Educating Africans about AIDS

A health program has been set up in Guinea to educate rural male miners about the dangers inherent in “marrying” women impulsively and for brief periods.

It is a common practice for miners in the region to have sexual relations with women who work at the mines. However, it is also risky, as it leads to the spreading of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).

The practice of short “marriages” is known as foudoukoudouni in Malinke, a West African language. These unions often occur between women who are employed cleaning gold and male miners. The governments of the U.S. and Guinea are heading the initiative, which is being implemented by Cambridge, Mass.-based Management Sciences for Health in partnership with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health/Center for Communication Programs (CCP), in Baltimore, Md.

“Foudoukoudouni is a risky practice occurring in an extremely rural area of Guinea, where data on HIV and STD prevalence are scarce,” says Guillaume Bakadi, CCP’s resident advisor on the project. “But we know from health workers in the region that STDs and HIV are a growing problem because of this age-old custom.”

The prevention program is recruiting citizens from all walks of life and training them as educators. The best prevention is to abstain from sex, be faithful to one partner, or use a condom.

A study in 2001 indicated that 52% of all miners interviewed had contracted a STD; 43% said they were not faithful to one partner; and 14% said they do not believe HIV exists. Twenty-seven per-cent said they believe condoms don’t work.

So far, the prevention program has been implemented in the regions of Kerouane, Kourroussa, Mandiana, and Siguiri. Guinea is a mostly Muslim, male-dominated society, and speaking openly about sex can be controversial.

“This is the first time people here spoke in public about sex, STDs, HIV and foudoukoudouni,” says Mariame Fofana, who lives in one of the mining communities. “I really think people will change their behaviour following this campaign.”

This HIV/STD prevention program is the work of PRISM (“Pour renforcer les interventions en sant reproductive et MST SIDA), a project designed by the U.S. Agency for International Development and the government of Guinea. Plans call for the program to be introduced at diamond mines as well.

— The preceding is from an information bulletin published by the Johns Hopkins Centre for Communication Programs.