With its white sand and sunny blue skies, Miramar Beach in the port city of Beira, Mozambique, has all the right ingredients to draw tourists from all over the world.

But that is not all this idyllic coastline attracts. "The beach is fertile ground for the spread of the [HI] virus, because so many people's paths cross there," said Victoria Machava, who works for the Beira municipal health department.

Miramar Beach is in Sofala Bay, close to the main Indian Ocean shipping routes and the largest airport in Mozambique's central region; it is not only ideally situated for tourism but also for the sex trade.

The explosion in both has led Beira's municipal government and local non-governmental organisations to launch HIV/AIDS awareness-raising campaigns in areas like Miramar to reach tourists, most of whom are European, as well as locals, including sex workers and fishermen.

Billboards along the beach warn people about the dangers of HIV, while a group of 15 activists from the city council provides prevention information and distributes condoms. "The environment entices people to have sex, but we've noticed that many of those who come to the beach don't bring condoms with them," said Zito Lazaro, 23, one of the activists.
High prevalence, high risk

An HIV infection rate of 35 percent - more than double the national average - means Beira is the worst-affected city in Sofala, Mozambique's worst-affected province. According to official figures, half of all new HIV infections identified in Sofala Province in 2007 were reported in Beira - a total of 11,242 cases.

The city's high prevalence can partly be attributed to its location at one end of the corridor linking Mozambique to Zimbabwe, Malawi and Botswana: countries with HIV infection rates that are among the highest in the world.

Truck drivers, sex workers, fishermen and street children, some of the groups most vulnerable to HIV infection, mingle with tourists, other visitors and locals on Miramar Beach.

Virgínia M.*, a 31-year-old sex worker, thinks she became infected with HIV during an unprotected sexual encounter at an eating establishment near the beach. Despite being aware of the risks, she said money sometimes talks louder: sex with a condom costs about US$4, but she can charge $10 for unprotected sex.

With support from the province's AIDS unit, 14 community-based AIDS organisations in the region have joined forces with the Beira municipal government to carry out campaigns in areas with the highest risk. At the weekends, they give lectures and screen educational films on the beach, in shops and in night clubs.

"Behind the high infection rate are high risk factors," said Machava of the city's health department. "That's why we're fighting not to allow a breeding ground for the spread of the virus."

*not her real name

PlusNews 

Sex between prison inmates is a reality at Manica Provincial Prison, in central Mozambique, but because same-sex relations are taboo, and conjugal visits are not allowed, many HIV-positive inmates say they were infected before they were sent to the largest prison in Manica Province.

The reality is often different. "Based on the analyses we carried out, we found that some inmates were indeed infected before being locked up, but the majority was infected inside the jail," said Elsa Thaibo, director of the health department in Chimoio, who is also responsible for providing medical assistance to the prison located in the city.

Carlos Alid, 38, who was jailed in 2005 for counterfeiting money and has four more years left to serve, told IRIN/PlusNews: "Because of the lack of other options, some men seek what they should be getting from their wives or from other women, in men."

He discovered he was HIV positive after a voluntary test in prison, and suspects he was infected after becoming an inmate. Alid said some of the younger prisoners have sex with older ones in exchange for food and protection, especially since many do not enjoy the support of their families. The sex does not always include condoms.

HIV behind bars

The prison, located near a mountain with the shape of man's head, known as "Cabeça de Velho" (old man's head in English), has an HIV prevalence rate of 4.5 percent among the approximately 1,000 inmates, according to official data.

"It's been very difficult to keep this [HIV] outside. You can't see it coming and it's impossible to see it being transmitted," said prison director Francisco Mate.
Between January and May of 2008, 43 of the 246 of the prisoners examined – both men and women – were diagnosed as HIV positive; of these, eight are taking antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

UNAIDS has encouraged the authorities to acknowledge that sex between men occurs, and that preventative measures be adopted. Nevertheless, three years ago, several prisons in Mozambique rejected the proposal that condoms be distributed to inmates, arguing that there was no homosexual activity taking place in prisons.

This is slowly changing. "The government already understands that the distribution of condoms in jails does not promote homosexuality, but rather contributes toward HIV prevention. That's why it's begun to distribute them," said Thaibo.

Besides unprotected sexual relations, specialists point to needle sharing to inject drugs and unsterilised tattooing instruments as factors that could contribute to the spread of HIV in the nation's prisons.

"Prison authorities are unable to control the high-risk practices," said David Demo, 33, who has been in prison for two years for homicide.

Signs of change

But prevention means more than just condom distribution. In addition to giving out free condoms, the group Shinguirirai (support, in the Shona language) holds lectures and education sessions, provides psychological assistance and helps prisoners stick to their ARV treatment regimen.
Rui João, 27, in the prison's high-security wing for the murder of a neighbour in 2006, discovered he was HIV positive in September 2007 and began taking ARVs. He is now one of Shinguirirai's activists and gives other prisoners information about AIDS, and supports those on treatment.

Prison employees are also included in the awareness-raising campaigns, and with the support of the Provincial Nucleus for the Fight Against AIDS, Shinguirirai organised courses last year for both prison workers and inmates.

According to João, prison conditions are not ideal for HIV-positive individuals to live healthy lives, such as a nutritious diet and an adequate environment, which are fundamental to the success of ARV treatment.

Some NGOs and religious institutions have sought to make up for these shortcomings with balanced meals and medical assistance for HIV-positive inmates on two Saturdays a month, but the need persists.

Even so, prison director Mate believes there are signs of change. "There was a time when a considerable number of inmates died because of a lack of care, but this has gone down now because it's not easy for a prisoner to see a fellow inmate die. Little by little, we're managing to get somewhere."

PlusNews  

Mozambique's annual growth rate of more than seven percent in recent years has been feted as a southern Africa success story, but it has been achieved on the back of industry while more than two-thirds of the country's 21 million people reside in rural areas, scratching a living from subsistence farming.

About 98 percent of all farming is practiced on small plots and the yields per hectare are lower than regional averages. A 2005 study found that only about four percent of farmers used fertiliser and only six percent applied irrigation techniques.

Nearly two decades of war followed independence from Portugal in 1995. In the late 1980s the country embraced free market reforms and put in place development strategies.

But a recent United Nations Development Programme study criticised these for not being "pro-poor", while contending that since the civil war ended in 1992, agricultural growth had only bounced back to pre-war levels, with no substantial productivity improvements.

In an attempt to address rural development, a pilot project, the Programme for Agricultural Market Support (PAMA in Portuguese), was conceived by the government in September 2001 to help smallholder farmers access the formal economy.

Funded by a US$3.8 million injection by the Mozambican government and a US$23.6 million loan from the United Nations International Fund for Agricultural Development, the project aimed to create a sustainable network of farmers and rural traders that would become independent in a three-year timeframe.

About 230,000 households in the northern provinces of Cabo Delgado and Niassa and the southern province of Maputo would benefit.

PAMA's project coordinator, Rui Ribeiro, using Maputo Province - where the capital, Maputo, is located - as an example, explained to IRIN the problems faced by small-scale producers and how they were overcome.

"We verified that producers in Maputo were in a situation of weakness," he said. "They couldn't compete with [neighbouring] South Africa on price and quality, and they had low productivity."

Accessing the market economy

PAMA found local farmers were ignorant of their own market, access to it was generally through intermediaries, such as hawkers selling produce on the streets, and there were no organised associations to manage infrastructure and implement regulations.

Ribeiro said PAMA conducted surveys to identify potential markets, products and buyers to determine "within the gamut of producers what are the products that will earn the most money? What do the buyers demand of producers? What are the best seed varieties?"

Armed with this information, PAMA began teaching small-scale farmers about irrigation systems, how to write business and production plans, become familiar with market prices, and run a farm in harmony with market demands.

Producers began cutting out the middlemen by negotiating directly with big buyers like the local branch of South African supermarket chain Shoprite/Checkers, the Maputo Central Hospital, and various hotels.

This has led to a change in fortunes for PAMA's small-scale farmers: companies are purchasing between 25 and 50 percent of participating farmers' produce, while the remainder is sold to local markets.

"Other programmes would invest in something like irrigation but not teach producers how to manage the system. They had no connection with the market," said Ribeiro. "We have achieved rapid results, with little dependence. Farmers now understand the market; they understand what the market needs and what they can be capable of producing."

Pine Opperman, Shoprite's operations manager in Mozambique, told IRIN that when the supermarket chain set up shop in Mozambique 10 years ago, the store was importing all its produce from South Africa. PAMA proposed that the supermarkets source from their farmers and Opperman agreed to give local producers a chance.

"They [PAMA farmers] were far ahead of other farmers in the area. Most people didn't even use proper fertiliser, they would just move [to new land] every year," said Opperman.

"It's a lot easier and a lot more reliable - knowing that I can get the quantity I ordered. It's not just somebody on the side of the road." He said sourcing from local producers represented a 45 percent saving on the cost of imports from South Africa.

PAMA's marketing director, Mario Quissico, said the farmers also valued working in the formal sector, as it provided consistent demand and pre-established prices for produce.

The challenges of remote rural areas

Anibal dos Anjos, PAMA's provincial coordinator, told IRIN that in the more remote provinces of Cabo Delgado and Niassa the initiative placed greater emphasis on educating rural traders, as producers were faced with a different set of problems.

"There were weak connections to the market, an absence of organised groups, poor road access, no rural credit to speak of, a weak trading market, very little dissemination of information about markets, low literacy and very low academic levels," Dos Anjos said.

PAMA offered classes in stock and business management, helped traders to organise associations and unions that would give them greater access to credit, while working with provincial public works departments addressed the problems of infrastructure by improving roads and rail links.

In cooperation with Radio Mozambique, the medium most accessible to rural farmers, local journalists were trained to inform listeners of price fluctuations in cash crops like cotton and tobacco.

"The essence of the programme wasn't production but commercialisation," said Dos Anjos. "We now move approximately 1,000 tons of products, representing significant financial returns, and we support 204 associations and 14 unions of farmers and traders."

The programme helped Daudo Saïde, a rural trader in Niassa Province who buys and sells agricultural products and seeds. "My business was at a very low level. I was doing general commerce at the central market and had very little capital."

He became a licensed trader, opened a bank account and participated in PAMA's classes in business planning, accountancy, warehousing, and controlling stock and output. "Now I have a vision for my business," he said. "I feel like I'm at a more stable level."

The World Bank, acting as an administrator for the Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA), today signed a grant agreement with Mozambique’s Water Supply Assets and Investment Fund (FIPAG) for US$6 million to increase piped-water access for poor households living in five cities: Beira, Maputo, Nampula, Pemba, and Quelimane. 

Under this grant, private service providers operating under lease contracts from FIPAG will connect an estimated 468,000 poor people to piped water supply through approximately 29,000 new yard taps; each is expected to serve around three households. 
The project is introducing an innovative Output-Based Aid approach, designed to ensure ownership and demand-driven service provision, and to set the basis for long-term operational and financial sustainability. All of the new connections will be pre-financed on an output-basis by the private operators.   FIPAG will be responsible for overseeing the project and will receive GPOBA payments only after independently verified delivery of functioning yard-taps and three months’ continued water supply.

“The GPOBA grant is an important boost to our efforts to extend access to safe, reliable water services to some of Mozambique’s poorest households. This, for sure, is a significant contribution towards achieving the MDGs and Mozambique Government targets,” said Nelson Beete, President of FIPAG.
Traditionally in Mozambique, household and yard tap connections have only been available to those who can afford to pay the connection costs (between US$167 and US$241). Currently, these costs are wholly funded by users and are not recovered through the water tariffs. The US$6 million in GPOBA subsidies, together with user contributions in the form of guarantee deposits, will pay for the final connections. The user contribution for each connection will be on average less than 10 percent of the actual connection cost.

“Having piped water close to hand will allow children to spend less time collecting water for their families and increase their chances of going to school,” said Luiz Tavares, Senior Water and Sanitation Specialist and the project’s manager for GPOBA and the World Bank.   “The GPOBA project will also help to reduce disease and death related to water-borne illnesses, and to improve financial viability and transparency in the water sector.”
The Global Partnership on Output-Based Aid (GPOBA) is a multi-donor trust fund administered by the World Bank.   GPOBA was established in 2003 to develop output-based aid (OBA) approaches across a variety of sectors including infrastructure, health, and education.   OBA subsidies are designed to create incentives for efficiency and the long-term success of development projects. 

GPOBA’s current donors are the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), which is a member of the World Bank Group, the Directorate-General for International Cooperation of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DGIS), AusAid of Australia, and the Swedish International Development Cooperation (Sida).

The World Bank

Exploitation and abuse of human trafficking victims, mainly taken from Mozambique to South Africa, has seen a surge in media headlines but experts warn this is just "the tip of the iceberg."

There have been 52 suspected cases of trafficking involving young women and children since the beginning of the year, according to Save the Children-United Kingdom (SC-UK) Mozambique. The latest involved the sexual enslavement of three Mozambican children, aged between 14 and 16, at a brothel in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria.

According to Chris McIvor, country director for SC-UK in Mozambique, the increased number of cases reported points to a deeper and more pervasive problem throughout Southern Africa.

"Like any illegal practice which brings financial profits to people who carry out such activities, it is highly likely that there are many more cases that remain unreported,” McIvor told IRIN. “Thousands of children leave Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Lesotho every year to cross the border to South Africa without documentation.”

Wiesje Zikkenheiner, associate expert at the UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime Regional Office for Southern Africa, agreed the problem was underreported: “human trafficking is a problem in the whole Southern Africa region though South Africa is the regional magnet for most countries.”

Although the practice is believed to be growing, accurate statistics on the magnitude of the problem remain elusiver. A 2003 study on trafficking in the region by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) estimated that 1,000 Mozambican woman and children were being trafficked to South Africa every year, mainly for sexual exploitation.

The issue is broader than the orthodox image of trafficking, where individuals are transported across a border against their will. The Mozambican girls found in Pretoria, now reunited with their families in the Mozambican capital, Maputo, had been lured across the border by the promise of work and an education.

“People are tempted to find what they need and become susceptible to the promises that people make,” said Mandy Shongwe, manager of Amazing Grace, a children’s home in Malelane, South Africa, near the Mozambican border.

“The voluntary nature of the movement of children across borders should not dilute the concern we must feel about what happens to them in other countries. They may not be trafficked in the classical sense of the term, but they have numerous rights infringed and merit our protection," McIvor said.

Attraction of a better life

Shongwe has helped hundreds of children who passed through his home on their way back to Mozambique. “The main reason behind what is going on is there is more poverty in Mozambique so people are attracted to South Africa to find a better life,” he said.

According to McIvor the economic and social factors that create the vulnerability  continues to worsen in many countries in the region. “Higher levels of unemployment, young people looking for better lives, demands in some countries for illegal, cheap labour create the conditions that are ripe for trafficking,” he explained.

Zikkenheiner said recent years had seen the increased involvement of criminal organisations in human trafficking because of the extremely high profits and relatively low risks involved.
“Trafficking in persons is dynamic, adaptable, opportunistic and - takes advantage of conflicts, humanitarian disasters, and vulnerability of people,” Zikkenheiner said. Lack of awareness and “the clandestine nature make it difficult to investigate trafficking cases and identify all role-players”.

As traffickers become more adept at concealing their activities, “we must all be worried that what we have seen in recent months is only the tip of the iceberg", McIvor warned.

“The traffickers we have spoken to say they are taking advantage of the lack of legislation, a hole in the legal system; they know they will be charged with only part of what they are doing if they get caught, like sexual harassment or kidnapping,” Shongwe said.

Mozambican law makes no provision for prosecuting alleged human traffickers; consequently, no suspected trafficker has ever been tried for the crime, even though the practice is illegal under international law.

“Currently, even where trafficking is criminalised, cases are not investigated or investigations do not result in convictions,” Zikkenheiner said, adding that if legislation is not yet in place other existing legislation to prosecute the traffickers should be considered. “Most penal codes include crimes such as rape, abduction and fraud, and these crimes are often committed in trafficking cases.”

The Mozambican Council of Ministers approved a specific law against human trafficking and a proposed Children’s Act in 2007, but both are still pending parliament's approval.

A SC statement called for the passage of the proposed legislation, more cooperation between countries in Southern Africa, increased awareness on the dangers of trafficking and to ensure that survivors had access to proper care.

“The fight against trafficking calls for broad, multi-agency and cooperative criminal justice responses, both nationally, regionally and internationally. As a start, collecting, exchanging and analysing information on organized criminal networks is a fruitful approach to addressing trafficking in persons, especially with information on routes used by traffickers,” Zikkenheiner said.

IRIN

The United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) will provide emergency food aid for 60,000 people affected by cyclone Jokwe in Mozambique's northern regions.

Bonifácio Antonio, director of the relief coordination department of the National Disaster Management Institute (INGC), said at least 13,000 houses were destroyed by the cyclone in the northern provinces of Nampula and Zambezia. "We are still doing our assessments so the numbers in need might increase," he said.

Tropical cyclone Jokwe killed eight people and also destroyed homes and schools after it made landfall on Mozambique's northern coast on 7-8 March.

WFP will access existing stocks earmarked for other programmes to help the communities affected by cyclone Jokwe, said Peter Keller-Transburg, the spokesman for the food aid agency in Mozambique. "We will need US$550,000 to replenish these stocks as soon as possible."

Mozambique is yet to recover from floods in January 2008 following heavy seasonal rain in its central provinces in December 2007. The floods displaced over 100,000 people, who were moved to government-designated resettlement areas, according to WFP. The red alert warning along the Zambezi River and other rivers in central Mozambique has come to an end, said INGC's Antonio.

However, tens of thousands of displaced families will continue to rely on humanitarian assistance for months to come because they lost their assets, homes and harvests in the floods, WFP said in a press statement. Since emergency relief operations began in January, WFP and its partners have distributed over 3,000 metric tonnes of food in 17 flood-affected districts.

Mozambique was also hit by a drought in the south and floods in central Mozambique in January 2007. "We are still responding to the needs of those affected by the disasters in 2007," said Keller-Transburg.

The food aid agency is currently feeding more than 500,000 people affected by the multiple disasters of 2007 and 2008.

Water levels in Mozambique, the country hardest hit by Southern Africa's unusually early and heavy seasonal rains, are receding, but with thousands of people still displaced by flooding and living in camps yet again, there will be no rest for relief agencies any time soon.

"Water levels are certainly going down; for the moment things look good, but the rainy season can continue through March," Peter Keller-Transburg, Public Information and Reports Officer of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Mozambique, told IRIN. Rainfall has eased across the region and almost all the rivers in Mozambique are now below the alert level.

The Cahora Bassa Dam, in the northwestern province of Tete, built to generate electricity and regulate the flow of the Zambezi River, "has decreased its discharge rates from 1,850 to 1,700 cubic meters per second, due to decreased rainfall in Mozambique and in neighbouring countries," said the latest situation report by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

The Zambezi, Africa's fourth largest river, rises in Zambia and flows along the borders of Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe, crossing Mozambique before spilling into the Indian Ocean.

Keeping out of harm's way

Over 100,000 people, displaced by flooding in the Zambezi River Valley, are still in resettlement centres in Mozambique's central provinces of Tete, Sofala and Zambezia.

The idea is that they should rebuild their lives there. Since the rivers started rising in early January, the main challenge facing authorities and relief agencies has been convincing people in the fertile flood plains to leave their possessions behind, head for higher ground and stay put.

With catastrophic flooding occurring more frequently - up to 800 were left dead in 2000, and dozens were killed in 2007 - the Mozambican authorities have been strongly encouraging farmers to rebuild their houses on higher ground: Almost all the resettlement centres will be become more permanent settlements, "with all the necessary social structures like schools and hospitals", Transburg said.

He warned that when the waters receded people would have to be given more than social amenities, because economic prospects and a chance at making a living would be key to successful relocation.

However, the resettled people are facing more immediate problems, including outbreaks of cholera and other waterborne diseases. According to OCHA, "as of 26 February, cholera has affected 1,539 persons and resulted in 14 fatalities," in the flood-affected provinces of Tete and Sofala. "Cholera centres have been set up; eight out of eleven provinces have reported cholera."

Could have been worse

Despite the almost overwhelming difficulties, most observers agree that lessons have been learnt. Contingency planning by nine countries in the southern Africa region in 2007 meant they were much better prepared for the flooding in early 2008. There has also been far greater cooperation between governments in managing water levels in the river system, and local authorities have proved effective in their responses.

A Consolidated Appeals Process to raise US$89 million from the international community for the existing needs of 450,000 people and to improve preparedness measures was launched in February to assist Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. OCHA said so far just over $15 million had been given or pledged.

Meanwhile, cyclone Ivan, which brought destruction and flooding to Madagascar, was still lingering in the Mozambique Channel, according to Mozambique's National Directorate for Water. The storm posed no immediate threat to Mozambique, but the authorities would remain vigilant on the off-chance that it might pick up strength.

"I don't know why you had to go to the hospital," the woman's husband yells furiously. His pregnant wife defends her decision to go to the hospital instead of just trusting the traditional healer. "But I had to know about my health and the health of my baby," she argues. At the hospital, the wife discovers she is HIV positive.

Her husband screams, "So now you know - that's your health, but I'm healthy. Now get out of my house ... "It's over. It's all over between you and me." She tries to argue but its no use. And the scene is over.

The play, "My Husband is in Denial", is based on real events, like all those staged by the Grupo de Teatro do Oprimidos (GTO), "Theatre of the Oppressed Group" in English).

When the wife's HIV test is positive, her husband refuses to be tested and the actor then turns to the audience and asks, "How do I resolve this situation?"

Audience participation

Teatro dos Oprimidos has an interactive style that originated in Brazil and has been exported to more than 70 countries on all continents. Its creator, Augusto Boal, was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for his success in using theatre as a tool for social activism.

Using workshops and verbal exchanges with the audience, this style of theatre has not only spread but has proven to be an excellent method for revealing cultural obstacles in HIV treatment and prevention. In Mozambique, where there is a long-standing tradition of socially aware community theatre, it has found fertile ground.

After the 1992 peace accord brought an end to 16 years of war, the National Song and Dance Company crisscrossed the country, announcing that the conflict had ended and asking for reconciliation. Later, numerous local theatre groups explained how to avoid land mines and how to vote in the country's first democratic elections. In 1997, actors explained to farmers their rights according to the new land law.

Today, Mozambique has a total of 120 theatre groups in 83 districts performing plays mostly about malaria, cholera, tuberculosis and HIV prevention. GTO has partnerships with the youth activism network, Geração Biz, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and Pathfinder International, a non-profit family planning and reproductive health organization.

In 2001, after spending six months studying theatre methodology in Rio de Janeiro on a scholarship from the United Nations Organisation for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), Alvim Cossa founded GTO in the Mozambican capital, Maputo.

"The main difference is that there are no spectators - people participate. The play is presented, based on a question, and the audience provides the answer," said Cossa, an actor who has lost four members of his family to HIV/AIDS, and is now dedicated to preventing the disease and eliminating the stigma attached to it.

"Normally, the plays are created by the oppressed themselves - associations of people with HIV/AIDS tell their own stories of how they became infected, or how they have survived in life in a positive way."

Their own solutions

The plays are presented in public places - markets, schools or commercial centres. In one of the performances of "My Husband is in Denial", in a busy Maputo market, the audience was asked to put itself in the shoes of the pregnant wife - the oppressed character - and to suggest solutions to her dilemma.

Putting on the character's skirt and headscarf, men and women in the audience took the place of the wife to try to encourage the husband to take the test, or to explain that traditional medicine can be used but that for HIV you must go to the hospital.

Cossa said the results of these efforts to educate the audience were better than if someone had given a seminar in Portuguese or distributed printed materials to a mostly illiterate population.

Cuanja Zawares Muanza, an activist with the youth HIV educational group, Geração Biz, who gives HIV information talks in Maputo hospitals, said her young age often made older listeners ignore her advice on prevention and she found theatre more effective for teaching people about HIV/AIDS.

She remembered a play in which a father finds a condom in his teenage daughter's purse and confiscates it in the presence of the girl and her mother. "They were embarrassed because we were young people talking about condom use, but when the mothers in the audience saw what was happening they took on the role of the mother in the play to defend its use."

Sassy Capetine, another participant in GTO, said the plays often presented scenes with which the audience were familiar. "We take everyday problems experienced in the city. The idea is to fight to convince the father to let her use the condom," she said.

Muanza said the group researched themes for its plays by visiting the places where they would be staged, usually to give talks on HIV prevention.
During debates and question-and-answer sessions, participants identified themes or issues that were seldom discussed and generally considered problematic or taboo, and would be illustrated more efficiently through theatre.

The group is currently working on a play about the dangers of illegal abortion, to be staged in secondary schools. Muanza said the plays made the audience more willing to pass on information about subjects that were generally not discussed in public.

She has been mesmerizing fans for three decades.

Singer Elisa Domingas Jamisse, or Mingas, is one of Mozambique's most famous celebrities. Her music, a mixture of Afro sounds that gives prominence to the rhythms of the Chope people of southern Mozambique, has thrilled audiences the world over.

Mingas garnered applause for her work both as a solo artist and for her collaborations with icons such as Miriam Makeba and Jimmy Dludlu at the mega-concert she held in the capital, Maputo, in December to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the start of her career.

The trajectory of her career has coincided with the spread of HIV. Just as Mingas' career was taking off, AIDS was also beginning to gain ground. The pandemic is now just under 30 years old.

At the time, little was known about the HIV virus, but many artists' careers were ending prematurely because of AIDS. The disease came to the singer's attention during her first international tour in 1987.

AIDS had already hit the artistic community in Europe and musicians there would ask her about the epidemic in Africa. "That was when we saw that there was something seriously wrong, but we didn't have access to information. We didn't know anything," she recalled.

When she returned to her native land and tried to talk about the issue, she was met with disbelief. "A lot of people thought that AIDS was just a story made up to get the population to reduce their number of partners, or to buy more condoms, or to have fewer children," she said.

Seeing the epidemic spread in Mozambique, Mingas decided to use her celebrity to talk about this previously taboo subject. Her involvement in anti-AIDS efforts led to her participation in the CD 'Vidas Positivas' (Positive Lives) in 2002, a project by the non-governmental organisation, Doctors Without Borders.

Mingas wrote and sang "Xini Xiku Kluphaku," which translates as, "What Worries You in Life?" "I thought of this song because stigmatisation is one of the things that kill most. I wanted to say, 'No matter how much of a problem AIDS is, open yourself up, because that way we can live longer lives,'" she explained.

The song is still popular today, and always has a profound effect on audiences in Mozambique. "Everyone is moved because most families have lost someone to AIDS," Mingas said. "It's sad as well, because the song reminds people that the problem really does exist."
Targeting the artistic community

According to Mingas, artists - musicians, painters, actors, writers - are particularly vulnerable to HIV because of their lifestyle. "Because of the nature of our work we're surrounded by fans, and many artists end up letting down their guard and don't protect themselves. We've lost various musicians because of AIDS," she told IRIN/PlusNews.

As the epidemic has evolved, artists have begun to deal with the issue in their songs, paintings and novels, but Mingas stressed that "Many people are unable to reduce the number of partners they have or practice safe sex. We've participated in campaigns, we've sung, we've written books, but we still haven't changed people's behaviour."

The Southern African Development Community Artists Against HIV and AIDS Forum (SAAAF) was launched in January to work for greater behaviour change after a joint declaration by artists from Mozambique, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe performing at a festival in Harare, Zimbabwe in November 2007.

The Forum will carry out surveys on HIV and AIDS and provide data on the number of artists living with the disease, in addition to creating a network of contacts with other HIV organisations and services in the region. "I think that more people and more involvement to talk about this problem is what's needed," said Mingas.

The new body will also approach the governments of the Southern African Development Community, the international community and individuals to help artists deal with the pandemic and capacitate the executive committee to reach its objectives.

One of the Forum's tasks is to encourage all artists to undergo voluntary counselling and testing, and to guarantee that they receive all the necessary support if they test HIV positive.

"Artists have not managed to get help from existing organisations," said artist Setephen Chifunyise, the Forum's spokesperson. "As a result, many of them die in silence and isolation, without the support of their colleagues, artistic organisations or institutions that work with HIV."

PlusNews