Peace Corps in Burkina Faso: HIV/AIDS in Burkina

HIV/AIDS is still considered a myth in my village of Bouendé. A while ago I heard from a villager when asked how can someone become infected with HIV, "If you eat uncooked chicken." So yes, I instantly thought here is where I can do some work. Africa and HIV/AIDS are synonymous today and living there it is easy to see why.First and foremost is ignorance. Like my village friend who thinks you can get HIV from eating raw chicken. The average Burkinabé is ignorant to how are transmitted. She was correct that some diseases can be transmitted from uncooked foods just confused on which ones. This ignorance is not their fault and is an understandable problem. Around 75% of the Burkinabe are illiterate, that’s nation wide. In a village like mine it is closer to 95%. So it is very reasonable that people don’t understand disease transmission.

(The United Nations Development Program Report used to place Burkina Faso as the most illiterate country in the world, with only 12.8% in 1990. With the consistent effort of the government in making schooling more accessible and affordable, however, the literacy rate has doubled and is now at 25.3% of the population.)

So in summary most rural Africans don’t understand the diseases that plague them. Which is why AIDS in this example, is so dangerous. As I have said before, when someone asks how some one died, the common answer is that he was sick. Period.

Second, if someone does understand how HIV/AIDS is transmitted, the environment in which that person lives makes it hard to make positive choices to prevent infection. Condom use is on the increase in the urban areas but is still taboo in the villages. It is complicated. Elders think that sex education is too modern and should not be talked about in public. Places to buy condoms are very public. This creates and awkward environment for the buyers. People see who buys what, and if you buy condoms you could very well be thought to have the disease, and therefore be shunned or worse. So villagers won’t even buy them out of fear. Stigma is one of the greatest factors in the spread of HIV.

Third, is the problem with testing. Very few people in Burkina are tested. People are ignorant to the treatments available and most think that the disease is fatal. So if you know you can die from it, don’t know of any treatments, and you are really poor, why would you even get tested. This is the greatest problem in Burkina. Most villagers are starting to learn about HIV but are not going to get tested. In some ways I can see their point, but the only way to decrease transmission is to know who has it.

The last factor I will talk about is polygamy. Most Africans are polygamists, they have multiple wives. They often also will have a mistress outside of these official wives and with limited condom use, they easily become infected and in turn infect the rest of their wives or other partners. This is another reason why HIV is so devastating in the African culture.

So all those factors together in my tiny village I decided to start an HIV education program. I applied for a grant with the US Embassy, some money Bush has made available and was accepted. I organized a large AIDS day last month where we had theatre presentations, talks from local and American doctors, and movies on AIDS and the associated stigma. It went off with a great success. The national newspaper was there and a local radio station did interviews on the spot. It was really probably my biggest accomplishment as a health volunteer.

A theater group from Bobo came out to our village and did an hour performance dealing with family life and living with HIV/AIDS. It was interactive and the villagers loved it. A doctor I know who works with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative came and talked about possible treatments for children for free. And that night we had a condom demonstration along with showing videos in their local language projected on to our clinic wall. It was an all day event that I think made a real difference. I hope.