I Can See The Future Now, But Only When I Blink

Waiting by the gate to Hazaribagh slum, a mob of adolescents with red ribbons and excited faces were ready to raise awareness about AIDS in their living area. Gripping their banner, they marched through the streets of their neighborhood shouting the slogan: "Stop AIDS - That is our promise."

Hazaribagh is a slum in the southeast of Dhaka with a population of 25,000 people in just over one square kilometer. Most of its inhabitants are street sweepers- a depressing job that encourages alcoholism and drug addiction. We have been working in this area for 4 years. AIDS education is part of our integrated development process and targets adolescents and other young women. These groups share their learning with other members of their community through a variety of public activities, and also in informal settings.
This group of youth from the 12 local adolescent groups gathered to implement their learning through action. The march concluded in a small cricket field where the adolescents and a curious crowd of onlookers gathered to watch a couple of skits presented by young adults trained in Theatre for Development. Despite the surrounding noise, and the hot sunshine, the audience gave the performers their full attention.

The dramas stressed the seriousness and immediacy of AIDS, especially in this area. At a time when HIV infections have reached 7% among injection drug users in Bangladesh, Hazaribagh has a growing population of heroin addicts. Many injection drug users sell blood to blood banks to pay for their habit, yet 80% of donated blood in Bangladesh is not screened for HIV. In turn, many women get blood transfusions after delivering a child, and often this blood is from a blood bank.

Following the performances, the adolescents lined up again and marched to the local Clubhouse. They sat close together on the floor, anxious for the next part of the program. The Theatre group told them a story about the life of a rickshaw puller, a career common in the slum. They explained how rickshaw pullers have an unpredictable job and thus often sleep in different places, even though they may be based out of a particular slum. This lifestyle lends itself to multiple sexual partners (half of rickshaw pullers report having at least 10 partners in a year). This and other risky behaviors make rickshaw pullers an important target group for AIDS awareness. After the rickshaw puller in the story placed himself in a variety of situations which could have exposed him to the HIV virus, he went back to the village where his wife lived, infecting her and subsequently their baby. The adolescents listened intently, and answered the questions at the end, but they were getting restless, waiting expectantly to find out the result of the poster competition. Each group had designed and drawn a poster to raise awareness about AIDS. Many drew posters concerning the tainted blood supply, and the dangers of receiving blood from the blood bank. Finally, staff and People's Institutions chose the winner and presented the prizes to the talented artists.
Currently, HIV prevalence in Bangladesh low; there is estimated to be about 13,000 people infected with HIV. However, many of the factors that contribute to the spread of HIV are present in Bangladesh, most of which are forbidden to acknowledge in polite society. Besides the growing population of injection drug users, there is also an alarming level of extramarital sexual activity.

Many men leave their home and family in the village to work in a city or abroad. Recent studies (ICDDR-B, 2006) suggest that half of migrant men have other sexual partners while apart from their wives. Ten percent of the wives of men who go abroad for work have other sexual partners in their husbands absence. This is only one of the reasons for which Bangladesh has the busiest sex workers in Asia. (MAP report, 2004) Additionally, there are quite a few men who have sex with other men. Besides traditional societally sanctioned hijra's, there are men the west would consider "homosexual," as well as men who consider themselves to be heterosexual, but have sex with men while away from their wives as men are considered as "safer" than sex workers. In general, both men and sex workers report very low condom usage. (4th round HIV surveilence, Bangladesh)

AIDS Day Observation events were held not only in Hazaribagh, but also at the other 4 slums we work in Dhaka city, and all the other working areas of our partners throughout Bangladesh. Our partners and communities know that though Bangladesh has a relatively small number of HIV infected people now, it will not always stay that way. To keep Bangladesh from being devastated by HIV&AIDS they have to take advantage of this window of opportunity for prevention advocacy to Stop AIDS and Keep the Promise.