My lovely people, you may wonder how I spend my World AIDS Day. Although on the first of December I was in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, with the PrEpNu outreach team to share information about PrEP at an LGBTQIA+ refugee event organised by COC the Netherlands, my heart was full of excitement of what was happening in Gihanga in Burundi.
In my home country Burundi there are 13.24 million people of which 2.9% are living with HIV. This means 383,000 people! Many of them still do not have reliable access to HIV treatment and HIV stigma and prejudices are still widespread throughout Burundi. That's not cool!!!
When my cousin Sifa and her husband died of AIDS in 2015, I was already living more than 10 years with HIV. Sifa was not ready to accept her diagnosis, she and her husband did not dare to go for treatment as they were afraid that people would judge them. In the end they were killed by HIV stigma. Later on, I learned about another aunty who died in silence, they found out too late. This did drive me mad! I started asking myself how can we normalize HIV in my community?
I know what works as I am already using arts as a powerful tool to engage people in HIV awareness, education and stigma reduction. Even when I was young we used music and dance to promote peace during the war. We can use art to kill stigma too!
That is how I started working with local artists from my hometown Gihanga and founded the youth association Inyambo STARS. On World AIDS Day 2020 we hosted the first "Gihanga Talent show". When we saw the success of this show, we decided to continue to support and encourage young talents in Gihanga to help spread the message on HIV awareness and stigma reduction.
This fifth edition of the Gihanga Talent Show was about solidarity with people living with HIV. It was the most diverse ever as we opened the event for many different categories; We saw young talents singing, performing modern and traditional dance, performing theater, and doing catwalks.
When I received the images of the event it made me emotional and I could not help myself to shed a tear of joy. Look at these images, there is so much young talent and there are so many young people enjoying the show in this tiny village in the heart of Africa!
One of the most memorable moments of the event was when Lyse Bella, a young woman from the Burundian Association for Women in Action (BAWA), shared her story about living with HIV for the first time. She was very proud to answer so many questions from the audience and she got many compliments from young girls and boys. She stressed that it is very important to keep on education the young generation if we want to eradicate HIV and the stigma surrounding it.
Also during the event, Irene Kundubumwe from Inyambo STARS gave a talk about PrEP. The next day I heard a funny story about a few young boys that went to a Gihanga health official to ask for PrEP. He told them to first get tested so they can get a prescription from a doctor and then get PrEP for free. This shows how easy HIV awareness messages can be spread through these kind of events and that we should invest more in public events and HIV prevention services.
We are targeting a young generation. Combining arts, bringing joy to young people and fighting HIV stigma is a powerful combination. I am so proud of all 2024 Gihanga Talent Show winners and all the other young talents who joined the event, your artistic contributions and messages on HIV stigma reduction are truly appreciated. Your presence and dedication shows that we, people living with HIV, are supported by our community.
My wish for the 6th edition of the Gihanga Talent Show is to include an HIV testing facility during the event, so that many people who want to do an HIV test can do it right way. Do you know that you can also help us out? A tiny contribution to the event can make a huge difference. This is really important locally-led HIV action which must be funded more!
Finally, I would like to thank the Inyambo STARS team, jury members MC Machad Enos PRO Akim Landry and MC Jerome Umutarambigwa, BAWA and PrEP educator Irene Kundubumwe for making the Gihanga Talent Show a memorable event on World AIDS Day 2024.
Peace,
Eliane
This blog was originally posted on hivstigmafighter
So inspiring!
Can't thank you enough for all the work you do and how much you inspire others! Keep doing what you are doing! it's magic!