Almost HIV Free




Few days ago I watched one of my favourite poets from Passion for Christ Movement Ezekiel. His poem Almost (Saved) helped me to have a reflection on our young people in Zimbabwe. We as youths we are being faced with numerous challenges. Some of them are developmental challenges and others are challenges we invite because of our actions. HIV and AIDS falls under one of these categories. We have read from many sources, heard facts being shared on national radios, HIV and AIDS awareness programmes broadcasted on national televisions yet we fall short of preventing ourselves. There are many reasons why we fail but this document presents one of the unique ones. We live in the “Almost Era”.

We have developed a contemporary culture where we do things in almost perfect ways. We have lost the desire to pursue excellence in our everyday endeavours. This approach to life affects all aspects of our “human” development. When we look at our faith, we are almost Christians. Our commitment to our faith is decorative. We do not give our “whole” selves to the call of the faith. We are almost Christians. It is this decorative disposition which has became the fuel for the spread of HIV among the youths.
  
The spread of HIV among the youths is a “behavioural issue”. In Southern Africa and specifically in Zimbabwe, the major form of transmission is sexual intercourse.  Youths are aware of this strong behavioural dimension to the epidemic but their commitment to change their unproductive behaviours and maintain positive behaviours is almost satisfactory. The current statistics in Zimbabwe are still shocking. The prevalence rate is at 13.7% (NAC Website) for people between the ages of 15-49 and unfortunately most of us are within this age range. Whether it is unfortunate or fortunate depends on our disposition towards pursuing excellence in the management of our behaviours. For others, they welcome the responsibility and commit themselves to curb the spread of the virus and the development into full blown AIDS.

This article calls for the young people to revise their contemporary cultures. Remove elements within it that makes them susceptible to HIV and AIDS. The article implores the youths to adopt a strong desire to do everything with depth. Not to succumb to the current shared sickness of “almost” doing things right and “almost” being chaste. This means one has to run the race to the finishing line and not almost getting there. 
Sources for statistics: http://www.nac.org.zw/about/hiv-aids-situation and 2010_HIV-Global-UNAIDS-Report_em

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