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Need for greater involvement of PWAs in NGOs
Reposted courtesy of IRIN PlusNews 3 Oct 2002
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People living with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) and employed by AIDS NGOs can be marginalised within their organisations, a new study has found.
According to a Population Council Horizons study, most PWAs involved in service delivery were volunteers often working on an informal basis, and relatively few were employed as professionals by NGOs.
Other barriers to greater PWA involvement were the "judgemental and paternalistic attitudes" displayed by professional health and social workers. There was also a lack of institutional will and policies to create opportunities for PWAs to be involved, the study noted.
Nevertheless, study respondents from 17 NGOs in Burkina Faso, Zambia, Ecuador and India reported a therapeutic effect after becoming involved in NGO activities.
PWAs were not just involved as beneficiaries or users of services, but as support staff and volunteers in non-HIV/AIDS activities or as occasional volunteers in HIV/AIDS service delivery, the study found.
"I came to realise that they were normal people just like any other human being. I could eat with them and share plates with them. Now I think I understand HIV much more than I did," an HIV-negative service provider in an AIDS NGO in Zambia was quoted as saying.
Although use of PWAs as volunteers may be cost-effective for NGOs, it can have "an adverse effect on service quality if volunteers are poorly trained", the study warned.
Poorly trained HIV-positive staff could convey inaccurate information or impose their own solutions during counselling, it added.
Any strategies to promote the greater involvement of HIV-positive people in developing countries must consider the social context, especially conditions of poverty, limited access to health care and treatment, gender inequality, and stigma and discrimination, the research report said.
Gender inequalities prevented many women living with HIV/AIDS from becoming involved in NGO work, the study noted. Fear of stigma and discrimination also inhibited many PWAs from involvement in NGOs perceived to be "PWA organisations".
For more information: http://www.popcouncil.org/horizons/ressum/plha4cntry/plha4cntry.html
[This item is delivered to the English Service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.] |
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