In 2000, Deborah MUKASEKURU (Coordinator of ANSP+) a woman activist was seeing stigma of Rwandan society against people living with HIV/AIDS as a common trend.
The HIV fatalities were worrisome, much as there were no antiretroviral drugs.
She understood that it was high time to start something that would defy the odds and in that very year, she founded ANSP+, a non-profit making organization for the fight against HIV/AIDS, poverty reduction and human rights promotion.
“We fought hard, visited the sick, provided counseling and we saw some relief in 2003 when anti-retroviral drugs were available in Rwanda,” said MUKASEKURU”.
“Following campaigns we had carried, stigma was also declining, and people living with HIV/AIDS started gaining hope for the future.”
In 2009, the organization started working with key population which include sex workers, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTI), and drug addicts.
With these groups, all ANSP+ activities are related to fighting HIV.
“Our role is not to tell sex workers to quit prostitution, it’s rather to tell them, that in your business, please consider protecting yourself against HIV,” Mukasekuru said.
“We encourage our members to, first of all test for HIV, and then take anti-retroviral drugs as required if ever they test positive”.
“You know, it’s a very hard task for these categories to take the medicine as required if they spent the night at the bar.”
“MUKASEKURU said, that through this journey, they (ANSP+) have experienced a lot of challenges where for example they are compelled to rent a house for the key population who were dismissed by their families”.
“Some of them have to spend life in a small room together because they have no option after their families chased them,” she said.
“Others are dismissed from work by the employers who take them as evil, which makes them miserable.”
ANSP+ grouped them in their associations which have now increased to 168 associations countrywide including more than 50,000 key population.
The organization is therefore member of Global Fund/CCM Rwanda, representing these groups.
How to Approach their members
“According to MUKASEKURU, at the beginning, it was quite difficult to approach their members because they were afraid to get known fearing the law and the community stigma”.
In several occasions, ANSP+ was compelled to conduct their meetings at Ministry of Local Government, which was cumbersome with them because they feared security people at the gate.
They also faced a challenge to get a meeting room because the owners would segregate them.
Currently, the key population meets in a meeting where even security organs join and there is no problem.
ANSP+ first helped them to avoid behaviors that expose them or attract the attention of the community.
On top of that, said MUKASEKURU, we sensitize them to work hard, and today, some create activities that generate revenues to be self-sufficient. To approach them, ANSP+ involves some peer educators who accepted to cooperate.
“They for example carry condoms for them and then write a report with tools that we provide.”
After their report, ANSP+ conducts field visit every three months and in the end, they create a community of friendship.
MUKASEKURU realized that, LGBTI have been facing the same stigma as HIV positive people in the past, but the same way HIV stigma declined considerably, mindset is also changing on LGBTI and sex workers, thanks to the media and other partners.
“In their research, ANSP+ understood that one may subscribe to homosexuality from school, from prison, and some are born homosexuals, while others are transformed by parents who want to educate them in a mindset of the sex they wished their children are. This is a result of our research,” said MUKASEKURU.
Partnership with the Global Fund/CCM Rwanda
According to Mukasekuru, they have got a long time partnership with the Global Fund/CCM Rwanda.
“When we started partnership in 2003 the Global Fund/CCM Rwanda supported us financially and they continued to accompany us in the most important component of our mission-sensitization,” MUKASEKURU said.
The sensitization further went to medical personnel and the local leaders to conduct an awareness campaign, telling them that the key population exists.
“We tell people that the key population exists and ignoring them is dangerous. You may pretend that they cannot affect you, but if for example a female sex worker meets your husband, then in the end, you get affected,” said an official at ANSP+.
“Currently the support from the Global Fund/CCM Rwanda is mostly focusing on the follow up of key population-their medication, their wellbeing and so on. Another one is on capacity building of ANSP+ staff which allows us to draft projects that attract funding from several other partners,” says Laurence Umutoni from ANSP+.
“You know, if we teach the key population and sensitize them against HIV, the pandemic will reduce drastically in our society.”