Twic youth blame HIV rise on cultural barriers
Youth from Twic County in Warrap State have blamed cultural impediments for the rise of HIV infection in the area.
They said despite continued awareness of HIV, the obstacles remain huge.
Twic County’s youth believe that raising HIV awareness is vital for its prevention. Some elderly people, on the other hand, limit the discussion of sex issues because they blame the current generation for breaking down cultural barriers.
Samuel Magai, who has dedicated his life to raising awareness about HIV infections, says his attempts to discuss condom use are frequently met with hostility.
“If you talk about the use of condoms, they will look at you and say that these are the things that you have been doing in the town,” Samuel.
“They will say that you have been practising prostitution outside there, so it is very hard. Training one person is very easy, but educating the community is very hard,” he said.
Samuel prefers to serve within his community, but he did not feel his elders will believe and act on his advice.
“I cannot train them because, first of all, I come from their community, and if I am to talk to them about these things, they will say that the son of so-and-so is trying to change the system. They will understand better if someone [who] is a foreigner comes and talks to them; they will believe,” he said.
Battling stereotypes
“If a person from this community comes and talks, they will say that is what he has been doing out there, and you will be a victim; you will be ashamed because they will not understand you,” Magai explained.
He said it was not only him who felt betrayed by his community’s elders.
When Magai’s classmate tried to tell his parents about what he had learned in biology class, he ran into a similar problem.
“You can’t find a high school student who has not been taught how to protect himself. If you are a biology student, you know about sex, pregnancy, so when you come home and talk about it, they ask, is that the reason you go to school? They will mention politicians who have made it in life and say, “We want you to become like this,” he said.
Ring Atem Ring, a Clinical Officer and the Head of the HIV department at Helpful Fund in Turalei, believes a high rate of teenage pregnancies is a result of a lack of adequate information about HIV prevention and sexual reproductive health.
He claims that the majority of the younger girls in the area have never heard of family planning or the use of condoms.
“Most of them are impregnated by their peers in this community because they don’t practise family planning and they don’t use condoms. When a teenager finds themselves pregnant, they confine themselves in the house and find themselves going for a caesarian. You may see two to three-four to five caesarian operations, and most of these are underage,” he said.
Ring Atem Ring, said removing the cultural ideas associated with HIV/AIDS is “difficult” due to restricted access to trustworthy sources of knowledge.
“Prevention is better than cure. A condom can prevent pregnancy and can prevent infection. Most of the community has no access to the radio and has no access to the hospital. This is where the problems come. Those who don’t come to the hospital, those who don’t have radio access, will not have information about condoms, and that is the case in Turalei,” Ring said.
Ring believes that removing the stigma associated with HIV requires the progressive spread of information, education, and communication.
