08 April 2010

Monrovia, Liberia: Many people in Liberia are poor – and people living with HIV are poorer. It's because of the stigmatization, explains UNV volunteer Hanae Aida, who is here to help turn that situation around.

With a background in nursing, Hanae is a PMTCT Officer (Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV) with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). She spends her time both assisting the Ministry of Health in Monrovia with HIV and AIDS planning, and going out to the counties to monitor transmission prevention tactics in local hospitals.

"I like this assignment because I work at the national level – and at the same time I can see the people," she explains. "That combination is really helpful. If I just stayed in Monrovia, I might forget the people I'm really working for."

Her work with the Ministry of Health and with national HIV and AIDS programmes aims to scale up Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission services all over the country. But in addition to the planning elements, she assists with training and provides direct support to clinics.

"I go to support group meetings of People Living With HIV, mostly mothers and children, to see their activities and think about how to support them and how to improve their lives," she says, noting that peer support in these groups "sometimes works more than health workers or drugs".

As well as educating people, such groups encourage people to fight the stigma of HIV so as both to prevent transmission and lead normal lives. "They feel they are not alone," remarks Hanae.

The volunteer spirit is critical in getting people to open up and deal with their circumstances. Hanae gives the example of a pregnant woman she met, who was one of the most active people in her peer support group. Another hospital was trying to set up a similar group, so Hanae asked the woman to go and talk to other HIV-positive mothers about how peer support worked.

"She explained how she came to be HIV-positive, how she was abandoned by her husband, but also about how she is coping," Hanae recounts. "Sometimes it's difficult for mothers to continue the prophylactic treatments that can prevent transmission of the virus, but this woman is helping others to see the benefits... When she discloses her own situation, it helps others to come forward. It has really touched me."

Hanae Aida originally came to Africa with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), working for two years with a district health office in rural Ghana. "I didn't know about UNV before, and I didn't think of applying!" she recalls. "But since my contract with JICA ended, this was another way for me to come here while funded by Japan. Now I have more exposure at the national level, and can see how the UN system works."

"Since before nursing school, I wanted to work in a developing country," she continues, "and once I'd been exposed to the work, I wanted to continue. Being a volunteer with JICA and UNV has opened my mind. I realized there's another world, another way of life... I even feel it's strengthened my identity as Japanese."