what are the problems faced during educating villagers about AIDs
Answers
Low levels of literacy may also have undermined the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS messages. The concept of “using information” to influence one's behaviour seemed very foreign to many people. The concept of “having and applying knowledge” was not familiar to many with little or no formal education. The idea of separating the message from the medium was often also unfamiliar. People often said that peer education messages could not be believed, since most of the peer educators had died:
The ladies (sex workers) that were conducting peer education were the first to die. That is when we realised that peer education was not effective, because they were the first to die. (Women's secretary for political party, 42)
In such a conservative community, the concept of behaviour change itself was often greeted with suspicion. People often expressed strong and negative views about change of any sort. Thus, for example, many informants spoke disapprovingly of young people who adopted western lifestyles and “forgot their own culture”. Such young people were varyingly referred to as “a shock”, “an irritation” or “a nuisance”. Others spoke disapprovingly of the way in which their behaviour served to dilute a valued African identity:
People from nowadays are wearing trousers, and these were never meant for women. As Africans let us dress as Africans, rather than copying western culture. (Methodist pastor, man, 32)
Many people appeared to have a strong gut-level resistance to change. Our case study gave the impression of a conservative semi-rural setting where innovation was often resisted:
Married people don't use condoms because they are not used to them. (Home-based club, elderly women, focus group)
I have never used condoms because I was not brought up knowing about them. (Garden cooperative, mixed focus group)
Social spaces for dialogue about HIV/AIDS
We have referred to the importance of social spaces where people can discuss HIV/AIDS information, debating doubts they might have about its relevance or accuracy, and collectively negotiating ways it might be put into action in their own lives. Our study suggested that many (though certainly not all) community members had few opportunities to engage in frank discussion of HIV/AIDS with liked and trusted peers. Stigma and denial were high, as was the local tendency to refer to people with AIDS in veiled terms such as “a person who is dying” or “someone who suffers from the disease of nowadays”.
However, in our research setting, when given space to talk about HIV/AIDS to a sympathetic listener, interview participants took this opportunity and expressed great appreciation for it at the end of the interview. Despite the fact that the interviewer explicitly gave no information about HIV/AIDS at all during the interviews, many informants later thanked her for the opportunity to participate in the interview, saying they had learned a lot from participating. From the researchers’ perspective, rather than transmitting factual knowledge to interview participants, the interview setting had provided people with social spaces to talk about their doubts, uncertainties and experiences of HIV/AIDS in their own lives - a rare opportunity.
Thus, for example, a sex worker said she had “gained a lot of knowledge” from the interview, and that this had given her the confidence to think of going for voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) for HIV/AIDS. An Apostolic Minister began the interview by dissociating himself from HIV/AIDS, saying “it's not necessary for somebody like me to talk about HIV/AIDS”. However, after the interview he said the experience had helped him realise it was important to discuss HIV/AIDS, and he asked the interviewer if she had any books on the topic to lend him. The soccer club coordinator (a young man) said: