HIV in Kumbo

Before writing about my personal experiences I want to come up with the very sad chapter of Cameroon especially the North Western Province.
What I am talking about is HIV and Aids – a topic not openly enough spoken about.
Today I was talking to the NGO founder of Prodec (Protection of Orphans and Delinquent children) about the situation of orphans due to the virus .
The main problems are to pay medication besides the retroviral treatment, which is very expensive and to pay school fees - education is not free here although guaranteed by state since 34 years. And then of course let the children live a non stigmatized life and giving them their basic needs.
Fonlon the head of the organisation works as a human rights activist and lined out to me the difficulties he is facing, especially in pursuing the agenda of UNICEF -how to care for orphans and which needs have to be fulfilled – as some realities are just not taken in consideration by UNICEF :for example to give orphans the possibility to go to school whereas even the normal Cameroonian citizen has problems paying the school fees of their children.
Coming back to the topic of Aids:
The estimated HIV rate of Cameroon as a whole is 5.1 %, whereas you cannot really say how much are infected as many people have never done an AIDS test or even do not have a birth registration.
Nevertheless the rate in the north-western part is much higher, some organisations talk of 20%, you cannot really tell.
The rate is at this peak as the northwest has two big well equipped hospitals which are forged by people all over West Africa – often having the virus and then through prostitution, spreading it.
Sexuality is a very difficult topic. The virus transmitted through sexual intercourse can easily spread here as men have sex with many women as many live in polygamy without using condoms. The opinion of most Westerners including also me is you should just give out condoms: But I have now realised that just giving out condoms will not solve or really hinder the spreading of the virus. There has to be a change in sexual behaviour, where woman are not seen as inferior and people know about the risks connected to sex.
. Some men here “clean” the condoms after using and use them again, condoms sold on the markets have no quality whatsoever and people in the villages, well I do not know how they shall buy there condoms as the infrastructure is so bad and people do not even have the money to buy food.