Botswana gay people won’t afford hiv/Aids drugs due to Government’s
Corruption
Having had to gather for world Aids day this year, it must have
contributed to the awareness of HIV/Aids around the world as well as
recognising those that are living with Aids. Looking at my country and
its economy, it’s lacking in so many things, there’s a lot of campaign
around Africa and western countries regarding hunger, what about
HIV/Aids? How much effort is being put into having affordable medication
in Africa?
There are millions of people in Africa living with the virus and we can
no longer go on having an excuse of starvation to manage the medication.
World Aids Day means a lot to a lot of us, but to some point we want to
know how much we are doing about it in African countries to have cheap
and affordable medication.
As a gay person and living with the virus, I do appreciate the live8
campaign initiated by Bob Geldof raising funds for the hunger in
Africa, but at the same time its very painful that the funds raised is
not reaching all those that are starving. It’s the same thing with the
Anti-retrovirus; it’s only a small number of people receiving the
medication while others are left to wait till they die.
Enough is enough, it’s about time these people raising funds on behalf
of Africa look at the African government first, because the corruption
that’s going on is too much, this is why we are not much interested in
donor countries providing with food because Africa is not that poor, but
there is just too much laziness and corruption going on. This is why we
can even afford HIV/Aids medication.
My country is rich, it exports diamonds and beef, but surprisingly we
cant afford the medication, but its not easy to address the government
about these issues all because one is sick and can never seem to
contribute to the society, so you have no say in whatever way. Its even
unhealthy to go to some hospitals in my country, some wards where Aids
patients are kept its unbelievable, much easier to even die from home,
these places cane only be kept well to better standards when there is
some officials visiting the hospital, now you imagine being gay is not
accepted in this country and to make the matter worse you are HIV so you
can’t easily speak out, except maybe through interviews like this on
africanveil.
Some African leaders will always call out for aid and funding but when
that comes through that funding is put to their own use this is
happening out here. Some organisations are meant to welcome all people
from all walks of the country but if you are gay you are discriminated
against, and they will even tell you that that funding will not involve
the promotion of homosexuality. Being a Tswana we are so proud of our
country that it’s hard to migrate to other neighbouring countries, but
it’s shocking that Botswana has the highest rate of HIV/ Aids.
So to all those western countries that’s are busy trying to gather funds
for some African countries, please get to know how the funds are being
distributed and that the funds are of everyone in that country that
includes gender, sexuality and race. The best example would be Zimbabwe,
but we do sympathise with all those innocent people and gays and
lesbians that are discriminated against and are stuck with Mugabe.
Botswana is a nice country, good wildlife and has good tourism but how
good is it looking after its citizens? I for one I’m HIV, not on
medication but before I die I would like to see that day when the
country would recognise homosexuality and be able to accept that those
people living with the virus can still contribute to the society.
By Ndanji
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