RSS 2.0 FeedAugust 2011 - Vol 36, Featured Articles, Guest Writer
Reckless Behaviour Fuels HIV Spread
Baby sitting on her lap, she tapped her leg to the blurring sound of sungura music playing in the smoke-filled tavern writes Catherine Murombedzi for Zimpapers.
Rumbi is a pretty face aged just 20 and is already a mother of two minor children.
She had her first baby at the age of 15. This means she dropped from high school in the second year.
She admitted she was not 'bright' so she does not regret being a high school drop out.
Asked if she did not have any other skills where she shone at school she smiled and said: "Aah I used to run very well.
"In fact I was nicknamed 'Airzim' because I could outsprint all the girls at school. Even when still in primary school, I used to be paid to run for the secondary school because I was so good. Do you think I could have made a living from running?" she quizzed.
Rumbi leaves her five-year-old girl alone at night when she has gone to bed because she has to provide for the family. She straps the five-month-old baby on her back and heads for the tavern under the cover of darkness.
"I am their mother and father and I have to bring food on the table so I have to work hard. Yes, I am a full time sex worker," she said with careless regard.
Rumbi does not look her age, she looks three years younger and said this is her draw card as male clients prefer young-looking girls.
If Rumbi is a professional sex worker, how come she keeps falling pregnant?
She could have made a mistake at first but now with a second baby she seems on the path to self-destruction.
Rumbi speaks of a normal upbringing but just got lost somewhere along the line.
She attended Tsinhirano Primary School in Tafara, Harare and attended Oriel for her secondary school.
She blames her friends who put her under their bad influence.
"Knowing the girls from the ghetto, the upbringing and swag that we had, we could not allow the girls from the low density suburb to look down upon us at school. This meant that we proved ourselves as the better buddies in most social standings at school," she said.
Rumbi admits to having started sleeping around when in Form 1.
"My friends told me that they had already done it so I was the foolish one not to have tried," she said.
On being told that she was on a path to destruction she shrugged off.
"Who is not, even a married woman safe in her matrimonial home can still get HIV from her husband, so what destruction are you talking about. Are you immune yourself," she asked.
There seems to be a sense of 'who cares' in most people who are reckless like Rumbi.
Rumbi was chased away from home when she failed to account for her pregnancy.
"I was not sure who was responsible. I had slept with many partners, mostly older men who provided me with cash for the good life that we liked at school," she said.
"So when I fell pregnant, I could not tell who was the father. Can one tell why one has a running stomach if one has had a meal of beans," she said with reckless design.
"We went from one man to the other, a total of three and all the men flatly refused responsibility, so my aunt was not amused and she dumped me at my parents' home, where I was again chased away.
"That is how I ended up living here in Epworth where rentals are affordable and 'work' is available," she said.
Rumbi drops her baby on a pal who is seated next to her before heading onto the dance floor.
"Sorry, will you pay for the story or its for free. If you pay, I will entertain you, if you do not, that's enough."
That she is a good dancer is an understatement. She makes the league of Sandra Ndebele and would make a living as a dancer in a musical band.
She dances her sorrows on the dance floor where she is joined by a man in his forties.
She gets down to a raunchy dance which gets dirty and the two leave the tavern arm in arm.
I enquire from the bar attendants why they let under-aged girls even with toddlers into the tavern.
"Aah mother, its business as usual. We are not their keepers. As long as we get our wages at the end of the week, no one is barred here," said the bouncer.
On enquiring at the baby sitter on how she will feed the little one over the night, she laughed.
"Hey mother, she will come back, she has gone for a quick one," laughed the other girl who even looks like a teenager.
Sure, after fifteen minutes or so Rumbi is back without her arm-swing partner around.
"Business was good he wanted no protection and paid me well. Twenty good bucks enough for my rent," she said.
I get interested and asked why she would use no protection if she is a pro.
"Do you intend to be a baby making machine or what?" I asked.
"Ohh that's a thing of the past, she rolls her arm sleeve. See this, is my passport. For five years I am maternity free, I got an insert," she said.
Insert or no insert, she risks getting infected with HIV. Rumbi said she is not bothered about that.
"I got tested when I had my second baby and who said I am not HIV positive, so that is water under the bridge," said the good girl gone bad.
It could be true that she is HIV positive because any normal person would not sleep around with strangers without even using protection.
If this is the case then she is deliberately spreading the virus.
Rumbi comes back and takes her baby and she suckles the little baby talking and stroking the baby's head lovingly.
"Today mom is rich, we can afford to go home early sweetie. And now to you my sister, what is your story, pay say US$5 and we can talk," she ordered.
I pay the 'talking fee' and she then opened the flood gates.
"I tested HIV positive during ante natal clinic last year. I know who infected me because five years ago when I had my first baby I was okay," she said.
"He asked me to first have a baby with him if he wanted me to consider him taking me as his second wife. I agreed because he was generous with his pocket and I also wanted to be married," she said.
"He even gave me money to register for ante natal clinic but when I came back with the results he told me it was over.
"He told me that I was just supposed to have his baby in a safe environment not to go and ask for an HIV test, so he said it was over," she said.
She said the man even changed his phone number and she is not sure where he lives since he used to come to her lodgings.
"Well my sister, you can help me, I want this man to know that Rumbi is fine, baby boy is fine and I gave him his name.
"He is Charlie but unfortunately I do not know his surname just his totem Nyamuzihwa, so he must come and take his baby because he is making life miserable for me," she said.
Rumbi said she cannot even go back to Tafara because she now has two kids.
"My parents disowned me when I had my first baby and they do not care where I am.
"I do not blame them. I was bad news, jumping over the pre-cast wall at 14, hey I was bad news takaipa takaipa," she said.
Rumbi is serious that if she is to meet Charlie she will leave him with the baby because at least she knows who the father is.
Rumbi said she got registered on the PMTCT and the baby's first HIV test at six weeks was negative.
Since she is breastfeeding, she will take another test when she weans her baby.
"Baby tested HIV negative at six weeks so at least that is a consolation," she said.
If people who fully know that they are HIV positive still go out to have unprotected sex, then we may soon find ourselves with cross infections in such people and this erodes the gains made in lowering the prevalence rate so far which stands at 13,7 percent.
A doctor speaking on condition of anonymity said they were encountering HIV positive people calling in with STIs everyday.
"The numbers of HIV positive people calling in with STIs is shocking. Such people need not only be treated but be taken on reorientation and recounselling sessions because they do not get it.
"I am afraid we may have multi drug resistance illnesses from such cases," he said.
The recent Aids conference also noted that behaviour change was a tool in lessening the spread of HIV but pointers on the ground indicate to a different scene.
May Rumbi get counselled again and get to respect herself first before thinking of any other person because with such reckless regard to life, it means having more people streaming onto the already burdened health scheme.
The revised figures show 650 000 people in need of ART right now. Instead of funding the health care as a whole and research, we are bound to be channelling more funds into HIV treatment.
Till then, God bless you.
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