Interview by Jasmina Sopova, UNESCO Courier journalist
A World Aids Day march in San Salvador.
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If scientists fail to cure Aids, the epidemic will become a soft nuclear bomb on human life. Kenneth
Kaunda, |
Has anyone ever waited for lessons before starting their sexual life? It’s been statistically proven that preventive education makes people much more sexually responsible, namely by having sexual relationships later and using protection
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UNAIDS: working together The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS
(UNAIDS),
launched in January 1996, is an innovative partnership that brings together the efforts
and resources of seven UN organizations, namely the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP),
the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF),
the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO), the United Nations International Drug Control Programme
(UNDCP)
and the World Bank. The first programme of its kind in the UN system, it aims to
help mount and support an expanded response engaging the efforts of many sectors
and partners from government and civil society. |
Fighting
Aids involves no less than changing our whole sexual culture. Peter Piot, Executive
Director of UNAIDS, stresses the impact of preventive education on young people’s
behaviour
Around half of all
new cases of HIV infection in the world involve young people between 15 and 24. Why?
Because that’s the age when you begin experimenting with sex and change partners
most often, which multiplies the risk of infection. Our studies in Kenya and Zambia
show 15, even 23 per cent of girls between 15 and 19 are HIV-positive, compared with
only three to four per cent of boys. Girls are more vulnerable for both biological
reasons (the female genitals are more susceptible to infection than those of males
and are particularly vulnerable in the case of girls because they have not yet developed)
as well as socio-cultural ones (whether they are won over by gifts or are the victims
of force, they often have as partners adult men who because of their age are more
likely to be HIV-positive than boys).
The roots of the problem lie mainly in poverty and male chauvinism. Hence the importance
of educating boys, who have to be taught that their worth doesn’t depend on the number
of women they’ve seduced. We have to change the whole “sexual culture” as it were.
But we have to be humble: we’re not going to change the world in the space of a few
years.
What’s the impact of preventive education on young people’s sexual behaviour?
Youth are more receptive to prevention messages and go on to adopt a more responsible
attitude to sexuality than adults. In countries where there’s been a good response
to prevention campaigns, we’ve seen a very marked drop in the rate of infection among
the 15 to 24-year-olds. In the past eight years, the rate in Ugandan urban areas
has fallen 40 per cent. In Zambia, it has dropped most markedly among schoolchildren.
All this shows that education has an important role to play. Even though it’s true
that many children in developing countries don’t go to school, the majority nevertheless
pass through school. The opportunity must be seized to give them an education about
Aids adapted to their age-group, right from the start of primary school. Some people
still fear this will encourage children to have sexual relationships, but has anyone
ever waited for lessons before starting their sexual life? It’s been statistically
proven that preventive education makes people much more sexually responsible, namely
by having sexual relationships later and using protection.
Is Aids education given the attention it deserves in schools?
Quite honestly, no, and not even in industrialized countries. But extraordinary
work is being done in some places. Brazil, for example, has a very good programme,
which begins in primary schools and is backed by UNESCO. Zimbabwe too, where UNICEF
is helping. Ugandan schools have introduced a new curriculum subject called “straight
talk” in which pupils comment on daily newspaper sections written specifically for
young people. The experiment is spreading in Kenya and a few other countries, but
there’s a long way to go before it becomes general practice.
I myself plan to strengthen my contacts with education officials, government ministries
and teachers’ unions. Curricula which include the Aids question have been designed,
tested and then not applied, like many good intentions. It’s no longer a question
of developing teaching materials, but of making use of them.
The United Nations General Assembly recently declared its goal to cut the rate
of new infection among young people by a quarter in the countries hardest hit by
the epidemic. Isn’t this overly ambitious?
Ambitious yes, but not unrealistic. Experience has shown it can be done if you get
all sectors of society involved, starting with youth. UNAIDS works a lot with young people. We design
awareness campaigns not just with young staff members in their early 20s but also
after consulting teenagers whose ideas are always, I must say, quite refreshing.
Since 1997, we’ve had an annual World Aids Campaign which targets young people. This
year, the young Brazilian footballer Ronaldo has agreed to be involved. His words
carry much more weight than mine among the youth of poor communities like those where
he grew up. The popular Ugandan singer Philly Lutaaya also worked with us before
he died of Aids. If all the famous people who are HIV-positive admitted the fact,
as Lutaaya did, it would have a great impact. But they often keep quiet and I understand
their fear of being rejected if they admit it. Aids is Janus-faced, and each side
is just as terrifying as the other—one is the virus that kills and the other is the
society, which also kills.
How can the stigma be fought?
That’s my latest priority, in fact. To be pragmatic, we send volunteers who are
open about having HIV to work in schools, hospitals, government ministries and other
key places. This “public” approach to Aids has a much greater effect than any speech
about respecting the individual. These volunteers are already working in Malawi,
Zambia, Thailand, South Africa and Burundi and soon in Burkina Faso. I’d like to
spread this strategy all over the world, but we don’t have the resources and it’s
very hard to find people willing to take on such a mission.
Why do you think Aids is still largely cloaked in silence 20 years after it appeared?
The taboo surrounding Aids is a universal phenomenon. In most societies, talking
about sexuality isn’t easy, even between two partners. Also, the impact of Aids on
societies wasn’t felt as strongly 15 years ago as today. People also go into denial,
which is an instinctive reaction to danger. Read The Plague by Albert Camus
again. Another natural reaction is to say that it’s only something that happens to
others. So for 20 years, we’ve preferred to keep our eyes shut. Uganda, Senegal and
Thailand are among the very few countries whose political leaders have reacted in
a timely manner. It isn’t just a matter of poor countries either: U.S. President
Ronald Reagan never pronounced the word “Aids” in public.
But this year, the dialogue has started going in the other direction. Until now,
I had to convince political leaders that the situation was serious in their countries.
Now it’s they who are taking the initiative. That’s a big step forward.
How do you explain this turn-around?
First, the impact of Aids on societies has become so great it can’t be ignored
any longer, despite the tremendous human capacity for denial. Then, without boasting,
I have to say that the concerted action of the United Nations has helped a lot. We’re
seizing every opportunity to spread the message about Aids by going all out to increase
the number of sectors we work with—groups like boy scouts, women’s movements, peasants
and others. I myself meet heads of state, mayors of big cities, ministers of finance,
business leaders, army generals, musicians, footballers, bishops and imams—anyone
who can influence members of a society. Religious leaders can be a big obstacle to
a prevention campaign but I mostly consider them to be allies.
Are they really allies?
I’ve noticed that those religious leaders in close contact with the population—the
parish priest, the village imam—are the most receptive to prevention campaigns, including
encouraging the use of condoms, which is the most delicate aspect. The further you
go up the hierarchy, the harder dialogue becomes. Nevertheless, a Vatican envoy attended
our March 1999 conference in Buenos Aires about involving priests in the fight against
Aids. The message of the conference was clear: sex education at school is vital.
Only a few years ago, this was inconceivable.
