The EU-IOM Joint Initiative in Mauritania plans to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS among 1000 people. The project's target populations are migrants, community leaders and beneficiaries of the Assisted Voluntary Return and Reintegration programme.
Sensitization is implemented to provide basic and essential knowledge to reduce the transmission of sexually transmitted infections and HIV/AIDS in the long-term. In partnership with the Mauritanian NGO Stop Sida, IOM is implementing these awareness sessions and organizing talks with target groups. Participants often mention difficulties in addressing this subject in a Muslim context, especially in classes with schoolchildren and students, as one teacher points out: «We live in a country where there are still taboos around the subject of HIV/AIDS, we cannot really answer children's questions in classes using certain precise and explicit vocabulary words such as: penis, female condom... Here people talk about marriage but between what is said and what is done, there is a big difference. Teenagers ask basic questions and want information, the subject is really interesting for them. Demonstrations are impossible, not only because of a lack of equipment but also because the society is very conservative. I had problems with the teaching staff after some courses on sex education. More anatomical models, more didactic terms, and above all, a speech without filters are needed to get the message across correctly.» These awareness-raising sessions are interactive and participatory, many questions and prejudices are raised. Exchanges are facilitated by the presence of the Mauritanian medical staff. Virologist, Zahra Fall Malick explains, «There is a tendency here to believe that Muslim clerics are not very open. Traditionally, premarital sex is of course prohibited, but it is a reality. Religious leaders do not want to advertise condoms but support this approach to protect their communities. Sometimes this can be a shock, but it has to be done, it has to be talked about and people will be listening.»During these workshops, Communication for Development (C4D) is an important theme as some participants will become, in turn, relay ambassadors to raise awareness in their communities. This communication principle aims to change behaviours and practices, as Abdel Ghader Ahmed, adviser to the Minister of Health in charge of communication, points out, «Improving or changing one's lifestyle in the health sector often implies improving one's quality of life. Changing your customs, your habits sometimes even your traditions, it is a heavy challenge but it is a necessity.»
A.G. Ahmed insists on the quality of the information to be transmitted, its accuracy and accessibility: «if you go to the market to buy condoms, you expose yourself, you buy the disease, these condoms are not good! You have to know where to get quality condoms, the knowledge base is the right information. Know how to get information, have reliable information. Your own behaviour will influence your relatives and then your community. There is a rebound effect. From the individual, to the family to the community.»
Talking with your family and friends about HIV/AIDS is not always easy. Community awareness aims to make this subject more affordable, democratic and non-discriminatory. There is a real lack of voluntary testing because many people evoke fear of judgment or feel a sense of humiliation. Due to lack of knowledge, close family members may also be exposed to stigmatization. In Mauritanian society, where one can easily divorce and therefore have multiple partners, HIV / AIDS does not have a good image and is associated with adultery or sexual deviancy, considered a disease of shame. «The other person's gaze prevents us from going to the test and talking about it. People are therefore afraid to take the test and then follow their treatment if necessary. Fear should not lead to a refusal to take the test, the virus that has invaded an organism is not afraid of it,» says virologist Zahra Fall Malick. His colleague, Dr. Ndioubnane El Moctar, obstetrician gynaecologist, discusses the case of tuberculosis or diabetes, a disease very poorly considered in Mauritania a few years ago: «Thirty years ago, these diseases, through ignorance, were synonymous with shame. The turn of HIV/AIDS will come, it takes time, the perception of society is difficult to change. It was considered that AIDS was a disease linked to sex outside marriage or a curse, in a religious and traditional society it is a taboo, a social convention that must be changed.»