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Siyayinqoba Beat It! 2004 Episode 6 –

Teachers beat HIV

In this episode the Siyayinqoba Beat It! support group learnt that there are quite a few educators who find it difficult to disclose their HIV status’ at work or at home. So the team went to Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape to meet Nomachule Tayabi who shared her difficulties as an HIV positive educator. The support group was then joined by Dr David Mbetse, a SADTU HIV/AIDS officer, who encouraged educators to be open about their HIV positive status.

Jason Wessenaar: Dumela, {SeSetho} [Hello,] my name is Jason. Welcome to the Siyayinqoba Beat It! Support Group, the programme for everyone infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. Siyayinqoba means we can beat it. Each week I get together people living with HIV and AIDS to talk about issues that affect our lives. Siyayinqoba is for you if you are HIV positive or have a partner, family member, a friend or a colleague who’s HIV positive. Many educators who are HIV positive find it very difficult to disclose they are HIV positive. Learners are losing their educators, and this is undermining their education. The Siyayinqoba Team went to Cofimvaba in the Eastern Cape, where we met Nomachule Tayabi who has inspiring story to tell.

Teachers and HIV

Cofimvaba, Eastern Cape

Nomachule Tayabi: I started teaching in 1989, I was still very young at that time. In 1998 I got sick. I started to be weak, got tired sometimes. I was having some joint pains, I lost appetite, I had chronic diarrhoea, vomiting too. My weight was 38 from 78. Then I went to the doctor, local doctor in Cofimvaba, and he asked me whether I wanted to test the blood for HIV, and I said yes. The test was positive. I had suddenly to stop teaching, because I couldn’t do anything. I was dying, really.

Phillips Asive: Ndizothetha ngo-miss wam onentsholongwana yeHIV and AIDS. Undititshe kwa-standard two, uye wagula. Uqale umnka aph’eskolweni ngo-2000. Ukumka kwakhe kuye kwabuhlungu kuthi kuba ebesinceda. Naxa kukho imidlalo es’kolweni besijinyiswa nguye. {IsiXhosa} [I’m going to talk about my teacher who has HIV and AIDS. She was my teacher in standard two. She fell ill and left the school in 2000. When she left, it was painful for us because she used to help us with sport and with gym.]

Nomachule Tayabi: I was very, very, very, very scared.

Lindiwe Gamata (Teacher): Xa sifikayo pha safika embi kakhulu, sele ephele kakhulu. {IsiXhosa} [She was so sick and so thin.]

Nomachule Tayabi: I didn’t want to tell anyone about my HIV status.

Lindiwe Gamata: Naxa simjongile wayengathembisi noba agaze aphile uNomachule. {IsiXhosa} [Looking at her, we lost hope that she’d become healthy again.]

Nomachule Tayabi: My sister arrived in December 2000 and took me to Cape Town.

Lindiwe Gamata: Wathi ke utishala ngalo mini siye kuye uyamnka into yokuba makhe athathe i-leave, akhe ahambe nosisi wakhe abhek’ekapa. Mhlawumbi uyoze alufumane uncedo. {IsiXhosa} [The principal said when we visited her that she must take her leave and go with her sister to Cape Town. Maybe she would get help.]

Nomachule Tayabi: That time my CD4 count was very, very low. It was only 2 and the viral load was 800 000.

Lindiwe Gamata: Into esiyifunayo sifuna abuye uNomachule, abantwana bayasokola aph’esikolweni. Kwakunzima i-class yakhe ingenamntu, zange kubekho umntu ongenayo endaweni kaNomachule. {IsiXhosa} [All we wanted was for Nomachule to return to school. The children were suffering at school and it was difficult. There was no-one to take her place and teach the class.]

Nomachule Tayabi: I started ARVs on August 2001, I didn’t have any side-effects, I had only a rash on the arms, and I went to the clinic, it was treated. I became stronger and stronger a little bit, I started eating a little bit, and, um, after a year I began to gain weight again. I found that this treatment is working. So I had decided to come back to school and teach the children. That’s what I’m doing right now.

Phillips Asive: Siyavuya ephinde wabuya ephila and uyathetha ngesisifo anaso, akhonto ayifihlayo. {IsiXhosa} [We’re happy that she’s back and that she’s healthy. And she talks about HIV and AIDS. She hides nothing.]

Nomachule Tayabi: I feel that I had to speak out. The people are dying here and they need this treatment and they know nothing about HIV. I have decided to learn everything about HIV, and come back to educate them about this. That is what I’m doing now, here.

Support group

Prudence Mabele: It’s very important to disclose, and it starts within your own family. Look at her when she was feeling so ill, they were there to support her. And not only that, they managed to call her sister in Cape Town, so that her sister can take her to Cape Town and that’s how she got help.

Lihle Dlamini: Abanye oothisha abangafuni u-disclosa … [Some teachers do not want to disclose] because they get discriminated from the amanye ama-educators … amanye ama-principals… [educators in school, and principals….] Years ago, we heard of a teacher who was chased away from school just because she disclosed her status. But, also, it’s the parents of children who attend these schools, and especially lower primary schools, ama-parents ayasaba ukuthi ok lothisha uzofundisa ingane yam, uzoshaya ingane yam, uzoyithelela nge-HIV and AIDS and kufaneke ukuthi ama-parents nawo afundiseke nge-HIV/AIDS. [these parents are afraid that HIV positive teachers will teach their children and maybe hit them and in the process infect them with HIV and AIDS. Parents should also be taught about HIV and AIDS.] HIV/AIDS is here, and it is killing people, but you don’t have to discriminate and stigmatise. A person who is HIV positive… only ukuthi umnikeze uthando, u-understende ukuthi lo ngumuntu … [you must give them love and understand that this person is still human] {IsiZulu}

Jason Wessenaar: Is it always advisable to encourage people to disclose their HIV status?

Anthony Fernandes: That’s why we have to be careful to say: “Disclose, disclose, disclose.” You have to make sure your platform you’re gonna disclose to is stable, and solid. You start of with somebody you can really, really trust. You have to tell people why this is so important; you have to take that burden. I remember when I first came out it was like, tell as many people as possible, and that was a defense system for me. You tell as many people that you’re HIV positive, therefore they can’t ask you questions and they can’t say: “Aw, what’s wrong with you?” They know.

Busisiwe Maqungo: For instance, in cases where… abantwana u-HIV positive… [children are HIV positive,] then the mother decides to disclose to the class teacher, then Abanye abazali abafuni nova uba abantwana babo mabafunde apha… kuphume bona okanye kuphume abantwana babo. … besinayo indawo ebonisa uba bona baye bathini ke because ii-students zona bezi-supportive nootishala. [other parents immediately want to take their children out or that HIV child must be the one to go. I so wish we had shown the reaction of the parents, what their reaction was; especially the students and teachers were so supportive.] I’m just worried about the reaction of the parents. {IsiXhosa}

Jason Wessenaar: I’m worried more about the learners themselves. Just imagine how they suffered because she had to go to another town, and there was no other teacher filling in that space. The performance of those students probably went down because there was nobody to fill in that space. And you can imagine how many teachers are going to do that, who are not having access to ARVs or not even disclosing to their families. I mean she was lucky per se, for someone who was from a small town to have had a sister who lives in a big town, to say: “Come to a place that has resources, to get help.” Had she not had those kind of resources and a person like that, she probably would have died. And what would have happened to those kids?

Vuyani Jacobs: That’s why we have to work out, making sure teachers don’t die of HIV, that teachers live with it.

Busisiwe Maqungo: But only the ARVs are going to make that possible.

Jason Wessenaar: They are an answer, yes, but they shouldn’t be the reason there is a safe space for people to…, you know. I’m not on ARVs but I don’t think I need ARVs to take the courage to disclose, to feel like a work environment is safe enough for me to do that.

Busisiwe Maqungo: Nomachule would have come out about her HIV status, Nomachule would have gone back to teach again without ARVs?

Vuyani Jacobs: It’s not ARVs, ARVs have played a role, but it’s not ARVs, the overall support based education and support structures, she felt a bit comfortable in that made her do that.

Busisiwe Maqungo: No. It happened after ARVs. Because when she came after MSF, I think she got into ARVs immediately because her CD4 count was only 2, Kwi-case kaNomachule… {IsiXhosa} [in Nomachule’s case.]

Jason Wessenaar: Re sa ya papatsong. [We are going to a break] [Sesotho] Stay tuned.

Jason Wessenaar: Welcome back to Siyayinqoba Support Group, the programme for everyone infected and affected by AIDS. We are visiting Nomachule Tayabi in Cofimvaba to talk about the challenges of being HIV positive and going back to work.

Teachers and HIV

Cofimvada, Eastern Cape

Nomachule Tayabi: Combination, it is Combivir, … kudityaniswe i-AZT ne-3TC zadityaniswa zabayipilisi eyi-1, ngaphambili zazikade zahlukene. i-Nevirapine, niqhel’uva ngayo eray’dweni nasezithivini. Zombhini ke ezipilisi zinqanda le-HIV ingahambeli ndawo. Le-treatment not that iyayinyanga i-HIV but iyayithomalisa de ingabonakali egazini. Mandisele i-Nevirapine yam. Ndizihambile ke ii-workshops ndabona kuyathethwa maan ngabantu, kutheni ndisoyika then ethubeni kengoku, ndaziva… ndingakwazi ukuthetha phandle so that abantu bayazi uba le-treatment iyasebenza. Sadibana ke neetishala zam, ndadiscloza ezitishaleni, ndazixelela ukuthi ndi-HIV positive. Siyadibana singotishala, si-educatane. {IsiXhosa} [they combined AZT and 3TC to make one pill. Previously, they were separate pills. Nevirapine; I usually heard about it on radio and TV. So these two pills prevent HIV from spreading. This treatment does not cure HIV, but it slows it down so you can’t see it in the blood. I must drink my Nevirapine. I went to the workshops and I heard people speak about HIV, and I thought, why am I scared? As time went out, I saw that I was ready. I was ready to speak out, so people can see that the treatment works. I met with my fellow teachers and disclose to them, that I’m HIV positive. We get together as teachers and educate each other.]

Young woman: My question is, I want to disclose, but I have that fear that I’m not going to be welcomed in the community by my friends. Who are the people who can help me?

Nomachule Tayabi: In your family, there are people that you trust most. You are going to choose one, … kengoku udiscloze ulomntu uyi-1, yena omaziyo uba akekho omnye umntu azomxelela…{IsiXhosa} [and disclose to that person: a person who won’t talk about your status to anyone else] He or she won’t tell not ever a person about your status.

Another woman in the group: Sicela ukwazi i-symptoms zomntu o-HIV positive uba zeziphi na? {IsiXhosa} [What are the symptoms of someone with HIV?]

Another woman participant: I think eyona nto ezawupruva uba u-HIV positive after i-illnesses ezininzi nezigulo ezininzi ezinje nge-pneumonia, nee-TB ne-diarrhoea, [the only thing which will prove that you are HIV positive after you get many illnesses such as pneumonia, TB or diarrhoea,] the only thing that will prove it is the blood test. So ungaqiniseka kengoku after wenze i-blood test. [So, you’ll be sure that you are HIV positive after you’ve done the blood test.] {IsiXhosa}

Another woman participant: Ndicela ubuza kengoku uba ingalimitwa kanjani lento yoba uthathwe ngabantu uba unale HIV positive? [I’d like to know how we are going to limit discrimination against people who are HIV positive? {IsiXhosa}

Male teacher: Ndizothi i-education iyafuneka kuqala kulonto leyo. If singa-educatwa sinjalo kulendawo sikuyo ngoba i-AIDS sisifo esifana nesiphi isifo. [I would say that education is needed on this thing. We should be educated so that we realise that this AIDS is just like other diseases.] {IsiXhosa}

Nomachule Tayabi: Mhlawumbi nalaph’efemelini makabekhona umntu noba uyi-1 onomxelela, o-close kuwe. Umxelele uba sisi okanye brother wam okanye mama, lomntu umqondayo uba angangayithethi lento angayigcina de wena ube-ready ukuyithetha kwi-public. {IsiXhosa} [Perhaps, in your family, there’s someone close to you who you can tell, maybe your sister or your brother or your mother. Someone you think is not going to talk about this to other people until you are ready to talk about it in public.]

Support Group

Lihle Dlamini: In the Kuma-support groups thina esihamba kuwo…[support group we attend] you hardly ever find any teachers, because Bayasaba… [they are afraid] of discrimination by parents and ama-student… [students.] Teachers should have their own support group for those infected and affected by HIV. {IsiZulu}

Jason Wessenaar: What are the advantages for teachers who disclose their HIV status?

Anthony Fernandes: Teachers must make their voice heard, and if they’re HIV positive even more so. This thing about feeling shameful, and it’s embarrassing, and it’s dirty that I got this, I’m sorry I’m not going to apologise to anybody. I’ve got it, end of story.

Busisiwe Maqungo: [Now that I’m out about my HIV status … ikhona nje i-change, even if incinci… [there is a change.] You’ll be able to see who are your friends … ngobani abengezo friends’ zakho, abebepretenda … [who are not your friends; those who were pretending.] That is when you are going to differentiate] {IsiXhosa}

Anthony Fernandes: Once you come out, you can never go back in. And I think that’s a fearful thing for teachers. Not only are they telling the kids, there is this element of human nature when people are going to discriminate and they think, “Oh damn, I shouldn’t have said, I shouldn’t have come out. Maybe I won’t have the support.”

Busisiwe Maqungo: But if you come and stand in front of them, and tell them: “Children, this is the situation”, they are going to support you because you did it in a very correct way. They didn’t go out and find out from other people, “Did you know u-miss bani une-AIDS?” [Ms Whoever has AIDS?] Now they start associating AIDS with ubu-slut [being slutty] because they are children. {IsiXhosa}

Anthony Fernandes: Where do teachers check in their mind, before they come out to say do I have the support? That teacher we saw on the insert was definitely sure that the people in her community and in her workspace would give her the right support. I think a lot of teachers don’t have that kind of comfort.

Busisiwe Maqungo: But Anthony, if you want to disclose you know that there are other things involved. You look at those things then you see that do I still go on with this, do I go back? Uyayi-understanda lonto leyo ne? {IsiXhosa} [Do you understand?]

Anthony Fernandes: I do, that’s why there is so few teachers coming out and saying: “I’m HIV positive.”

Busisiwe Maqungo: As role models they should start doing that.

Prudence Mabele: Guys, guys, guys. We have put ourselves in the forefront, and sometimes I think I could have just switched a little bit and not disclosed, you know? So, but I’m out, so I’m too late, but I’m just saying that sometimes there are things that people have, that are beyond their control. But at least when I say, disclose, there are two levels. You have a friend, you have a family. Maybe even at your workplace you have heard about that programme about the workplace. If the environment is not conducive enough for you to feel comfortable, keep it! Keep it to yourself! But talk to someone, go to a psychologist, do something, I mean it’s your choice. It’s a choice that you must make.

Lihle Dlamini: It took me five seconds to disclose my status. The minute I found out, I gave it to my cousin who was with me in hospital, because I was so angry, and I just told that nurse: “I’m here to fetch my HIV results” and she just said Ufuna ama-results wakho… nanka… [“You want your results, here they are”,] and she stood up and walked out of the room. I had to open my results myself, I had to look. My cousin came in and said: “What happened?” I said: “I’m HIV positive.” When I got home they asked me: “How did it go?” because they knew I was going to hospital, I had told them. And even if I was so very sick that they had tried to convince me: “You must wait until you get better”, but I did go there because I wanted to find out what’s wrong with me. The moment I walked in the room, I just took my results and placed them on the table and said: “Guys, I’m HIV positive.” And I gained so much support, not only from my family, from my neighbours as well. Nasecaweni beza esibhedlele… [At church they even came to see me when I was in hospital.] The first time I went back to church, I went and stood in front of the church and said: “Guys, you mustn’t ask each other ebephethwe yini es’bhedlele [what was wrong with me; what I was in hospital?”] I told them: “I’m HIV positive, and I want you to know, I’m HIV positive.” {IsiZulu}

Anthony Fernandes: Disclosure is up to you, there is no bloody law that says you have to disclose. I saw it makes it easier, but it’s still your personal choice, and there’s a lot of regrets I have for disclosing early. I really do.

Lihle Dlamini: I have a younger sister, I have two younger brothers, and I want them to know that their sister is HIV positive, and I don’t want them to get into the same problem that I am in. I want children in my community to know HIV is there.

Vuyani Jacobs: When we encourage women to be open about their HIV statuses is during the MTCT programme, and the MTCT political fight within South Africa. It was the right thing at the right time because around the world there was no believe that in Khayelitsha, a terrible situation like in Khayelitsha that women can actually take AZT in a few weeks, and actually get their babies HIV negative. It was a big situation and a big thing amongst big pharmaceutical industries and amongst the rich countries: “Why would you give it to Africans? They can’t even tell the time.” People who are actually vulnerable, as we can say that poor people should actually open up and say: “We’re using ARVs, and we are living with HIV, and these are the issues.”

Lihle Dlamini: I promise you guys, through …ngokudicloza kwami … abakwazi ukuthi basizakale. Abanye bebegula bengazi ukuthi baphathwe yini…[my disclosure a lot of people were helped. Some were sick and did not know what was going on.] They had the courage to baye es’bhedlele [go to the hospital] and get tested. After that they would come to me and tell me: “I found out that I’m also HIV positive. What can I do to be as strong as you?” And I would tell them: “Take your time to disclose. If you don’t want to disclose, just keep quiet. You can only tell me and I will keep it to myself, I won’t tell another person.” {IsiZulu}

Busisiwe Maqungo: I say to people like that, “You don’t need to talk about it. When you feel you have a reason to do it, do it.”

John Vollenhoven: Wie van julle weet van iemand in die parliament wat al op gestaan het, wat daar sit? Wat opgestaan het, “hier is ek, en ek lewe met HIV.” Dit is goed wat ons nodig het in ons gemeenskap maar niemand nie. Hulle is te bang om op te staan. Hoekom? {Afrikaans} [Who of you know of anyone in parliament who has disclosed? Who has stood up and said, ‘Here I am, I’m living with HIV’. This is what is needed in our communities and no one is willing to disclose. Why?]

Jason Wessenaar: When we come back we talk to Dr David Mbetse, the National HIV/AIDS Co-ordinator of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU). Stay with us.

Jason Wessenaar: Welcome back to the Siyayinqoba Support Group and we welcome Dr David. Dr David is the National HIV/AIDS Co-ordinator of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union, that is SADTU.

Prudence Mabele: Tell us about the programme you’ve had, the one that is community-based and also school-based.

Dr David Mbetse (National HIV/AIDS Co-ordinator of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union): There was this workshop which was organised by Health System Development Unit, based in Zwalo Hospital at Acono. They trained us on life-skills education, HIV and AIDS, long time ago in 1994, even this programme came to the Department of Education. And mainly I was interested in STIs, HIV and AIDS because I thought I must know something about them. And after the workshop, because it was named Sexuality Education Workshop, when I came back to school to report to the principal, I felt very embarrassed. He said: “How are you going to practice it? Because ‘sexuality education’ was labelled as ‘sex education’, because it was those times when people would never even disclose or talk about these issues. But I never lost hope. Once said: “If you reach a robot and it’s red, do not make a u-turn because it will soon turn green.” It happened that I shared that information in the class. They were so interested in this issue because I had that blue book, Diagnosis for Sexually Transmitted Diseases in South Africa. I used that book as my learning material. During break, more boys came into the staffroom, then they asked question: “Sir, would you please explain to us?” That’s why I thought now it mean it made an impact in the classroom. Now I discovered that they had sexually transmitted infections and out of ten who were sexually active, six were having one kind of sexually transmitted infection. And what should I do as a teacher? There was nothing because I was a teacher, not a medical doctor. Then what came to my mind, I had to refer them to the hospital. At the hospital they returned them, they said: “Who is this one who’s referring you? What does he know about STIs?” Then I went to the hospital and I said: “It doesn’t matter who am I, but what matters is to deal with the problem that you see, then we’ll talk later.” And then from there we started to form a relationship with the health sectors. That’s how we formed the Bushbuckridge Health and Special Services Consortium, a group of stakeholders because I thought I cannot deal with that thing alone.

Jason Wessenaar: I’m looking for one, two, three this is what you can do as teachers to create an environment that’s safe and conducive for other educators who are HIV positive to be open about their status.

Dr David Mbetse: When it comes to teachers, sharing information, we saw the video, what did the teacher do? Shared to the fellow colleagues. Not that all teachers at that school accepted her at the go, we don’t know about that.

Vuyani Jacobs: COSATU is saying: “My comrade with HIV is still my comrade”, I think we must say that every SADTU member is an AIDS counsellor, is an AIDS activist.

Dr David Mbetse: That’s why if we can reach to that point, then we have overcome.

Jason Wessenaar: Are you working towards that point though?

Dr David Mbetse: Yes we are. We are starting, but we are working towards that, that every member of SADTU should be an HIV/AIDS counsellor, should be doing something, so teachers can play a very, very crucial role when it comes to HIV and AIDS, and I hope it’s only to check whether they are empowered with the knowledge, because they might not be.

Jason Wessenaar: Siyabulela Doctor David Mbetse, the Support Group nababukeli ekhaya. {IsiZulu} Thank you Dr. Mansoor, the Support Group and the views at home.Things we should remember are:

1. Schools need to create a supportive environment for HIV positive teachers.
2. Schools need to keep teachers with HIV and AIDS at their posts.
3. HIV positive teachers need access to ARVs.

We hope you have enjoyed the show and are feeling the Siyayinqoba Spirit, that together we can Beat It! If you have any comments for Dr Nombulelo or suggestions about the show, please contact us on the numbers on your screen right now. Ho fihlela bekeng e tlang {Sesotho} [Join us again next week] in the Siyayinqoba Beat It! Support Group. Stay healthy, stay positive.

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