27 Feb 2017

Principal disability officer from Office of the President, Ms Moshia Moalusi says people living with disabilities face a challenge of sexual abuse.

Thus, Ms Moalusi said they were  susceptible to contracting HIV/AIDS.

She said this during a three-day disability and HIV/AIDS workshop hosted by office of the President in Ghanzi recently.

The majority of people living with disabilities, she said depend on care givers and service providers for support whom in return take advantage of their situation and sexually abuse them.

“Mostly, the abusers include family members and are normally not reported and witnesses do not come forward as a way to protect the dignity of the family,” she said.

Most of the victims, she poited out were defenceless and at times feel indebted to the perpetrator.

She said the community should refrain from the myth that having sexual intercourse with a girl-child who is living with disability cleanses one from HIV/AIDS.

She further highlighted that there is no truth in that people living with disabilities were not at risk of contracting HIV because they were sexually inactive, do not use drugs and were not in danger of sexual exploitation or abuse.

Therefore, Ms Moalusi urged the public to respect the rights of people living with disabilities as in most cases they were unaware of their rights.

To avoid violation of their rights, she noted the public should always engage their caretakers and parents in decision making.

She said issues relating to HIV/AIDS affect people living with disabilities differently, according to their type of disability.

As for those who have hearing impairment, she said they had no access to radio campaigns, TV advertisements and information on HIV/AIDS due to communication barrier.

“HIV testing and counselling is a problem because health care providers are not capacitated with sign language, confidentiality is bridged and they either receive intervention late or not intervention at all,” she said.

As for those who are visually impaired, Ms Moalusi said audio tapes and access to braille were rarely available to help people with visual impairment access information.

Although counselling is not a problem, she said lack of simplified language to interpret results was a challenge.

She said people with visual impairment were tactile, yet there were no resources to help them understand.

Those who are mentally challenged, she noted that lack of simplified language often makes it difficult for this group to understand HIV/AIDS related issues, how directly it affects them and lack of freedom and privacy as they depend on their caregivers and were more vulnerable to verbal and sexual abuse.

Those who are physically challenged, she said there was no good access to health facilities for them and  lack of mobility aids such as transport or wheelchairs  to allow such people to travel to health facilities and testing centres, and places where public talks on HIV/AIDS were being given.

Ms Moalusi said government and other stakeholders were coming up with interventions, and government was advocating for the mainstreaming of disability in all sectors, NACA was financing HIV/AIDS programmes for people living with disabilities,  while other sectors were conducting sensitisation and awareness workshops on disabilities and HIV.

For their part, people living with disabilities have urged  stakeholders to all come on board and support them by providing relevant resources so that their uptake on HIV programmes should be visible.

They said access to health centres should cater for all of them irrespective of their type of disability.

One of the participants, Mr Zonzo Setima urged the stakeholders, more especially government officials to treat them equally as they were all living with disability regardless of the type of disability.

Another participant, Mr Matthew Tsenelelang said the Office of the President should visit them frequently as a way of updating them on government programmes. ENDS