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Immigration striving to shield workers against AIDS
2006-02-24 09:25:31
By JAMES PIUS
In efforts to fight HIV/AIDS that has seriously taken its toll in the office, the Immigration Division is searching for the most workable way to ensure its married officials are always with their spouses.
The Immigration Division is conducting a rigorous campaign to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS among its workers. In a recent four-day seminar dubbed ’Immigration AIDS Day’, it armed its officials with the necessary knowledge to protect themselves against the scourge.
Opening the seminar, a medical practitioner, Dr Subilaga Kaganda, said lack of perseverance, mutual confidence and sexual lust were the main causes for the current high rate of HIV/AIDS among married people.
’I am happy that the Immigration Department has set the pace in organising such a seminar for its married staff, a move which will make its workers aware of the necessary measures to protect themselves against the disease,’ Subilaga said.
Dr Subilaga who is the AMREF’s project manager of the anti-HIV/AIDS project at workplaces, challenged other government ministries and departments to emulate the example set by the Immigration Division.
However, he lamented that despite efforts by the government on mobilising and informing the populace on the danger of the disease, the rate of infection still rose up especially among spouses and the youth, which are the nation’s major manpower.
Heated arguments erupted at the group discussions of the seminar about who between the spouses was responsible for the infection of the disease. Opinions varied. Some accused wives of being the cause.
Others said it was men who were unfaithful and responsible for the spread of the disease. They were all answering a question raised by Abdalah Jafari on what makes spouses unfaithful in their marriages. Jafari works with Consign, an NGO that deals with HIV/AIDS matters and is based in Dar es Salaam.
While the fair sex claimed that they were not faithful on account of the scorn by and lack of love from their spouses, who sometimes choose to make love to their house girls, men responded that they broke the fidelity code because their wives did not satisfy them sexually, claiming to be too tired with the household chores to have sex.
It was the Immigration’s Director Kinemo Kihomano, who formed the anti-HIV/AIDS move, following a spate of deaths among its staff from the scourge.
Ms Salome Kaserwa Kahamba, the coordinator of the committee, said since founding of the committee the rate of the disease seems to have considerably declined.
’We are proud of this move as deaths emanating from AIDS among our staff have dropped while many workers are taking precautionary measures on this score,’ says Salome.
The Deputy Director, Cuthbert Sambalyegula, is happy that members of his staff now know the realities about HIV/AIDS and how to evade it.
Apart from the issue of corruption, Mr Sambalyegula says, the management is happy that the rate of deaths emanating from HIV/AIDS has decreased.
’We have to change our habits and abide by our religious ethics for spiritual encouragement… This is imperative as huge funds are also involved in the drive,’ says Sambalyegula, adding that education on AIDS has to be included in our schools’ curricular.
Ms Salome said that seminars for spouses were the brainchild of the Policy Director for TACAIDS, Dr Joseph Temba, who scientifically saw it imperative to mobilise a wide cross section of the public as possible.
Dr Temba stresses adoption of the AIDS subject in all schools so that the public knows about the disease from childhood and how to evade it when they grow up and start having sex.
He hailed the Immigration Department’s management led by its Director, Kihomano, for making good use of the government’s funds on fighting the disease.
That, said Dr. Temba would save the lives of the Divisiion’s staff.
’TACAIDS has seen the genuine efforts you are taking on this score, and I promise that we shall continue funding you on this issue as you set a good example for other institutions,’ he said, calling on the Police and the Prisons to emulate the Immigration.
Good results that the department’s mobilisation drive produced should be practised at home and the surrounding community, he said.
Dr Temba also called upon government departments and other institutions to initiate such moves at their work places and mobilise their workers against the disease.
He assured those ready to take the dive on this score that they would be provided by the needed funds by his committee if they show concrete initiatives.
Dr Temba was officiating at the closing ceremony of six-week workshop of peer educators for 35 immigration officers from Tanzania Mainland and Tanzania Islands.
Retired Immigration Director, Raphael Kubaga, awarded the seminar participants certificates.
Kihomano called upon the participants to be in frontline in educating the public on the dangers and precautionary measures against the disease.
’I hereby declare you as the department’s main task force against HIV/AIDS and failure of executing what you learnt here will be shameful to you and the office,’ he stressed.
Ms Salome Kaserwa Kahamba, also said it was significant for the workshop’s participants to educate their fellow workers on the experience ’you got here’.
She said participants had been sent on mobilisation errands with the aim of testing their knowledge on the subject.
The first group went to Police Training College in Moshi, while the second group would visit the Prisons Training College in Kiwira in Mbeya Region.
Other groups would go to carry out the same mission at Mwalimu J.K Nyerere International Airport (DIA), Tunduma and Namanga in Arusha.
Kihomano also cautioned people suffering from the disease to write wills for their children with the aim of avoiding trouble in case they die as greedy people were bound to defraud them of what they were supposed to inherit.
’We have to cultivate the habit of writing wills in order to keep away people with bad intentions in the absence of parents,’ he stressed.
Ms Agnes Mchome, a participant of the workshop, hailed the move, saying it would check many deaths caused by HIV/AIDS.
’After the workshop, I now realise that I can live for more than 15 years with the virus while I continue working as usual,’ she said, showering praise on the organisers of the workshop and promising to educate fellow workers after she returned to her workplace.
Mr Ally Haji, another participant from Zanzibar, said the workshop had emboldened him to test for the disease. He was now armed with enough information to enable him to talk openly about HIV/AIDS with his family without fear.
But Erasto Haule, a participant from Mtwara, had the opinion that immigration workers just beginning their work needed such knowledge as was given at the seminar because they were still too anxious to spend their first salaries on leisure and pleasure, thus exposing themselves to a big risk of contracting the disease.
The workshop, sponsored by the Immigration Department and TACAIDS, was run jointly with speakers from TACAIDS, WAMATA, CONCERN, AMREF and The National Social Institute.
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