Casestudy: Kelvin Wamunyima Sifanu

...not enough people know enough

Kelvin is forty years old and a fisherman by trade. He is not married, but he has a three year old child. He is a migrant worker and comes to Mongu from May until December to fish as fishing is prohibited at other times in order to let the fish breed and the water is too high between March and May. The fishermen migrate between the different fishing camps on the plains. The camp Kelvin goes to is Nandombe near Mukoko. During the fishing season, they camp near the banks of the Zambezi River and Kelvin fishes in one of its tributaries. Life among the fishermen is hard as they live in temporary huts which often get washed or blown away.

Kelvin begins fishing at about 20:00 and continues through the night, returning to sell the fish in the morning at about 05:00 where the fishmongers wait. Depending on net size, there can be up to four people on each net. When they return from a night's fishing, some sleep while others often go drinking. Kelvin feels that the issue of HIV and AIDS is very significant. Fishermen do not usually bring their wives and partners with them when they go fishing and as many of the fishmongers are women, the situation can be difficult. If a woman refuses to have an affair with a fisherman, he can refuse to sell his fish to her until she does. It is common that a woman will come to buy fish and sleep with one man on one day, and then the next day with another. Some can even have three or four men in a few days. If any of these are infected, the virus can spread quickly.

Kelvin argues that because the area where they are is so rural, there are few people to teach about HIV and AIDS and that, as a result, not enough people know enough. He does not know of any organisation that teaches about HIV and AIDS in this area. While some people go to the hospital to get condoms, he believes there is little condom use in the fishing communities, despite the amount of sexual activity. Some people in the area know their status, and continue to have unprotected sex because they say they do not wish to die alone.

He has been for VCT a few times, and is negative. He tries to educate people about HIV, because he has an advantage as he lives half of the time in an urban area, and half of the time in a rural area. But some remain uninterested. Kelvin argues that every Zambian should go for VCT so that they can take care of themselves. Above all, if they are in a relationship, they should stick to one partner and be safe.