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This article was co-written by Jo Fischl
Ntenje Katota, a 21 year-old from Zambia, visited the University of York as part of the Stop AIDS Societies Speaker Tour 2007, and described the effect the disease has had upon her life. Ntenje is the main carer for her HIV positive mother and has experienced first-hand the difference that access to comprehensive AIDS services can make.
She said: “When I discovered my mother was HIV positive, I didn’t know what to say or do, but let her know I was there to support her.”
When I discovered my mother was HIV positive, I didn’t know what to say or do.
As well as supporting her mother, Ntenje has been involved with peer education, and care and support initiatives for people living with HIV in Zambia. Ntenje feels she is the voice of the voiceless, as most young people who are affected by the pandemic in Africa do not have the opportunity to speak out. Her mother’s strength and belief in the fight against the pandemic has had a profound influence on her own life choices.
Three weeks before the end of a volunteering programme abroad, Ntenje described how she was called home to Zambia as her mother’s condition had worsened.
“When I got home, I rushed to my mother’s bedside. She looked so different in the space of 3 months. She looked sick. At that time I felt I couldn’t cry. I felt I was my mother’s strength.
“The greatest thing we have decided to give her is love. I am today asking you to join in the fight. If you pressure your leaders, people like my mother may be able to receive quality treatment. That has been my driving force.”
Alongside Ntenje, three other visiting speakers gave informative and moving accounts of their involvement in HIV/AIDS campaigns on what was their final stop in a nationwide tour of 18 UK universities. The tour had aimed to raise awareness of many of the issues surrounding the growing global pandemic, and encourage York students to join in future campaigning.
The campaign aims to pressurize the government to keep their promise to provide Universal Access to comprehensive HIV treatment services by 2010. When they launch a new three year AIDS initiative, the government will promise to provide the money, health workers, and medicines needed to fulfill this strategy.
For Will Horwitz, an 8 month gap year trip to Zambia was the major trigger behind his involvement in AIDS awareness campaigns. Before this, Will knew and cared little about AIDS. Zambia was a bit of a shock, and so when he started university he co-founded a Stop AIDS Society, and has been involved in the campaign ever since.
“In Zambia about 1 in 5 people are HIV positive. People are dying at an alarming rate. In Zambia it happens so frequently it’s just not that shocking. I realised that some things can be done from the UK as a student.”
Katy Athersuch, Student Stop AIDS Campaign Coordinator, described how she became involved in campaigning as a student with her university’s Students Stop AIDS Society. She described her anger at the fact that many HIV positive people around the world are unable to receive the medication and treatment they need to combat the effects of the virus and prolong their lives.
She said: “When I saw people infected in the 80s are still living today, I thought the fact that these medicines exist and they’re not getting to people is a terrible injustice.”
The event was hosted by the York Student Stop AIDS Society (SSA), a branch of 11 in the UK, aiming to raise money and awareness of AIDS, and attempting to remove the stigma associated with the disease.
The Stop AIDS Campaign is an unprecedented initiative of the UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development, bringing together more than 80 of the UK's leading development and HIV and AIDS groups.
York Student Stop AIDS Society President Katy Hardman said: “Treatment is a basic right and it is an essential part of the strategy to defeat the global HIV and AIDS pandemic. It is crucial to prevention efforts and to improving overall delivery of care."
Of the event, Katy added: “Hopefully this event will reach people at a human level and they will be spurred into action with us in AIDS awareness week, sign a petition, go to FULL STOP, or just remember to be safe and use condoms.”
Although the AIDS epidemic can seem far removed from our lives here at York, it was clear to see that the event was a crucial factor for the Stop AIDS Society in raising awareness to students. The speakers provided moving accounts of their personal experiences with the virus, reminding the audience, and us all, of what a terrible effect HIV has upon the lives of sufferers, and of the injustice of the current lack of global treatment availability.
To mark World AIDS Day on December 1st, the York society will be holding FULL STOP, a massive party with DJs and live music held in Week 8.
For more information on Student Stop AIDS, visit the Stop AIDS Campaign website
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