Monday, October 17, 2011

AIDS in Africa

I watched a video on YouTube called Deadly Catch - Kenya. The video talks about a community near Lake Victoria. Lake Victory is a big fishing industry. In this industry men go to fish and the women buy the fish from the men.  The women wait for the men to come back with fish but the fish isn't reserved for anyone. To get fish reserved the women form a sexual relationship with the fishermen call the Joboya System. After receiving fish from the fishermen, they take the fish to the bus to bring to the vendors. The women form sexual relationships with the bus drivers to reserve a spot on the bus for them and with the vendors to make sure they have room to sell their fish. It's pretty upsetting seeing women have to do this to support their family. Most of the women do this because their husbands died of AIDS. But while the women believe they are helping their kids by making money doing this. They are also developing AIDS and soon could be leaving their children parentless if they don't receive treatment.

The next video I watched was 28 stories of AIDS in Africa. She talks about several of her experiences in Africa. She talked about Africa's economy was crippled due to the fact that people ages 18 to 35 were the majority with AIDS. She talked about how they were the productive workers. They grew food, earned money, and had kids. What I think she was getting at was that if people didn't grow, what would people eat. Without people making money, how could people buy anything? Last if people with kids died then who would watch those kids and support them. Since no one could support them, those kids would have to grow up earlier and work to make themselves money. Just like the one story she told about the two kids who were five and nine when they lost their parents because of AIDS. She also talks about how people are afraid to tell others that they developed AIDS. People fear they will be neglected from everyone. There are many reasons why people get AIDS, but in Africa it mostly deals with wealth.

I believe the effect of AIDS is so massive in Africa then it is in the United States because in the U.S. you learn about AIDS more and it can be treated. There are far more hospitals in the U.S. then in Africa. With this, help is more frequent in the U.S. then Africa. Stephanie Nolan says how there are more treatments for the B strand which was in the United States, and nothing for the A and C strand which was in Africa. This shows how AIDS can also affect people in Africa more than the United States.

Before watching these videos I knew that Africa had the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in the entire world. I also knew that it was affecting a lot of people a day and killing others. A lot of people can't afford to get medication so it takes over their bodies very quickly.  What I wasn't sure about was how it affected people. With these videos I learned that AIDS can affect economies and education in Africa. If people can't work because they have AIDS then the economy will go down. With that it causes little kids to work at earlier ages causing them to not get an education. Or it could affect their education in a different way. If the teacher get infected with AIDS, who will end up taking their spots. This will cause kids to get no education and never learn about AIDS.

The culture in these videos is easily shown in the Deadly Catch - Kenya video. The culture here relies on Lake Victory and the fishing community. Men get the fish and women buy the fish from the men. Women aren't always guaranteed fish so the form sexual relationships with the fishermen. With the sexual relationships it allows AIDS to spread easily. The one woman says she doesn't want to tell her fishermen that she is HIV positive because then he won't get her fish anymore. Since she isn't telling him, he will end up getting it and giving it to someone else. The women also have relationships with other people to make sure they have connections to get their fish to the market. Most of these sexual relationships are unprotected, which increases their chances of giving and receiving AIDS.

Some solutions are what the Bush Administration did. They gave away condoms to people in Africa, but there isn't enough to protect people engaging in more than four sexual encounters a year. In Africa the Government needs to educate the people about safe sex, abstinence, and monogamous relationships. With that people will learn about AIDS and how to prevent it. Last, I think they should open up some clinics around Africa that will give away medication for AIDS. These clinics will go in areas where there aren't any hospitals and a lot of people have AIDS. The clinic will teach and give away condoms to anyone to try and help prevent further spread of the disease. 

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