Zambian Film Fights AIDSSeptember 2003
LUSAKA, Zambia -- A new Zambian documentary
film, made with USAID funding, captures how stigma against people with HIV/AIDS
affects the lives of ordinary Zambians.
Tikambe, which means “let’s
talk about it,” is a set of two films that profile the experiences
of two Zambian families.
One of them is Harriet Mulenga, who tested positive
for HIV soon after her husband,
a minibus driver, died of TB. When she was no longer able to care for herself,
she moved in with her mother but found a chilly reception.
In the film,
Esther Tagiwa Chikondo, Mulenga’s mother, says she used to let Harriet eat outside,
and that she asked her-self, “If I touch her, will I get HIV?” She
also says she told her daughter she was bringing shame to the family: “Just
die! Who cares about you?”
After a month in a hospice, Harriet started
taking antiretroviral drugs. In this period, her mother learned how to
care for a person with the disease.
Harriet recovered
her strength, reconciled with her
mother, and found the courage to go public. She told her neighbors how
to protect themselves from the disease, and her “HIV-positive” shirt
announced that she would hide no longer.
“Finding
families willing to go public was difficult,” said
film producer Carol Duffy Clay, who lived in Zambia
for five years. “Hopefully, this film will help
break down some of the stigma that is at the very center
of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.”
The film, developed
for the Zambia Integrated Health Programme, a project
run by Johns Hopkins University’s School of Public
Health for USAID, will be shown throughout Zambia,
including on Zambian television.
To obtain copies of
the film, contact the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication
Programs at orders@jhuccp.org.
Access the September
2003 edition of FrontLines [PDF, 2.3MB]
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