Discrimination cases worry Napham
National Association of People Living with HIV and Aids in Malawi (Napham) has expressed shock at the increase in cases of discrimination against people living with HIV in Chikwawa District.
Napham expressed the sentiments during a news conference it organised at Hope Lodge in Chikwawa.
The association’s district coordinator in Chikwawa, Gladys Fatch, said they established the discrimination cases through an advocacy programme carried out in its catchment areas of Chapananga, Ngabu, Maseya and Katunga in the district.
She said: “It is pathetic that some traditional leaders still perceive people living with HIV as non-productive. For instance, some village heads are denying people on ART [anti-retroviral therapy] access to participate in various development projects describing them as ‘already dead people’ who cannot contribute to the development of the communities.”
The project seeks to enhance equitable access to treatment, care and support for people living with HIV and Aids in Malawi.
It was also learnt that Ngabu Health Centre has already gone for three months without bactrim, lacks a special room for ART and that Bereu Health Centre had no ART mobile clinic for some time.
Napham Chikwawa office, with K2 166 260 help from Oxfam, conducted the advocacy programme from November and December, 2015. n
