Hamjambo!
It’s September now. Here in Tanzania, the National Exam for Standard 7 will be held on 10, 11 September, so the staff in the Department of Education in Temeke are very busy for its preparation. This is the exam held at the end of the education in primary schools. The results influence students’ allocation to secondary schools.
As you see in the title of today’s diary, I’ll write about the People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Tanzania briefly. Here in Tanzania, it is estimated that about 7 % of people aged 15 to 49 are infected by HIV virus. It is quite a big number, so you cannot avoid coming across PLWHA.
The other day, I visited several families who have HIV patients at home. There are several local groups doing activities for HIV issues in Temeke area, where now I am working. The members of one of those groups escorted me then. Also some of the members are PLWHA. They look very fine and can do any activities. They said that they started taking medicine and proper treatment so that they are fine now, but before some of them were suffering very much. Now I see HIV is not necessarily fatal any more, though it is still serious disease.
Then what makes HIV/AIDS so special among several disease? Probably, still there is discrimination and segregation for the patients and infected people, and they are somehow afraid that they may be victims, I guess. However, I have an impression that in Tanzania, those people are relatively well accepted by society, and people know about this disease well. Children are well informed at school.
If I think about the situation in Japan, my country, probably many of us still lack of knowledge and concern about this disease. Or some of us may misunderstand this disease or how to prevent this disease. Probably there are many things we should learn from the experience of Tanzania about this issue.
It’s September now. Here in Tanzania, the National Exam for Standard 7 will be held on 10, 11 September, so the staff in the Department of Education in Temeke are very busy for its preparation. This is the exam held at the end of the education in primary schools. The results influence students’ allocation to secondary schools.
As you see in the title of today’s diary, I’ll write about the People Living With HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Tanzania briefly. Here in Tanzania, it is estimated that about 7 % of people aged 15 to 49 are infected by HIV virus. It is quite a big number, so you cannot avoid coming across PLWHA.
The other day, I visited several families who have HIV patients at home. There are several local groups doing activities for HIV issues in Temeke area, where now I am working. The members of one of those groups escorted me then. Also some of the members are PLWHA. They look very fine and can do any activities. They said that they started taking medicine and proper treatment so that they are fine now, but before some of them were suffering very much. Now I see HIV is not necessarily fatal any more, though it is still serious disease.
Then what makes HIV/AIDS so special among several disease? Probably, still there is discrimination and segregation for the patients and infected people, and they are somehow afraid that they may be victims, I guess. However, I have an impression that in Tanzania, those people are relatively well accepted by society, and people know about this disease well. Children are well informed at school.
If I think about the situation in Japan, my country, probably many of us still lack of knowledge and concern about this disease. Or some of us may misunderstand this disease or how to prevent this disease. Probably there are many things we should learn from the experience of Tanzania about this issue.
Totaonana tena.
(The booklet explaining the national policy to prevent HIV/AIDS for young people.)
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