AIDS and Nigeria’s Rural Youth
Godswill Odeku
08057879764 odekuga@yahoo.com www.enigmareports.blogspot.com/aids&nigeriasruralyouth
It is no longer news that Nigeria’s sero-prevalence rate stands at 5.8% and that it is growing. While new cases of infection are drastically reduced in urban and semi-urban localities due to increasing awareness, it is spreading like wildfire in the rural areas. More and more new cases of infection are popping up especially amongst the youth population.
Even these new cases are a trickle of available data given the fact that obtaining adequate and accurate information on the rate at which AIDS is spreading in Nigeria’s rural communities is such a difficult issue. This is because the rural areas are not only hard to reach but the terrain is tedious and even the local people are not willing to volunteer information relevant to the AIDS issue. This can be attributed to the lack of adequate grasp, on the part of the locals, of the issues surrounding the AIDS question.
Looking at the rural communities with special focus on the Niger Delta, one can appreciate why new cases of infection are happening all the time. Nigeria has a dual topography. One aspect of it is mainly dry land while the other is riverine riddled with creeks, rivers, rivulets, swamps, and mangrove forests. While the upland is a bit elaborate and easy to access and susceptible to development, the riverine areas are a difficult terrain, densely populated and steeped in demographic incongruities.
The focus of this article is the impact AIDS is having on the riverine communities spread across the southern fringes of Nigeria better known as the Niger Delta. There are approximately a 100 communities running from Ondo State in the South-West of the country to Akwa Ibom State in the South-South. These communities reflect different ethnic nationalities (Ijaw, Ilaje, Yoruba, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ikwerre, Etche, Ogoni, Andoni, Efik, Ibibio, etc), speak diverse languages and sublanguages and subscribe to varied social experiences.
For many of these communities their means of livelihood is derived from fishing, farming, trading, and art works. The terrain is laced with difficulties ranging from inadequate means of transportation, uncharted forests rife with wild animals, mosquitoes, and others. This is where about 70% of youths in the Niger Delta live. Without adequate education, without social amenities, plagued by ignorance and poverty, enmeshed in infection-predisposing factors, and exposed to obnoxious belief systems and practices, it is not a matter of conjecture why these constitute the majority of AIDS victims.
Beyond these overarching factors, there are other minor yet serious ones that facilitate the rise in the rate of HIV infection. One of these is sexual networking among adolescent boys and girls where a group of adolescents network to share or have sex with a particular individual of the opposite sex. A group of boys take turns to have intercourse with a particular girl or a group of girls take turns to have it with a particular boy. And this is done without recourse to the risks associated with such abnormality. Many times the girl involved becomes pregnant without knowing the actual boy who did it since everyone of them had her. On the other hand, some or all of the girls who engaged in that orgy of sex could become pregnant for the same boy and this obviously translates into major alterations in the lives of both the girls and the boy or boys in question.
Another factor is the proliferation of sexual partners by a particular individual. A girl goes on having several male friends with whom she has sex on a regular basis or even at random as the occasion demands, so to speak. Or it could be a young man who strings along with several girls, having sex with them whenever he deems necessary.
These are situations that precipitate infection with HIV and the rapid spread of the virus in the rural areas. And this goes on amongst the youth population. One basic fact about this is that each individual in such network suddenly becomes a lethal carrier unleashed on society, howbeit covertly.
With the prevailing socio-economic environment in the rural areas many youths are predisposed to fall for unwholesome indulgences. Many girls come from poor homes and sometimes are under intense pressure to accede to have sex with one or more men to make ends meet or have their needs met. Almost always, these amorous relationships do not accommodate safeguards against HIV infection. Partners hardly make informed decisions regarding prevention against infection and pregnancy. In some areas, not only are condoms not available, majority of the people are ignorant about its uses or advantages.
So girls just go on having sex with men either on the premarital or extramarital basis or even in cases of early or forced marriages. And given that positive masculinity is foreign to many communities in this country, the young girls have to bear the brunt of pain inflicted by their partners during intercourse, lacerations to the vaginal walls, infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, premature delivery, incontinences arising from compromise of the yet immature birth canal, stigma associated with one or more of the above. All these depict the trauma, dilemma and challenges the Nigerian youth in rural communities have to grapple with.
The process of redressing these unfortunate circumstances is no doubt Herculean. Yet a lot can still be done. First, there is need for information and behavioral change communication targeted at the youths in the rural areas. This can be done through awareness creation and sensitization in the hard to reach localities. This is to acquaint them with issues such as abstinence, positive sexuality, early sex debut, partner reduction, Bonne (good/real) fidelity, dangers of premarital/extramarital sex, correct and consistent condom use, routes of transmission, etc.
This information can be utilized to motivate change and build awareness on critical issues. This change is necessary with regards to beliefs, values and attitudes that predispose and facilitate infection among young people; attitudes towards the infected and affected by AIDS (de-stigmatization/stigma-reduction); negative to positive sexuality and openness to discussions about sexuality; and changes in values, beliefs, and attitudes towards women.
Motivation can also be effected in the aspect of inducing change from irresponsible to responsible or positive masculinity – making men understand and appreciate what it entails to be a man and a father.
Added to the aforementioned is the advocating of the rights of adolescents and children with special focus on that of young girls. Issues affecting women and children with regard to HIV/AIDS needs to be appreciated and given the necessary impetus. This is consequent upon available data suggesting that more women (especially the youths) are being infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.
Considering the difficult terrain, monetary cost involved and the logistics of it all, it would no doubt call for concerted efforts incorporating the government, corporate bodies, civil society organizations, private individuals, and other stakeholders to make the outreach to youths dwelling in the rural areas a dream come true.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
Stigma: Metaphor of Death for AIDS Victims
Imagine a girl walks into a classroom, greets her teacher and the class, and begins to walk to her seat, only to be called back by her teacher and asked before the whole class if her mother who is HIV- positive has begun treatment. She replies that her mother has begun. The teacher asks her to move her things from her present seat to another, where from henceforth she would be sitting alone. As the students go out for lunch-break, other students begin to rain questions on her and some even go the extent of avoiding her all because she has a mother who is HIV- positive.
She tries to cope for a few days with the taunting and coldness being meted out to her, and when she could no longer cope, she stops coming to school. Since she is unable to let her parents in on what is bothering her due to their lack of consideration, she devises alternatives to school. She wanders to strange and lonely places to while away the time. After school hours she would come home with other teenagers as if she was coming from school. With time, her parents get to know and mete out some harsh treatment to her without reaching down into her emotional being to unravel what is ailing her. She feels her family doesn’t understand and do not care about her feelings and leaves home. While she wanders along she meets some man who listens to her tales and offers her some succour and shelter. He takes the time to listen again and again to her stories and with time she begins to feel comfortable in his company and relaxes her vigilance. Soon one thing leads to another and they have sex. Soon the rate of intercourse increases between them. With time she begins to experience some symptoms she can’t explain. They go for a test. The medical authorities as a matter of policy test her for HIV, pregnancy, etc. It is discovered that she is pregnant. Not only that, she is HIV-positive.
Unsettled by such development, the guy makes off leaving her to wallow in her misery. Suddenly, she finds herself in a dilemma which she was not prepared to handle. Several options play out in her mental spectrum and the most promising of all is to end it all. With no one to provide her with needed counseling and support, she commits suicide and there ends the tragic chapter of one of Nigeria’s youth by just an ounce of thoughtlessness manifested in a stint of stigmatization.
It is common knowledge that AIDS kills. Not only AIDS, tuberculosis, measles, malaria, diabetes, cardiac arrest, sickle cell anaemia, cholera, diarrhea, and a host of other medical abnormalities. Apart from these medical monsters, there are many other things that kill or reduce life to something a little above death. But when viewed from another perspective it cannot be said that this medical absurdities kills faster than stigma associated by society to certain medical conditions.
Stigmatization – the act or policy of labeling and/or branding a person or group of persons as socially unacceptable due to a medical condition, religious or other belief, racial identity, or other reasons – is a major cause of death for many Nigerian youths who are infected by AIDS. It is important to state as clearly as possible that for one to be infected AIDS or has AIDS does not make him or her less than a human. He retains his/her dignity as human person. He is still flesh and blood like the rest of us. Most times, it is bias, bigotry and prejudice which are a spill over of the absurdities of our socio-cultural and socio-religious belief systems, values, attitudes.
Some hold though erroneously that AIDS can only be contacted through sex and this the perverted aspects of it, viz – premarital, extramarital gay, etc. Since these are held as anathema both in our cultural ethos and religious circles, it becomes evident why AIDS victims should in the same vein be accorded anathema status.
Another aspect of this anomaly is the belief that AIDS is divine retribution meted out to the wayward. Nothing can be further from the truth. Some subscribe to this fallacious purview and manifest it in the stigmatization of anyone who is infected by the virus. Sometimes this stretches into the public domain, where people in authority use dictions and language that not just suggestive of stigmatization but very offensive at face value.
The young people of this nation are the most affected by this stigmatization issue. For the infected, they are stigmatized and treated as outcasts. They are looked upon as morally debased individuals who could not control their sexual urge and have consequently contacted HIV/AIDS as a just recompense of their dissolute lifestyle. This smacks of crass ignorance, as there various routes of transmission of the virus. Besides sexual intercourse, AIDS can be contacted through the use of any piercing instrument, through transfusion of unscreened blood, and from mother to child during childbirth, delivery, and/or breastfeeding in the first three months.
For the affected such as people affected by AIDS (PABAs) and orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) it is an all-inclusive branding where the children, relatives and other family members of the infected are labeled as social outcasts for no other crime but that one of their own is infected with HIV. in schools, workplaces, organization, and other places, they are subjected to harsh and unpleasant treatments and attitudes. this needs not be so.
It is important for everyone to appreciate the fact that just a single act of thoughtlessness and lack of consideration can go a long way to precipitate disastrous catastrophes which could engulf the rest of us. there is need for all to understand that it is a member of the human family that the stigma is being directed at. no one deserves to be associated with any form of stigma, not even AIDS victims. they deserve the best of our cordiality, care and consideration. where we do not treat them as such we are only fast-tracking their early death.
The statistics are there for all to scrutinize and ascertain for themselves what havoc stigmatization is wreaking on youths who are infected by AIDS. Even when a person is infected with HIV, it would take some months for the virus to completely undermine the individuals immune system and result in full blown AIDS. at the stage where it has metamorphosed into AIDS it would still take about 10 years for the person to die. and this is depending on a lot of factors – how strong the individual’s immune system is, the person’s hygiene regime, the antiretrovirals at his/her disposal, the emotional reservoir he/she can draw from at such critical period, and many other factors.
Given the above and looking at available medical data, it is a fact that there are even other deadlier diseases that kills faster than AIDS. Cholera, diphtheria, diarrhea, and malaria kills faster than AIDS. So it is unnecessary and inhuman stigmatizing AIDS victims, especially the youths.
She tries to cope for a few days with the taunting and coldness being meted out to her, and when she could no longer cope, she stops coming to school. Since she is unable to let her parents in on what is bothering her due to their lack of consideration, she devises alternatives to school. She wanders to strange and lonely places to while away the time. After school hours she would come home with other teenagers as if she was coming from school. With time, her parents get to know and mete out some harsh treatment to her without reaching down into her emotional being to unravel what is ailing her. She feels her family doesn’t understand and do not care about her feelings and leaves home. While she wanders along she meets some man who listens to her tales and offers her some succour and shelter. He takes the time to listen again and again to her stories and with time she begins to feel comfortable in his company and relaxes her vigilance. Soon one thing leads to another and they have sex. Soon the rate of intercourse increases between them. With time she begins to experience some symptoms she can’t explain. They go for a test. The medical authorities as a matter of policy test her for HIV, pregnancy, etc. It is discovered that she is pregnant. Not only that, she is HIV-positive.
Unsettled by such development, the guy makes off leaving her to wallow in her misery. Suddenly, she finds herself in a dilemma which she was not prepared to handle. Several options play out in her mental spectrum and the most promising of all is to end it all. With no one to provide her with needed counseling and support, she commits suicide and there ends the tragic chapter of one of Nigeria’s youth by just an ounce of thoughtlessness manifested in a stint of stigmatization.
It is common knowledge that AIDS kills. Not only AIDS, tuberculosis, measles, malaria, diabetes, cardiac arrest, sickle cell anaemia, cholera, diarrhea, and a host of other medical abnormalities. Apart from these medical monsters, there are many other things that kill or reduce life to something a little above death. But when viewed from another perspective it cannot be said that this medical absurdities kills faster than stigma associated by society to certain medical conditions.
Stigmatization – the act or policy of labeling and/or branding a person or group of persons as socially unacceptable due to a medical condition, religious or other belief, racial identity, or other reasons – is a major cause of death for many Nigerian youths who are infected by AIDS. It is important to state as clearly as possible that for one to be infected AIDS or has AIDS does not make him or her less than a human. He retains his/her dignity as human person. He is still flesh and blood like the rest of us. Most times, it is bias, bigotry and prejudice which are a spill over of the absurdities of our socio-cultural and socio-religious belief systems, values, attitudes.
Some hold though erroneously that AIDS can only be contacted through sex and this the perverted aspects of it, viz – premarital, extramarital gay, etc. Since these are held as anathema both in our cultural ethos and religious circles, it becomes evident why AIDS victims should in the same vein be accorded anathema status.
Another aspect of this anomaly is the belief that AIDS is divine retribution meted out to the wayward. Nothing can be further from the truth. Some subscribe to this fallacious purview and manifest it in the stigmatization of anyone who is infected by the virus. Sometimes this stretches into the public domain, where people in authority use dictions and language that not just suggestive of stigmatization but very offensive at face value.
The young people of this nation are the most affected by this stigmatization issue. For the infected, they are stigmatized and treated as outcasts. They are looked upon as morally debased individuals who could not control their sexual urge and have consequently contacted HIV/AIDS as a just recompense of their dissolute lifestyle. This smacks of crass ignorance, as there various routes of transmission of the virus. Besides sexual intercourse, AIDS can be contacted through the use of any piercing instrument, through transfusion of unscreened blood, and from mother to child during childbirth, delivery, and/or breastfeeding in the first three months.
For the affected such as people affected by AIDS (PABAs) and orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) it is an all-inclusive branding where the children, relatives and other family members of the infected are labeled as social outcasts for no other crime but that one of their own is infected with HIV. in schools, workplaces, organization, and other places, they are subjected to harsh and unpleasant treatments and attitudes. this needs not be so.
It is important for everyone to appreciate the fact that just a single act of thoughtlessness and lack of consideration can go a long way to precipitate disastrous catastrophes which could engulf the rest of us. there is need for all to understand that it is a member of the human family that the stigma is being directed at. no one deserves to be associated with any form of stigma, not even AIDS victims. they deserve the best of our cordiality, care and consideration. where we do not treat them as such we are only fast-tracking their early death.
The statistics are there for all to scrutinize and ascertain for themselves what havoc stigmatization is wreaking on youths who are infected by AIDS. Even when a person is infected with HIV, it would take some months for the virus to completely undermine the individuals immune system and result in full blown AIDS. at the stage where it has metamorphosed into AIDS it would still take about 10 years for the person to die. and this is depending on a lot of factors – how strong the individual’s immune system is, the person’s hygiene regime, the antiretrovirals at his/her disposal, the emotional reservoir he/she can draw from at such critical period, and many other factors.
Given the above and looking at available medical data, it is a fact that there are even other deadlier diseases that kills faster than AIDS. Cholera, diphtheria, diarrhea, and malaria kills faster than AIDS. So it is unnecessary and inhuman stigmatizing AIDS victims, especially the youths.
Monday, August 13, 2007
AIDS and Nigeria's Rural Youth
It is no longer news that Nigeria’s sero-prevalence rate stands at 5.8% and that it is growing. While new cases of infection are drastically reduced in urban and semi-urban localities due to increasing awareness, it is spreading like wildfire in the rural areas. More and more new cases of infection are popping up especially amongst the youth population.
Even these new cases are a trickle of available data given the fact that obtaining adequate and accurate information on the rate at which AIDS is spreading in Nigeria’s rural communities is such a difficult issue. This is because the rural are not only hard to reach but the terrain is tedious and even the local people are not willing to volunteer information relevant to the AIDS issue. This can be attributed to the lack of adequate grasp, on the part of the locals, of the issues surrounding the AIDS question.
Looking at the rural communities with special focus on the Niger Delta, one can appreciate why new cases of infection are happening all the time. Nigeria has a dual topography. One aspect of it is mainly dry land while the other is riverine riddled with creeks, rivers, rivulets, swamps, and mangrove forests. While the upland is a bit elaborate and easy to access and susceptible to development, the riverine areas are a difficult terrain, densely populated and steeped in demographic incongruities.
The focus of this article is the impact AIDS is having on the riverine communities spread across the southern fringes of Nigeria better known as the Niger Delta. There are approximately a 100 communities running from Ondo State in the South-West of the country to Akwa Ibom State in the South-South. These communities reflect different ethnic nationalities (Ijaw, Ilaje, Yoruba, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ikwerre, Etche, Ogoni, Andoni, Efik, Ibibio, etc), speak diverse languages and sublanguages and subscribe to varied social experiences.
For many of these communities their means of livelihood is derived from fishing, farming, trading, and art works. The terrain is laced with difficulties ranging from inadequate means of transportation, uncharted forests rife with wild animals, mosquitoes, and others. This is where about 70% of youths in the Niger Delta live. Without adequate education, without social amenities, plagued by ignorance, enmeshed in infection-predisposing factors, and exposed to obnoxious belief systems and practices, it is not a matter of conjecture why these constitute the majority of AIDS victims.
Beyond these overarching factors, there are other minor yet serious ones that facilitate the rise in the rate of HIV infection. One of these is sexual networking among adolescent boys and girls where a group of adolescents network to share or have sex with a particular individual of the opposite sex. A group of boys take turns to have intercourse with a particular girl or a group of girls take turns to have it with a particular boy. And this is done without recourse to the risks associated with such abnormality. Many times the girl involved becomes pregnant without knowing the actual boy who did it since everyone of them had her. On the other hand, some or all of the girls who engaged in that orgy of sex could become pregnant for the same boy and this obviously translates into major alterations in the lives of both the girls and the boy or boys in question.
Another factor is the proliferation of sexual partners by a particular individual. A girl goes on having several male friends with whom she has sex on a regular basis or even at random as the occasion demands, so to speak. Or it could be a young man who strings along with several girls, having sex with them whenever he deems necessary.
These are situations that precipitate infection with HIV and the rapid spread of the virus in the rural areas. And this goes on amongst the youth population. One basic fact about this is that each individual in such network suddenly becomes a lethal carrier unleashed on society, howbeit covertly.
With the prevailing socio-economic environment in the rural areas many youths are predisposed to fall for unwholesome indulgences. Many girls come from poor homes and sometimes are under intense pressure to accede to have sex with one or more men to make ends meet or have their needs met. Almost always, these amorous relationships do not accommodate safeguards against HIV infection. Partners hardly make informed decisions regarding prevention against infection and pregnancy. In some areas, not only are condoms not available, majority of the people are ignorant about its uses or advantages.
So girls just go on having sex with men either on the premarital or extramarital basis or even in cases of early or forced marriages. And given that positive masculinity is foreign to many communities in this country, the young girls have to bear the brunt of pain inflicted by their partners during intercourse, lacerations to the vaginal walls, infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, premature delivery, incontinences arising from compromise of the yet immature birth canal, stigma associated with one or more of the above. All these depict the trauma, dilemma and challenges the Nigerian youth in rural communities have to grapple with.
The process of redressing these unfortunate circumstances is no doubt Herculean. Yet a lot can still be done. First, there is need for information and behavioral change communication targeted at the youths in the rural areas. This can be done through awareness creation and sensitization in the hard to reach localities. This is to acquaint them with issues such as abstinence, positive sexuality, early sex debut, partner reduction, Bonne (good/real) fidelity, dangers of premarital/extramarital sex, correct and consistent condom use, routes of transmission, etc.
This information can be utilized to motivate change and build awareness on critical issues. This change is necessary with regards to belief, values and attitudes that predispose and facilitate infection among young people; attitudes towards the infected and affected by AIDS (de-stigmatization/stigma-reduction); negative to positive sexuality and openness to discussions about sexuality; and changes in values, beliefs, and attitudes towards women.
Motivation can also effected in the aspect of inducing change from irresponsible to responsible or positive masculinity – making men understand and appreciate what it entails to be a man and a father.
Added to the aforementioned is the advocating of the rights of adolescent and children with special focus on that of young girls. Issues affecting women and children with regard to HIV/AIDS needs to be appreciated and given the necessary impetus. This is consequent upon available data suggesting that more women (especially the youths) are being infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.
Considering the difficult terrain, monetary cost involved and the logistics of it all, it would no doubt call for concerted efforts incorporating the government, corporate bodies, civil society organizations, private individuals, and other stakeholders to make the outreach to youths dwelling in the rural areas a dream come true.
Even these new cases are a trickle of available data given the fact that obtaining adequate and accurate information on the rate at which AIDS is spreading in Nigeria’s rural communities is such a difficult issue. This is because the rural are not only hard to reach but the terrain is tedious and even the local people are not willing to volunteer information relevant to the AIDS issue. This can be attributed to the lack of adequate grasp, on the part of the locals, of the issues surrounding the AIDS question.
Looking at the rural communities with special focus on the Niger Delta, one can appreciate why new cases of infection are happening all the time. Nigeria has a dual topography. One aspect of it is mainly dry land while the other is riverine riddled with creeks, rivers, rivulets, swamps, and mangrove forests. While the upland is a bit elaborate and easy to access and susceptible to development, the riverine areas are a difficult terrain, densely populated and steeped in demographic incongruities.
The focus of this article is the impact AIDS is having on the riverine communities spread across the southern fringes of Nigeria better known as the Niger Delta. There are approximately a 100 communities running from Ondo State in the South-West of the country to Akwa Ibom State in the South-South. These communities reflect different ethnic nationalities (Ijaw, Ilaje, Yoruba, Urhobo, Itsekiri, Ikwerre, Etche, Ogoni, Andoni, Efik, Ibibio, etc), speak diverse languages and sublanguages and subscribe to varied social experiences.
For many of these communities their means of livelihood is derived from fishing, farming, trading, and art works. The terrain is laced with difficulties ranging from inadequate means of transportation, uncharted forests rife with wild animals, mosquitoes, and others. This is where about 70% of youths in the Niger Delta live. Without adequate education, without social amenities, plagued by ignorance, enmeshed in infection-predisposing factors, and exposed to obnoxious belief systems and practices, it is not a matter of conjecture why these constitute the majority of AIDS victims.
Beyond these overarching factors, there are other minor yet serious ones that facilitate the rise in the rate of HIV infection. One of these is sexual networking among adolescent boys and girls where a group of adolescents network to share or have sex with a particular individual of the opposite sex. A group of boys take turns to have intercourse with a particular girl or a group of girls take turns to have it with a particular boy. And this is done without recourse to the risks associated with such abnormality. Many times the girl involved becomes pregnant without knowing the actual boy who did it since everyone of them had her. On the other hand, some or all of the girls who engaged in that orgy of sex could become pregnant for the same boy and this obviously translates into major alterations in the lives of both the girls and the boy or boys in question.
Another factor is the proliferation of sexual partners by a particular individual. A girl goes on having several male friends with whom she has sex on a regular basis or even at random as the occasion demands, so to speak. Or it could be a young man who strings along with several girls, having sex with them whenever he deems necessary.
These are situations that precipitate infection with HIV and the rapid spread of the virus in the rural areas. And this goes on amongst the youth population. One basic fact about this is that each individual in such network suddenly becomes a lethal carrier unleashed on society, howbeit covertly.
With the prevailing socio-economic environment in the rural areas many youths are predisposed to fall for unwholesome indulgences. Many girls come from poor homes and sometimes are under intense pressure to accede to have sex with one or more men to make ends meet or have their needs met. Almost always, these amorous relationships do not accommodate safeguards against HIV infection. Partners hardly make informed decisions regarding prevention against infection and pregnancy. In some areas, not only are condoms not available, majority of the people are ignorant about its uses or advantages.
So girls just go on having sex with men either on the premarital or extramarital basis or even in cases of early or forced marriages. And given that positive masculinity is foreign to many communities in this country, the young girls have to bear the brunt of pain inflicted by their partners during intercourse, lacerations to the vaginal walls, infection with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, unwanted pregnancies, premature delivery, incontinences arising from compromise of the yet immature birth canal, stigma associated with one or more of the above. All these depict the trauma, dilemma and challenges the Nigerian youth in rural communities have to grapple with.
The process of redressing these unfortunate circumstances is no doubt Herculean. Yet a lot can still be done. First, there is need for information and behavioral change communication targeted at the youths in the rural areas. This can be done through awareness creation and sensitization in the hard to reach localities. This is to acquaint them with issues such as abstinence, positive sexuality, early sex debut, partner reduction, Bonne (good/real) fidelity, dangers of premarital/extramarital sex, correct and consistent condom use, routes of transmission, etc.
This information can be utilized to motivate change and build awareness on critical issues. This change is necessary with regards to belief, values and attitudes that predispose and facilitate infection among young people; attitudes towards the infected and affected by AIDS (de-stigmatization/stigma-reduction); negative to positive sexuality and openness to discussions about sexuality; and changes in values, beliefs, and attitudes towards women.
Motivation can also effected in the aspect of inducing change from irresponsible to responsible or positive masculinity – making men understand and appreciate what it entails to be a man and a father.
Added to the aforementioned is the advocating of the rights of adolescent and children with special focus on that of young girls. Issues affecting women and children with regard to HIV/AIDS needs to be appreciated and given the necessary impetus. This is consequent upon available data suggesting that more women (especially the youths) are being infected and affected by HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections.
Considering the difficult terrain, monetary cost involved and the logistics of it all, it would no doubt call for concerted efforts incorporating the government, corporate bodies, civil society organizations, private individuals, and other stakeholders to make the outreach to youths dwelling in the rural areas a dream come true.
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