TILL DEATH DO US PART: MARRIAGE OF YOUNG GIRLS DOOMS ZAMBIA’S HIV RESPONSE
By Enock Ngoma 

Lusaka, Zambia (2010 Features): Ester Kayombo, a school girl in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, was forced to marry a 35-year-old businessman at the age of 16. Driven by severe poverty, Ester’s family believed that they would benefit both financially and materially from the marriage, which they did.

But marriage to the businessman not only shattered young Ester’s dream of an ideal marriage, it was, in fact, the start of grave problems for her. Her family, on the other hand, benefited as planned.

Her new husband was a drunkard and a womaniser and abused Ester in several ways, which included subjecting her to physical beatings, forcing her to have sex when she was not ready, and showing off his concubines to her.

“I stayed in the abusive marriage for close to five years until I got very sick and lost a lot of weight, after being treated for a host of sexually transmitted infections,” Ester says. 

In 2005, Ester went to a hospital, where she was counselled and tested for HIV, after being treated for three STIs. She was also advised to take a TB test. The results were not unexpected. Ester was HIV positive and also had TB.

By that time, she had become weak, her weight stood at 31 kilos, and she was coughing a lot. Her CD4 count stood at 50. In order to save her life following the diagnosis, she decided to leave her matrimonial home despite objections from her  parents, who were provided with food and money by her husband. 

Ester moved in with a half sister on the eastern side of Lusaka, where neither her parents nor her husband could locate her.

Ester also started attending part-time classes to complete her secondary school education, which she was forced to give up at the time of her marriage. Ester says her husband gave her everything that she needed except happiness, which was denied to her by his physical and emotional abuse. 

Today, Ester is a peer educator on HIV and AIDS. She has decided to be public about her status so that she can help other peers, especially those living in rural areas. She wishes to put an end to the practice of early marriages. 

Far Too Early 

Early Marriage, A Harmful Traditional Practice, a UNICEF publication, estimates that in 2005, 42 per cent of women between the ages of 15 to 24 years were married before the age of 18. 

Susan Kapema, an HIV and AIDs co-ordinator with the Times Newspapers in Lusaka, says that in Africa, the impact of HIV infections on women is particularly acute because of their social and economic vulnerability. 

“Women are both caretakers and caregivers at home, which makes them more susceptible to abuse. With high poverty levels, women can be easily co-erced into having unprotected sex by men who have money. Women are exposed to HIV as they have no choice but to submit to demands for sex in exchange for money,” Kapema says, adding that this also happens to young girls who are forced into early marriages by their parents. 

Ester Sakala, Executive Director of the Zambia Business Coalition for HIV–AIDS (ZBCHA), also says that women are vulnerable due to high poverty levels, which puts them at greater risk of contracting HIV. 

Hope And Despair

Zambia’s HIV prevalence rate was reduced from 16 per cent to 14.3 per cent between 2001 and 2007. About 200,000 people in need of antiretrovirals are now accessing the treatment. 

Abstinence, fidelity and condom use are being promoted with renewed vigour as cardinal prevention strategies. Male circumcision has recently generated a lot of hope as another prevention tool. Research on the use of microbicide gels brings hope that that such gels can act as a barrier to HIV infection in women and empower them. 

Voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) is being promoted as the only way to secure  ART treatment and support. VCT Day is commemorated annually on June 30. 

HIV and AIDS still poses one of the greatest challenges to the Zambian government. Zambia’s President Rupiah Banda acknowledged this during the World AIDS Day celebrations on December 1,2008 that the HIV prevalence rates among the economically prodictive groups in the ages of 15 and 49 years  is 14.3 per cent is worrying. 

Though the previously oppressive levels of stigma and discrimination are declining slowly, Zambia still remains one of the countries worst affected in the region because of the high HIV prevalence rates. 

President Banda therefore called for intensified efforts to prevent new infections. 

“We must join hands and accelerate universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support, as these are the avenues that can help us reverse the pandemic and reduce its impact,’’ Mr Banda said. 

As a first step to prevent new infections more women need to be educated and become economically independent. And, more men need to join the fight against HIV. 

About The Author : Enock Ngoma is editor of Sunday Times, the sister paper of the daily Times of Zambia. He writes a column, AIDS Corner, which is published in the Sunday Times.