HIV and Aids lobby groups have appealed to government to cease its planned demolition of illegal urban settlements saying the move would displace a lot of people living with HIV and Aids who require and are on follow-up treatment programmes.
VENERANDA LANGA
Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo has threatened to demolish illegal structures that have sprouted in most urban centres lately. Speaking to NewsDay in separate interviews yesterday, the groups said the proposed demolitions would affect people that were on free Anti-Retroviral therapy in a very bad way.
Martha Tholanah, national coordinator for the International Community of Women Living with HIV said forced displacements might cause patients to skip treatment and/or make home-based care services inaccessible to them.
“We are afraid that demolitions will cause displacement of many people living with HIV/Aids and this displacement is likely to result in them skipping treatment as their priorities will be finding alternative accommodation,” Tholanah said.
She said when government demolished illegal structures under Operation Murambatsvina in 2005, many people living with HIV and Aids who were on anti-retroviral treatment defaulted in taking ARVs, while others could not be traced for follow up treatment.
“The fact that they were allocated residential stands at illegal areas was not their fault because in most cases they bought the properties in the belief that they were legal and government must have an alternative solution for them instead of leaving them in the cold,” she said, adding that displacing people during the rainy season exposed them to all sorts of health risks.
Emmanuel Gasa, executive director of The Aids and Arts Foundation said government should provide alternative accommodation to victims of demolitions.
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“Currently, the country is failing to take care of its internally displaced people. More demolitions will mean these people will go without healthcare,” Gasa said.
