Women bear the brunt of ongoing HIV crisis on campuses

High rates of HIV infections among students on university campuses are being fuelled by HIV-positive students on “revenge missions”, while others, mainly first-year women, are actively being targeted by older students in what is known as “the Gold Rush”, according to local university sources.

These are some of the factors explaining the fact that, according to Zimbabwe’s National AIDS Council, at least 45% of university students, particularly women, will be HIV-positive by the time they graduate.

Local Bulawayo university student Ruvarashe Tembo said she decided to become a peer educator in her third year after she contracted HIV on campus and witnessed first-hand the havoc the virus was causing.

As a peer educator, what Tembo found out was shocking.

Tembo said in most universities, new infections are fuelled by those on a “revenge mission” after arriving on campus negative and ending up positive.

“I would say knowledge is power. Most of us arrive on campus from home not properly oriented. In ignorance students get HIV and end up on a revenge mission. I know a girl who went on to sleep with a number of guys after she found out that she was positive,” she said.

According to the National AIDS Council, this kind of behaviour could reverse the gains made in the fight against the spread of HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe.

According to UK charity AVERT, which provides information about HIV and AIDS, out of a population of about 14 million, Zimbabwe has 1,3 million people living with HIV. However, deaths from AIDS-related illnesses continue to fall – from 61,000 in 2013 to 22,000 in 2017.

However, these positive developments in the decline in deaths from HIV and AIDS are taking time to filter down to tertiary institutions.

Informed sexual choices

According to the Students and Youths Working on Reproductive Health Action Team (SAYWHAT), a Zimbabwean membership-based registered trust for students in tertiary institutions, the spread of HIV and AIDS is exacerbated by the inability of young women and girls to make informed sexual and reproductive health choices, to negotiate for safer sex, to access information on health-related diagnostic, treatment, care and support services, and the powerlessness to protect themselves from gender-based violence.

An additional factor is the widespread practice of transactional and intergenerational sex as an option for survival.

The organisation said due to national socio-economic challenges there has been a decline in the provision of basic services to students at tertiary institutions. Some of the affected services include study grants, accommodation, catering services and health services.

“Given that the majority of students at tertiary institutions in Zimbabwe come from poor peasantry backgrounds, it became difficult for parents to take over from the government and provide tuition fees and funds for accommodation and food.

“Tertiary students in general, and female students in particular, were confronted with a plethora of challenges. In response to these challenges, students adopted a variety of coping mechanisms, some of which exposed them to sexual exploitation,” SAYWHAT said in a report on its website.

“One example, adopted by both female and male students, was co-habiting with an older sexual partner and engaging in sex work to raise funds to cover tuition fees, food and accommodation.”

Risky behaviour

Another example is the practice known as “the Gold Rush” where older students who view new female students as ripe for sexual exploitation, compete for new college students who they often abuse.

SAYWHAT said first-year students were more vulnerable due to inadequate knowledge about their sexual, reproductive and health rights, since high school education often does not adequately prepare them for college “freedom”.

“Sexual debut often happens at tertiary institutions with little or no preparation.”

As a result, the organisation started the Positive Living project to ensure students living with HIV accept their status and seek appropriate services as a way of addressing stigma.

The initiative also seeks to provide HIV prevention strategies, treatment, care and supportive information to students, and to ensure that college authorities and relevant ministries fulfil their duty of regularly providing anti-retroviral medication on campus.

Government failure

Zimbabwe National Students Union Secretary General, Ashley Pfunye, said one fundamental issue that has brought students to this crisis is failure by government to provide financial assistance to students.

He said for those in need of treatment on campus, there are not enough ARVs in universities, and there is a general outcry in terms their availability.