By Yuyo Nachali-Kambikambi

A motor bike-donated by the German Embassy; at least 50 people to attend to on a ‘good day’; the nearest village being 13km away for house-calls and no anti-retroviral drugs to give some of his patients who desperately need them, is what one medical officer in the remote area of Shiwa’ng’andu (lake of Crocodiles) in the Northern part of Zambia has to contend with on an almost everyday basis.

“What can I do really, as I have to almost literally split myself to attend to various health matters in the villages, do sensitization programs, attend to patients at the Shiwa Hospital and of course try and spend time with my family,” says one jovial Joshua Musabaka whom this writer had the pleasure to meet during an HIV/AIDS sensitisation workshop held in Chief Mukwikiles’ area recently.

Musabaka, who was the chief facilitator at this two day workshop that Chief Mukwikile had organised for his headmen, religious, youth and women leaders in his vicinity, is just one of the many health specialists in the country that undergo so many hardships and frustrations but still sojourn on.

Take for instance one Victor Lwazo of Katapazi village in Chief Mukuni’s area of the Toka-Leya people in the Southern part of Zambia. It’s the same story because for Lwazo, as he was facilitating at another HIV/AIDS sensitisation workshop held at his clinic vicinity, he was at the same time attending to patients. At one point as he was explaining a very cardinal point on voluntary counseling and testing, he had to be called to deliver a baby just next door to where the workshop was being held.

“Its very difficult for me to do everything alone and it would be good if some of the Neighbourhood Health Committee (NHC) members could be trained in certain areas so as they too could help out where the clinical officer may not have access to,” Lwazo said.

But the HIV/AIDS pandemic is real even in remote and far away places like Shiwa’ng’andu and Katapazi where people have to walk at least 13km and more when one looks at Katapazi, to get to the nearest hospital for attention and unfortunately not to get any ARV’s which when available are at K40, 000 a cost too high for the locals who would rather use the money to buy food for the whole family rather than use it for only one person.

Aside being in charge at the hospital, Musabaka is also expected to lend a hand in the area in times of workshops like the sensitisation workshop in the Mukwikile area which attracted 42 participants.

It’s a major war that has been launched against the HIV/AIDS epidemic and as such traditional leaders across the country have joined in the fight and Chief Mukwikile- Geoffrey Ng’andu is making sure that he is not left behind.

As of February 26th, 2004, Chief Mukwikile banned sexual cleansing in his area and warned of very serious consequences for all those that decided to go ahead with the practice when they knew clearly well that it was contributing to the spread of the scourge.

At the opening of the workshop, his royal highness was blunt and bold enough to tell his headmen that they were to be striped of their headmanship if he learnt that they were encouraging sexual cleansing in his chiefdom.

“These are issues that don’t even need discussing because for how long will people discuss while people keep dying because of their ignorance and in some cases plain stupidity?” a visibly upset Chief said.

Rituals, cultural beliefs, and various other ‘traditions’ have been known to exist for time in memorial and in Africa, its nothing new for instance, to hear of people strongly believing in using sharps and needles to pierce their bodies for medicinal purposes or engaging in sexual cleansing after ones’ spouse has died.

The participants were urged to always bear in mind the K.A.B and the A.B.C catchphrases which stand for Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour and the highly advertised Abstinence, Be faithful and Condoms.

The issue of condoms raised some dust with some elderly participants who argued that God in his word had instructed people to go and multiply and not otherwise. Some said it would be sinful to ‘throw’ away all the children that God had intended for to live.

“We cannot think about using those things you are talking about because God clearly stated that we should go and multiply and fill the earth, so how are we going to fill the earth if we are told to use these funny contraptions?” one participant asked.

In other submissions on the ways the participants believe that HIV/AIDS is being spread, some suggested that the ministry of education should stop the co-education schools as these encouraged early sexual relations between school going children.

They said it would be good to separate the two sexes because they would concentrate better on their education instead of concentrating on each other and experimenting what they had learnt in biology class. Still on education, another issue that was discussed was the one of capital punishment, where those who had gone to the old school where pupils were canned for misbehaviour said they grew up with better morals than those of nowadays who were not canned.

“When we were growing up in those times and someone did anything wrong in class or within the school premises, that pupil was punished by either getting a number of strokes or doing garden work which made us capable men and women unlike the times of today,” a Joseph Mutuna said.

Another participant attributed the spread of the virus to drunkenness and the ‘availability’ of too many beer halls.

Oswald Chanda said it was imperative that government seriously looked at how many drinking places were open as this encouraged drunkenness and disorderly behaving leading to promiscuity.

“It is a fact that both men and women when drunk easily get misled and pick each other up, therefore leading to unhealthy relationships,” he added.

But Chief Mukwikile was quick to advise that the closing down of some beer halls would border on infringing other peoples’ human rights.

Parents were also blamed for spoiling and failing to supervise their children with one noting that it was common in many homes especially in the towns to let children have their own television sets in their bedrooms without any proper supervision meaning the child could watch whatever he/she pleased.

“You see the spread of this virus is two-fold because even the irresponsibility of parents or rather their lack of supervision over their children who will watch anything on television which in turn leads to children getting involved in sexual relationships without even their parents knowing,” another argued.

But after all is said and done, what is the way forward in trying to reduce the scourge which has ravaged not only thousands of people in Zambia but millions in Africa alone.

It is quite obvious that as a matter of urgency, rituals and various traditions have to be stopped and stopped now and not tomorrow, if we are to save mankind from being completely depleted from the face of the earth. Much as Africa is rich with culture, if we all don’t wake up and smell the coffee, there will be no culture to preserve as there will be no subjects to preserve it.

* Yuyo Nachali-Kambikambi is the media consultant for the Zambia Integrated Health Programme