A REPORT FOR DUNDUZU AIDS SUPPORT GROUP

Dunduzu ASG is a group of members infected by HIV, found under Matemanga village headman, Traditional Authority Mtwalo, in Mzimba district. The group started in 2003, with four members. The number of the group members has now grown up to 50 and works in about 20 villages. Thukutu ASG and Msiki ASG are both fruits of Dunduzu ASG.

The ASG has a number of activities which it does. Below is the list of the group’s activities:

  • Outreach programmes
  • Home based care
  • Group therapy
  • Rearing pigs

A similar exercise to that which was done at Thukutu ASGwas done at Dunduzu ASG by Annette Mkandawire a social work student on placement, on 10th March, 2010. Below are the findings she encountered during her interviews with the group members:

As regards to accessing ARVs, most of them said that they do not find any problems to access the drugs. And the drugs seemed to have helped them a lot as their health status has improved, as they no longer fall sick frequently.

Most members of this ASG are subsistence farmers who grow crops like maize, cassava, sweet potatoes and beans. Like members of Thukutu ASG, most members do not receive the fertilizer subsidy coupons. Pertaining to this, some few members revealed that they did not receive the coupons because they were discriminated against, and last year they reported this matter to Village Headman PondapondaMhango and InkosiMtwalo, but it was all in vain as nothing has changed. While the majority of the members stated that they did not receive the coupons because of they were few; not enough for everyone. Inaccess to fertilizer subsidy coupons creates a food shortage problem in their homes hence fueling malnutrition.

The members also revealed that they received nutritional counseling but fail to meet its demands due to lack of money to purchase some of the nutritious foods. A similar story was told byThukutu members where most of them think that nutritious food can only be bought from shops.

With regard to marital counseling, most of them seemed to have received this type of counseling. And they follow what they were told in this type of counseling.

The other problem faced by the group members is lack of school fees for their children. This has resulted into school drop out by some children. As these children fail to continue with their education, they still depend on their sick parents to carter for their basic needs hence fail to break out from the deprivation trap. However, a good number of children are being assisted by Ungweru with regard to their school fees.

RECCOMENDATIONS

Based on the assessment’s findings, I recommend the following to be done as some of the ways of assisting these people:

  • To do some nutritional counseling so that they are made aware of the nutritious foods which are found locally; as most of them think nutritious food can only be purchased. This can be done in partnership with other organizations which deal with nutrition and HIV and AIDS issues.
  • To do some awareness campaigns in terms of stigmatization and discrimination against those who are infected and affected by HIV and AIDS.
  • To talk to the chiefs and the VDCs as they are so involved in the distribution of coupons so that they should not sideline the infected individuals.
  • To teach them how to make organic manure as so as to reduce the tendency of over depending on inorganic fertilizers.
  • Ungweru should continue supporting the needy children whose parents and guardians can not afford to pay their school fees.

UNGWERU

SUBMITTED TO

ACTING EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

SUBMITTED BY

ANNETTE MKANDAWIRE (SOCIAL WORK STUDENT ON PLACEMENT)

A REPORT FOR THUKUTU AIDS SUPPORT GROUP ON NEEDS ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

DATE: 16 MARCH, 2010