BONELA welcomes NACA�s overtures to gays, prostitutes
Lekopanye Mooketsi | Tuesday February 3, 2015 15:19
Recently, the National AIDS Coordinating Agency (NACA) placed HIV protection adverts targeted at the gay community. Another advert was aimed at clients of commercial sex workers, advising them to use a condom during their sexual encounters.
In an interview, BONELA executive director, Cindy Kelemi said her organisation had been calling for such intervention “for more than a decade” but no one had been willing to listen.
“We see it as a milestone that finally government is reaching out to minority groups. We applaud government for taking such a step,” she said.
Adding that “justice delayed, is justice denied,” Kelemi said had government intervened on time, it could have prevented new infections among members of the gay community.
The BONELA director was however, less impressed with NACA’s advert on commercial sex workers, saying it was discriminatory and implied that sex workers were responsible for spreading HIV/AIDS.
“Even the use of the word prostitution is derogatory,” she said.
“The message should have said that sexual activity should be safe including encounters with a sex worker.
“We need to emphasise the message that HIV prevention is every individual’s responsibility. We don’t need to be oblivious to the fact that sex work is taking place under non-conducive environment due to the legal impediments.”
She added: “We know that sex workers are taken advantage of by clients and harassed by the police. We know there is a high trend of rape amongst sex workers. If we don’t address the legal aspect the messages will be futile.”
A recent Ministry of Health study revealed that HIV prevalence among sex workers was 62 percent, while that among men having sex with other men was 13.1 percent, compared to the overall population rate of 18.5 percent.