Batsirai’s Story: In Africa, safe messages were everywhere, but not in Australia

Batsirai’s story begins in southern Africa. As a teenager in the late 1990’s, she recalls a scary time when people were dying from AIDS. Safe messages were everywhere. Then the family moved to Australia, but there were no billboards, no TV adverts, no news of HIV and she assumed it was safe here. Batsirai’s revealing story highlights the importance of continuing to have public discussions of HIV among all our communities to encourage awareness, testing, and as a challenge to the myths that underpin stigma.https://positivewomen.org.au/tell-the-story/podcast TRANSCRIPT / SHOW NOTESBATSIRAI Story Heather EllisHi, I'm Heather Ellis your host on our stories ending HIV stigma, a podcast for women living with HIV, where we share our stories of our diverse lives and challenge the myths and stereotypes that feed HIV stigma. Our Stories is part of the women in HIV Tell The Story project made possible by Gilead Sciences and produced by Positive Women Victoria in Australia.Batsirai has been living with HIV for 13 years. Her story begins in southern Africa as a teenager in the late 1990s. Batsirai recalls a scary time growing up in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. People were getting sick and dying from AIDS, safe messages were everywhere. So when she finished high school and went to university, everyone either use condoms or abstain from . Then her parents moved the family to Australia, but there were no billboards. No TV adverts, no news of HIV, and she assumed it was safe here. Welcome Batsirai. Batsirai Hi, everyone. Heather EllisIt sounds like you had a very exciting life traveling around those countries in southern Africa. Why were your family living in so many countries? Batsirai Well, I think part of it is because my parents, they are both Africans, but they come from two different countries. So in Africa, there are so many countries in different cultures, different languages. So I think my parents wanted me to embrace both cultures. So they were African but Africans but very different. I was born in Zimbabwe, but I was raised in Namibia, which is another country, so to be part of different cultures in that family. We just used to move around on school holidays. So that was quite important part of who I am. I've acquired three different languages, and it's always stuck with me. So yeah, it was pretty amazing time when I think back. Heather EllisWhat was it like as a teenager in Africa at this time when there were so many messages about HIV on the billboards, in the news. What did you and your friends talk about around HIV? How scary was it? What was it like? BatsiraiIt was very scary because even in educations classes in high school, they always told us about HIV. It was being discussed. And we're told, because I went to a Catholic school in high school. So obviously the Catholic schools and churches they already have their own values around . So they're even reinforcing the abstinence because of HIV. And then they call it as it is and the musicians back in Africa they were singing about HIV. They spoke about AIDS because people were dying. So there were messages in songs, messages at school, messages everywhere. Even with your parents because we had aunts and uncles who were dying. I think I had like three close relatives for my mom and dad who died because of AIDS-related illness. So it was very close to home. It was just very real. Yeah, no, no one wanted to get it. So in high school people were afraid we never engage in at all. Yeah, we were scared. Heather EllisIt's so different than what it is here in Australia where you would be very hard pressed to find anyone who has been impacted by HIV by having a family member die from from AIDS. And back then HIV was very much a death sentence. It was before effective HIV medications were discovered, which was in 1996. So you had this health education at school. How did your parents talk to you about education as a teenager? Batsirai Well, my parents Well, they also reinforce the message of abstinence, because I think now it has now driven by HIV, just to say, don't do it because of that. Whereas initially back in, you know, years before, it had become a big thing. They were told to abstain, so you wouldn't get pregnant, because those messages are still even here, right. And access to contraception wasn't that easy in Africa, so you're told to abstain because of that. So now the message with parents was just ‘you don't do it’. And that's where it ends, your sexuality wasn't talked about. So it was just driven by the HIV/AIDS message, don't do it. Otherwise, you will die. You know, so there were all these stigma kind of related messages as well attached to it. So I remember when an aunt of mine wasn't well and she came to stay with us. They had to hide her. So people wouldn't see that she had an AIDS-related illness. And this was my mother’s sister. So yeah, it was just pretty real. Heather EllisYea