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HEALTH-RIGHTS: Black, Poor, Female and HIV-Positive in Brazil
By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 6 (IPS) - Testing positive for HIV, the AIDS
virus, often brings ostracism for black women in Brazil, who
already suffer from prejudice and social inequality due to the
colour of their skin, their gender, and in many cases, their
poverty.
''It was terrible to discover that I was living with HIV five
years ago, when my youngest son was only six months old and began
to show symptoms of AIDS,'' Kelly Cristina Termiano told IPS.
Only then did she discover that she had been infected with HIV
by her husband, who had died a few months earlier of meningitis,
apparently without realizing that he had gotten AIDS from shooting
up drugs.
Termiano already had six children by the age of 26, when she
found out that she was a carrier of HIV. But only her youngest was
infected, and he no longer shows any symptoms of full-blown AIDS.
Termiano was born in Florianópolis, the capital of the southern
state of Santa Catarina, where she suffered heavy discrimination.
Black people form a smaller proportion of the population in
southern Brazil than in the rest of the country, and prejudices
are stronger there.
Her childhood and youth were marked by isolation and few
friendships, limited to people of her own skin colour. She was
barred from entering nightclubs, and suffered when she saw her
family and friends called derogatory names like ''monkeys'', and
when other black women tried to ''whiten'' themselves out of
shame.
''The fear of prejudice and of life with AIDS drove me to
liquor and drugs. I figured, if they already discriminated against
me for being black, just imagine with AIDS,'' said Termiano.
But under pressure from her family, who threatened to kick her
out of the house if she did not seek help, she joined the Group of
Support and Prevention of AIDS (GAPA), and began to be treated
with antiretroviral drugs, which are made available by Brazil's
public health system. She also got involved in volunteer work.
GAPA, a national network that operates throughout this South
American country of 170 million, gave her ''a meaning in life,''
says Termiano, who supports her family with a pension left by her
late husband, an official at the local public university.
As a volunteer, she is active in GAPA's programme ''Wake Up,
Woman'', talking about her own experiences and providing
information aimed at preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS and
overcoming prejudice.
''Many black women hide their HIV-positive status out of fear
of losing their jobs or their friends, thus increasing the risk of
the epidemic spreading,'' she pointed out.
Although HIV does not distinguish between people because of the
colour of their skin or their ethnic origins, the AIDS epidemic
''is spreading in a social context that is racist,'' which means
blacks and whites face different risks and consequences, explained
anthropologist Osmundo de Araujo Pinho, a researcher at the
University of Campinas, in the southern state of Sao Paulo.
The statistics reveal that in Brazil, the epidemic is growing
mainly in the most impoverished social strata, and at an even
faster rate among women.
That means the black population is hardest hit by the disease,
since it is the poorest and least educated of all of Brazil's
ethnic groups due to historical factors, said Pinho, GAPA's
coordinator of projects for excluded populations in the
northeastern state of Bahia.
Black women are the most vulnerable of all, because of the
''feminisation'' and ''pauperisation'' of HIV, and the
stereotypical ''black identity imposed by the predominant 'white'
way of thinking,'' according to which blacks are considered more
sensual and seen to have superior sexual attributes.
That stereotype contributes to the creation of situations of
greater risk for black men and women, said Pinho.
Psychologist Odonel Ferraria Ferrano is in constant touch with
that harsh reality, as the general coordinator of the Franciscan
Centre for the Fight Against AIDS (CEFRAN), in Sao Paulo.
The majority of the 300 people living with HIV/AIDS that CEFRAN
helps every week are black, Ferraria Ferrano noted in a
conversation with IPS.
Black women, he added, suffer the worst ostracism, as their
health status compounds the problems of racism and the greater
difficulty they already face in finding a job or source of income.
In general terms, unemployment is higher among women than among
men, but black women face even greater difficulties, because a
greater proportion of them are heads of households, he pointed
out.
Ferraria Ferrano said HIV accentuates the prejudice they
suffer, and makes it even tougher to get a job, which drives many
black women with HIV/AIDS to seek a state pension for disability
or illness and retire early, as the only possible source of
income.
However, the pension is tiny, as it is usually based on the
minimum wage, which is now equivalent to just 55 dollars a month.
In order for someone living with HIV to be granted the pension,
they must receive a doctor's certification of disability, or be
diagnosed with one of the common opportunistic infections linked
to AIDS, like tuberculosis or toxoplasmosis.
CEFRAN, which was founded eight years ago, provides HIV-
carriers with assistance while helping to develop sources of
income, like cooperatives in which services are exchanged.
In Porto Alegre, the capital of the southern state of Río
Grande do Sul, the Cultural Association of Black Women, founded in
1991 to fight racism, gives talks on citizen rights and AIDS
prevention, and distributes condoms.
The secretary of the Association, Luana Castro, said the
organisation also provides courses, organises women's craft
groups, and offers cultural activities to bolster self-esteem
among blacks, like capoeira classes for youngsters.
Capoeira is a Brazilian art form or sport with strong African
roots that combines martial arts, acrobatics, dance and music.
The Association is promoting the creation of a national
movement. To that end, it is organising a Nov 29-Dec 1 conference
in Porto Alegre on the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and
HIV/AIDS, which will draw black women activists from across the
country. (END/2002)
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