helps people understand that even if their tests are positive they can still have productive lives.
    With help from the United Nations Global Fund on HIV, Malawi's government has also been distributing free anti-retrovirals across the country since 2004.
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