‘Gold rush’ fuels HIV infections at tertiary institutions

There is a common trend at Zimbabwe’s tertiary institutions where students get degrees or diplomas posthumously, a pointer that HIV and other communicable diseases have hit these colleges at an alarming rate.

HIV prevalence rates among these institutions remains high, as most students face challenges in seeking accommodation off campus, thus compromising their health by engaging in “transactional” sexual relationships with older persons.

These colleges demand tuition upfront either through their parents or the nonfunctional cadetship programmes.

This has left students with no option, but engage in “sex for cash” so that they continue with their education.

Male students are also involved in sexual relationships with older women, who in turn shower them with gifts and cash for school requirements or engage in illicit deals of selling habit-forming drugs like mbanje and alcohol.

Siendiswa Ndlovu, a programmes officer with SayWhat — a non-governmental organisation that creates a platform for students to meet, engage and interact on sexual and reproductive health — said.

                   This older person will be a working class/rich person who in most cases is 10 or more years older than the student who will cushion this student from these economic hardships

Ndlovu said that most students do not have the power to negotiate safe sex in inter-generational relationships like using protection and resulting in unplanned pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections (STI), HIV and Aids.

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“That is just the first level of entry of these infections which have a spillover effect where they decide to get abortions from women in nearby communities because abortion is illegal in Zimbabwe. This exposes them to more dangers as the girl might lose her life during a backstreet abortion process. The effects are no doubt more on the side of the girl child who carries the pregnancy and that is a real challenge.

“Quality of sexuality education is worrying because these institutions do not prioritise this subject and hence there is no standardised sex education curriculum which they can use or share.

“However, it is a different story with teachers’ training institutions that have a health and life skills department.

“But as you move to polytechnics, agricultural institutions, vocational training centres, agricultural colleges and many others, there is no funding for sexuality education,” Ndlovu said.

“Because of the lack of funding, development agencies like NGOs come and hold maybe one or two workshops, but there is no systematic and continuous approach to this and hence this compromises life skills of these students.”

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Fresh students come to these institutions with absolutely no idea on how to deal with their newfound freedom.

Studies from some African countries also noted that students from same-sex high schools are generally affected by this freedom and exposure to HIV.

A few years ago, a research at South African universities reported that most students were exposed to HIV through either rape or sexual intercourse by college employees or senior students during the induction period.

Ndlovu noted that although there was no research that he was aware of in that area, he had also observed that this scenario was clearly evident at tertiary institutions.

“They start drinking beer and cohabiting with students of the opposite sex or same sex relationships which are becoming evident at most of these tertiary institutions,” Ndlovu said.

He bemoaned that college clinics do not offer a comprehensive health approach that deal with sexual needs of the students.

“These clinics fall under the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education and not the Ministry of Health and Child Care so the services are not as comprehensive as you might want them to be. Young people are not bothered about many issues happening around their communities like old age and many other social issues.

“Their major challenge is issues around sexually transmitted infections (STIs), first time pregnancies, emergency contraception, HIV testing and so on. It is apparent that students are neither offered a comprehensive package when they visit these clinics nor life skills when they get enrolled at these institutions,” Ndlovu said

“Issues of confidentiality also come into play like when a story ran a few years ago that claimed an outbreak of STIs at some university. Students started shunning college clinics.”

He noted that none of these clinics roll out anti-retroviral drugs that mitigate progression of HIV infection to full blown Aids, which was a yawning gap considering the fact that there were many youths that were born with HIV who lead normal lives.

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A FORMER university student and peer educator Ashley Mufakose noted that there was a steady increase of same sex relationships at same sex schools and universities, an issue that also needed to be addressed.

“Lesbianism and homosexuality is a reality and it is imperative that authorities take a microscopic look into this matter and not brush it aside as though these people do not exist,” she said.

Ndlovu, however, said although there was no research to support Mufakose’s statements, he has observed a growing trend in same-sex relationships at educational institutions.

“Evidence is also pointing to the fact that some of these students became sexually active before they turned 15. This translates to about four in every 100 students, according to a Zimbabwe demographic survey,” he said.

He noted that parents are too busy working long hours due to economic challenges faced by the majority of the population and hence they have no time to discuss sexuality issues with their children.

The extended family is also no longer as intact as it used to be to impart some of these skills.

It also seems there is no systematic way to access information on sexual reproductive health, a situation that has resulted in youths experimenting with sex due to peer pressure.

“There is no doubt that we have such students since the advent of HIV and Aids in the ’80s and the Zimbabwe Demographic Health Survey for 2010-2011 states that the HIV  prevalence in the 15 to 24 year age group is 10% which is a very big number.

“Posthumous degrees are now frequent although these deaths are not necessarily only attributed to HIV-related complications . . . but it is a proxy indicator that something is happening around those issues at these institutions.”

The government has since launched the Adolescence Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy housed under the Ministry of Health and Child Care which has also outlined and specified tertiary institutions as a focus area.

Ndlovu said this was one area that needed some research and advocacy through Parliament and government departments to finance budgets on the social development for these students.

The component of social development at tertiary institutions tend to focus on various sporting disciplines with very little being allocated to sexuality education which eventually results in death of these students.

“THE trend we have picked during orientation is that older students prey on these freshmen or first year students known as the Gold Rush.

“The Gold Rush is when senior students flood hostels of freshmen or first year student who are vulnerable. Some students come from rural settings with absolutely no idea of what living alone at colleges is like,” Ndlovu said.

Recently, a student enrolled at a local city university with absolutely nothing on her except her few clothes.

“Although her fees were paid for, this student did not even have basic toiletries like toothpaste, bath soap and skin moisturisers which we shared with her out of pity. But she fell pregnant during the first semester, with some sugar daddy who disappeared without trace leaving her to fend for baby alone,” a former university student said.

She said a well-wisher, with the help of her overseas daughters, took her in, paid her fees, and she continued to stay with an elderly woman until she completed her education.

But not many students were this lucky.

Education for some ends when they either fall sick or die from HIV complications resulting in a good number of degrees being awarded posthumously.