How To Dance

“How to Dance” has been produced by HIV positive children and adolescents from Africaid’s Zvandiri programme in Harare, Zimbabwe. This project was made possible through the Auxilla Chimusoro Alumni award from PEPFAR in January 2013. This award is given annually in memory of a courageous woman who was the first Zimbabwean woman to speak out bravely about her HIV status in the 1980’s.

Children and adolescents from Zvandiri have used this award to follow in Auxilla’s footsteps by also speaking out through their own song and DVD. For the first time, a group of HIV positive children and adolescents have come out publicly to describe the way in which they have learned “how to dance in the storm”, despite the challenges in their lives. As young people living with HIV, they call for zero HIV-related deaths, zero new HIV infections and zero stigma. Uniquely, they have been joined by a superband of Zimbabwean musicians who have helped them to turn their message in to a world class track and performance.

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Thanks to:

• Lead Artist: Rina Mushonga
• Artists: Mokoomba, Ba Shupi, Edith We Uthonga, Blackbird, Dizzy Don, Zimfellas, Zvandiri, Ammara Brown & Arundel School Choir
• Production: Nicola Willis, Sue Powell, Anna Miller, The Book Cafe, Di Robson
• Director and Camera: Linette Frewin
• Post-production: Simon de Swardt
• Recording Engineer: Vusa Moyo
• Mixed by: David Gleeson and Marc ‘Archie’ Arciero
• Illustration and DVD design: Marieke Ubbink
• Photography: Andreas Keller

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Nicola goes to PATA, Cape Town

This week, Nicola is joining the Newlands Clinic Team at the Paediatric AIDS Treatment for Africa (PATA) Forum in Cape Town, South Africa. Clinic teams from across Southern Africa and Nigeria are present and themes for the week include “The Cascade of Care”, “Disclosure” and the “Management of Co-infections” in children with HIV. Nicola has taken the opportunity to lobby for viral load testing in children, stating that “whilst we applaud ourselves for getting so many children on to ARV treatment, there is an international emergency, where the same children and adolescents are failing treatment. Yet we don’t know this until they present with clinical failure when it is often too late and they are dying. We need access to viral loads so that we can identify children who are failing treatment early”. She also advocated for the need for governments to really consider policy which advocates for early disclosure of HIV status to children with HIV. This is particularly important to support health workers through the common scenario where families are not willing for their children to be told their HIV status yet it is clearly in the best interests of the child to do so. The Government of Zimbabwe has developed very clear policy and guidelines on this issue which could assist other countries thinking through the same issues