Miss HIV, Botswana

MISS HIV STIGMA FREE 2007 BOTSWANA..TSHEBETSO THOBOLO comes on stage at the MISS HIV pageant to great applause. (c) David White

Stories about HIV and AIDS in Africa are often presented as either one of polar opposites. There are the news outlets who tend to publish negative stories, sometimes with a picture of a critically ill patient, and then there are the NGO’s who often have a policy that stories about HIV should be positive. The thinking is that negative stories increase stigmatization, that they lead to people with HIV being shunned by society.

I came up against this in Ethiopia when planning a series of radio adverts. On my advisory panel was a mixture of NGO’s, UN representatives and health specialists. One advert we wanted to run contained the fact that two out of three young people who die in Ethiopia, die from an AIDs related illness. BANG. What a row we had. The NGO representatives were up in arms but the health workers accused them of trying to bury the facts.

In the end the advert got dropped. But research showed that many young people were not aware of the likely outcome of becoming infected with HIV despite being the group most at risk. There is no doubt that ignorance was driving the fact that they were two times more likely to die from an AIDS related illness than from anything else.

After some time I came to the disturbing retaliation that some NGO’s were pushing western messages about HIV onto Ethiopian audiences; essentially the idea that HIV/AIDS is no longer a killer, that it’s a chronic disease that can be managed.

That’s only true if you solve the problem of poverty in Ethiopia. You can give someone as much access to anti viral drugs as you like but if they can’t feed themselves then they are going to get sick and die.

That’s where you can see that a blanket approach to communicating HIV is dangerous, seeking to hide the facts in preference for a kind of happy clappy approach. The international development industry is bursting with esteemed behavioral change experts with their mandatory PHD’s, who can explain a myriad of behavioral change theories, but who have no idea to tell a story.

The best stories have a range of emotions, they get you thinking, sometimes they may even change you.

So here’s an idea, let’s dispense with theories of negative or positive when it comes to telling stories about HIV and AIDS. Let’s just tell it how it is, David White style, in an honest, but entertaining and engaging way, that doesn’t seek to hide the facts.

Maybe that’s the real change we need.

“Miss HIV contestant, Elizabeth Ramolale, wonders whether her costume for part of the competition is going to keep her dignity intact.”

A photostudy of the Miss HIV contest in Botswana by David White a UK-based photographer, former contributing editor to Marie Claire and one half of the duckrabbit production team.

“The attitude here is that it’s OK to be a man and have this virus but women who are infected are worthless.” Tshebetso Thobolo, 29, HIV positive.

When, in 2003, Basha Mupeli discovered she was HIV positive, she did what she thought was the right thing and notified her boss. She was immediately sacked. Botswana’s Miss HIV pageant was born out of Basha’s anger at this treatment, and her desire to change attitudes towards people living with HIV and AIDS.

Each year, women living openly with HIV are invited to auditions in Botswana’s capital city, Gaborone. The final competition includes a catwalk fashion show, dance displays and inspirational speeches by the twelve contestants. Basha drums up as much local and national media interest as possible, but still feels she has a mountain to climb in changing male Batswana attitudes.

“It’s the men we need to reach. If we have to get them here with the promise of beautiful women, then that’s fine. At least they come, and then, while they sit and watch the ladies, they are being educated. I hope they will one day get the message that wearing a condom doesn’t make them less macho.”

Botswana was the first African country to provide ARVs for free, starting in 2002. Despite this and a comprehensive programme of education and outreach to both urban and rural populations, it still has the second highest rate of HIV in the world, superseded only by Swaziland.

Life expectancy in Botswana is less than 40 years, a figure about 28 years lower than it would have been without AIDS.

Contestants in the back room applying make up and lip stick using broken shards of mirror, in preparation for the beginning of the Miss HIV competition. (c) David White

Mavis Kealeboga having her hair done in a beauty salon in Kasane, Botswana, in preparation for the big event later that night.

Contestants for the competition dance outside.”The sugar bar” bar and truckstop in Kasane, Botswana. The women were doing outreach work to truckers and drinkers who need educating about safe sex and HIV. (c) David White

Winner of the Miss HIV Stigma free 2007 contest, Maria Motse (centre) on stage at the end of the competition. (c) David White

Miss HIV Stigma Free 2007 Botswana. Tsheboto Thobolo on stage at the Miss HIV pageant. (c) David White

Winner of the Miss HIV Stigma free 2007 contest, Maria Motse (centre) on stage at the end of the competition. (c) David White.

David White is an UK-based photographer, former contributing editor to Marie Claire and one half of the duckrabbit production team.

You can see the full set of pictures, or buy/licence the work here.