Success Stories
US Ambassador Shoots Straight at HIV Prevention in Angola
USAID and PSI Build a Broad Partnership in the Fight Against AIDS
Photo: J. Neves
LUANDA 17 June 2003 -US Ambassadors don't normally have any business going to brothels, truck stops and slums. Nor do their agendas allow encounters with street kids, prostitutes, and HIV sufferers. Yet the US Ambassador to Angola, Christopher Dell has just done all of the above - and taken his camera to prove it - and rates it as his "most fascinating time in Angola."
"It took me to parts of Luanda that I had never seen before," says Dell, of shots that include prostitutes, truckers, and more than a few phallic demonstration tools. "Arriving in these places was always a little wild but it gave me a deeper appreciation of what life is like here for the majority of people. Until this project I'd never set foot in a brothel. And having seen what I saw, I don't ever want to go back."
Over the past month, Dell put his love of photography to work and shot USAID funded and PSI/Angola supported national non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working in the capital, as part of the JANGO Project. "JANGO" means the communal village in all Angolan national languages and represents the collaborative and participatory nature of the PSI/Angola project that brings together six national NGOs and bilateral (USAID), multilateral (UNICEF) and private sector donors (British Petroleum and ESSO) to fight HIV/AIDS in Luanda.
PSI/Angola has been deeply involved in capacity-building of the six Angolan NGOs, arming them with funding, training, social-network skills and educational materials to confront Angola's prime HIV/AIDS risk groups: prostitutes, truck drivers and youth. Through the network, hundreds of discussions, theatre performances and film showings take place every month, with thousands of high risk beneficiaries. Trained activists have mapped out "focos", or places where risk groups gather, including markets, bars, pensions, truck depots, parks, etc.. throughout all 9 municipalities of Luanda, and visit them twice a month. They have also linked up with four PSI/Angola supported Voulntary Counseling and Testing centers, where beneficiaries are referred for HIV and sexually transmitted infection testing.
"These NGOs are now offering far more than information," said PSI/Angola's Country Representative, Susan Shulman. "They are out there actually engaging people, challenging them to change their behavior."
The task ahead cannot be underestimated. UNICEF studies reveal that nearly one-third of all Angolan women, aged 15-49, have never heard of HIV/AIDS. And 92 percent of Angolan women don't have sufficient knowledge about HIV/AIDS transmission and prevention. Although UNAIDS estimates Angola's sero-prevalance rate at 5.5 percent (making it 25th worst-affected country in the world, yet well below that of its neighbours), UNICEF reports a 250 percent increase of HIV seroprevalence (from 3.4 percent to 8.6 percent) in women attending antenatal clinics in Luanda. This increase was recorded between 1999 and 2001.
Ironically, the devastating three-decade war that bled Angola of so much also gave Angolans a momentary buffer from HIV/AIDS. With many transport routes blocked, great tracts of Angola were closed to the movement of people, thus preventing a more rapid spread of the disease. However, with the peace accords of 2002, this situation has now altered and Angolans are very much on the move again. Four million internally displaced persons, together a high percentage of the population under 24 years of age, high fertility rates, low levels of education, and a high poverty index indicate that Angola has almost all of the risk factors associated with the rapid increase of the epidemic. As such, 2003 is an extraordinarily critical year. USAID/Angola, PSI/Angola and its national NGO partners are on the frontline in the fight.
As for the US Ambassador, he just hopes his photography helps spread the message about the spread of HIV. "Looking at where Angola is and where we'd all like to see Angola go, it's obvious to me that everything we're trying to do here is all put at risk by HIV..."
