Zambian Film Fights AIDS

September 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]