Background
Methods
Participant number | Gender | Age | Education | Employment |
---|---|---|---|---|
NGO worker interview participants | ||||
1 | Male | Mid-30’s | Beyond High School | Youth NGO Staff Member |
2 | Male | Late 20’s | Beyond High School | Youth NGO Staff Member |
3 | Female | Mid-20’s | Beyond High School | Youth NGO Staff Member |
4 | Female | Late 20’s | Beyond High School | Women’s NGO Staff Member |
5 | Female | Early 30’s | Beyond High School | Women’s NGO Staff Member |
6 | Female | Mid 20’s | Beyond High School | Women’s NGO Staff Member |
7 | Male | Early 30’s | Beyond High School | MSM NGO Staff Member |
8 | Male | Early 30’s | High School | MSM NGO Staff Member |
9 | Male | Late 20’s | Beyond High School | MSM NGO Staff Member |
10 | Female | Early 30’s | Beyond High School | MSM NGO Staff Member |
Youth FGD participants | ||||
1 | Female | Early 20’s | Beyond High School | Student |
2 | Male | Early 20’s | High School | Unemployed |
3 | Female | Early 20’s | High School | Unemployed |
4 | Male | Early 20’s | Beyond High School | Employed |
5 | Male | Late Teens | High School | Unemployed |
6 | Female | Early 20’s | High School | Student |
7 | Male | Early 20’s | Beyond High School | Employed |
8 | Female | Late Teens | High School | Student |
Women’s FGD participants | ||||
1 | Female | Early 30’s | High School | Employed |
2 | Female | Late 20’s | Beyond High School | Employed |
3 | Female | Late 30’s | Elementary | Unemployed |
4 | Female | Early 30’s | Beyond High School | Employed |
5 | Female | Early 30’s | High School | Unemployed |
6 | Female | Early 20’s | Elementary | Unemployed |
7 | Female | Mid-20’s | High School | Employed |
8 | Female | Early 20’s | Elementary | Unemployed |
MSM FGD participants | ||||
1 | Male | Mid-30’s | Beyond High School | Employed |
2 | Male | Early 20’s | High School | Employed |
3 | Male | Early 30’s | Beyond High School | Employed |
4 | Male | Late 20’s | High School | Employed |
5 | Male | Mid-20’s | Elementary | Unemployed |
6 | Male | Mid-20’s | High School | Employed |
7 | Male | Late Teens | High School | Employed |
Respondent group | Global theme | Organizing theme | Basic themes |
---|---|---|---|
NGO Workers | NGO Workers’ Positive Representations of the Human Rights Approach | Effective Strategy for HIV Prevention | • Necessary for addressing the complex drivers of the HIV epidemic |
• Raises awareness about discrimination and inequality | |||
Means of accessing resources | • Way of getting support and funds from donors | ||
NGO Workers’ Negative Representations of the Human Rights Approach | Conflicts with Cultural and Religious Values | • Lack of flexibility in implementation due to need to conform to donor agency agendas | |
• Messages viewed as encouraging disrespect of parents and elders | |||
Structural Limitations to Effectiveness | • Weak and ineffective legal system | ||
Youth | Youth’s Positive Representations of the Human Rights Approach | Engaging Activities Used to Disseminate Messages | • Interesting and enjoyable concerts, dramas, and other events |
• Opportunities to gain information on HIV and sexual health | |||
Participatory in Nature | • Opportunities to interact and discuss issues with other youth | ||
• Consideration for youth’s opinions, rather than top-down behavioral proscriptions from “experts” | |||
Youth’s Negative Representations of the Human Rights Approach | Conflict with Cultural and Religious Values | • Messages viewed as encouraging disrespect of parents and elders | |
• Human rights as an “un-Zambian” Western concept | |||
Failure to Address Youth’s Priorities and Day-to-Day Realities | • Dependence on family structures for material support and survival | ||
• Lack of job and education opportunities | |||
• Poverty and unemployment as risk factors for HIV | |||
Women | Women’s Positive Representations of the Human Rights Approach | Basis for Challenging Oppression and Mistreatment | • Opportunities to discuss previously taboo topics regarding harmful traditional practices |
• Grounds for objecting to harmful sexual practices | |||
• Protection from domestic violence and abuse | |||
Women’s Negative Representations of the Human Rights Approach | Conflict with Cultural and Religious Values | • Messages viewed as encouraging women to defy their husbands and disrupt marital harmony | |
• Human rights as an “un-Zambian” Western concept | |||
Failure to Address Women’s Priorities and Day-to-Day Realities | • Dependence on husband for material support and survival | ||
• Disconnect with unmarried human rights champions | |||
• Poverty and unemployment as risk factors for HIV | |||
Men-Who-Have-Sex-With-Men (MSM) | MSM’s Positive Representations of the Human Rights Approach | Promoting Urgently Needed Change | • Current environment of extreme discrimination and lack of rights |
• Traditional religious and cultural values that stigmatize homosexuality | |||
Platform for Challenging Discrimination | • Human rights approach used to promote equality | ||
• Human rights approach used to expose abuses | |||
Effective Community Mobilization | • Bringing together the MSM community to advocate for rights | ||
• Creation of support networks and safe spaces | |||
MSM’s Negative Representations of the Human Rights Approach | Challenges Limiting Effectiveness | • Weak legal system incapable of defending rights | |
• Inadequate funding | |||
• Implementation of approach done in a way that is too confrontational with traditional cultural and religious values |
Results
NGO workers
“After working in the area of advocacy for a long time, giving people information about HIV, I realized that there was a missing link. This is because no matter how much information you dish out to people it cannot help them if they cannot enjoy their basic human rights. The issue of rights became so clear to me as one of the major impediments in the process of eradicating HIV among young people in Zambia… There are a lot of traditional practices that are performed on young people against their wishes just to fulfill tradition and our role has been to go there and challenge these practices… Young people are abused sexually and merely giving them information about HIV without tackling the abuses of their rights is counterproductive.”-Interview participant 3, female, mid-20’s, staff member at an NGO working with youth
“We have really achieved a great deal of success… We have managed to raise awareness on the silences patterning MSM, we have managed to highlight the lack of legal support for people with different sexual orientation. We have raised the discussions and it is only a matter of time that people will start seeing our results. Of course it is not that easy but we have begun challenging these complexities that hinder people from expressing their sexuality freely.”-Interview participant 7, male, early 30’s, staff member at an NGO working with MSM
“We work in line with what most funders suggest in our quest to reduce HIV… International funders have prioritized the use of this approach in an effort to push their agendas. These days without a human rights approach you will not access funding. It is all about funding… That is why you find most NGOs these days are working on human rights issues. Although I have found the approach to tackle human rights useful, sometimes I just wish organizations had more flexibility in the manner in which they use the money. Because we, the NGOs on the ground, [are the ones] who know our people better. So sometimes you might want to do things in a different way but funders do not like that… We need to have more say in how we run our programs… We Zambian NGOs know our people more, we know our culture more. So in that sense, it defies all logic to rely on western people to map out our interventional programs without even having a clue of how the environment is.”-Interview participant 4, female, late 20’s, staff member at an NGO working with women
“While this approach seems appealing, it invokes retaliation from elders and leaders in the communities. It is a situation where it seems their authority is being challenged. It can’t work like this you know. Elders in society are very instrumental in the process of change but when they feel their authority is being challenged they will respond by frustrating your efforts and your entire project ultimately fails. So sometimes we actually prefer having a more involving approach that does not result in contestation but some funders do not see this… So it is a struggle when are find ourselves at such dead ends. We are the ones who need the funding so we just have to switch our approach to suit the funders because without their money we cannot do much.”-Interview participant 2, male, late 20’s, staff member at an NGO working with youth
“It has been extremely difficult to overcome the challenge of insufficient legal framework… The institutions in this country are also very weak… We sometimes feel we have no one in this country to rely on. They all just talk the talk and never walk the walk. The politicians always talk about how important it is to promote human rights but that is where it ends, it’s all lip service.”-Interview participant 8, male, early 30’s, staff member at an NGO working with MSM
Youth
“The youth friendly corner in Kanyama [hospital] has been helpful for me, for example we go there to engage with other young people who are facing similar things like me, get information about how to help fellow young people who have been sexually abused.”-Youth FGD participant 5, Male, late teens, unemployed
“In the ABC people would just come and command us to abstain. But these guys I feel involve us a bit more… At least I can say that we participate in activities and not just going there to listen to experts say what they have to say and we on the other hand are just supposed to follow whatever has been said by the so called experts.”-Youth FGD participant 4, male, early 20’s, employed
“They have a lot of these activities that are just so interesting and I go there to take part… It is always an awesome experience to interact with youths from different backgrounds… I contribute whenever possible and especially if I agree with the message being preached… Because some of the messages are just not conducive for a person like me if you know what I mean. You know they in some ways encourage young people to disobey their parents. I find that unbearable… We have all been brought up to respect our fathers and mothers. But their activities sometimes seem to encourage the very opposite. So when they begin talking about such things I just shut off and stop listening. But don’t get me wrong, there are some times when they really talk about very helpful things about HIV. But in general when they begin their talks on disrespecting parents people just feel uncomfortable you know. It is not part of us, it is not in us. It is unZambian.”-Youth FGD participant 1, female, early 20’s, student
We learn from the scriptures that anyone who is older than you deserves to be respected. Now, this idea of challenging them is contradicting the spirit of our religion… Given a choice to choose between rights and my God, I will definitely choose my God any day any time…-Youth FGD participant 3, Female, early 20’s, unemployed
We need to be vigilant to preserve what is ours. This is not in our culture. And we have to be very candid about that. This is a western phenomenon. We have certain cultural codes that we live by. These are being threatened by these same human rights we are talking about. They are making us fight against the people who feed us, take care of us and stuff like that. Everything I have on me has been provided by my parents and it is an abomination to stand against them in the name of rights. Rights that are not even tangible. You cannot eat rights when your father chases you away from his home, can you? These youths from [the NGO] have jobs and have an income, yet they expect me to stand against my father. Where will I go when he kicks me out of the house? Our positions are different. Impossible!-Youth FGD participant 7, male, early 20’s, employed
“Most of these youths working for YVZ have jobs, they have gone to school. So they can manage to stand on their own. But what about me who has not been to college, has no job and is only surviving because my father is keeping me. What should I do? Disobey my father? …We cannot be following what they say when we have different situations in life. We are poor, they are richer.”-Youth FGD participant 6, female, early 20’s, student
“I think it is more important to find jobs before spending most of our time discussing these issues…Why not talk about the many important challenges that we face? Like lack of education, jobs and such things… I think the number one problem is poverty and not really rights.”-Youth FGD participant 3, female, early 20’s, unemployed
“Let us make sure that our people have food on the table, good access to health services before we can start talking more cosmetic issues like human rights… Just look at how young girls are selling their bodies so they can make some money. It is this that puts them at risk of contracting HIV. It is poverty, lack of education and jobs that send them to the streets to sleep with different men so they can have food on the table. This is more critical. Human rights cannot be talked about before poverty eradication.”-Youth FGD participant 2, male, early 20’s, unemployed
Women
“Today we have an opportunity to demand for better services for the women in the community because of [the NGO]… Look, we used to have a lot of men marrying off their daughters at a very young age, today they are scared to do that because [the NGO] will speak out and they can be arrested… We are free talking about sex matters and other issues which were previously considered to be taboo… We are freely discussing this because GA has provided a platform to do so… through this program women are free to complain about the use of herbs and rape by husbands. Kupyana (sexual-cleansing) has now become a thing of the past, women can refuse to under-go such practices”.-Women’s FGD participant 6, early 20’s, unemployed
“You have to realize that their activities have not been successful because they are conflicting with people’s views on culture and religion in the community… Let these people realize that women in Zambia have certain priorities and beliefs which they need to play by, without which they will be wasting their time. I am telling you. I have seen such things before. You cannot just go into some community and assume people there are dull and stupid and you are the only one who can make their situation better with your mzungu ideas.”-Women’s FGD participant 5, early 20’s, unemployed
“My parents always reminded me of how important preserving our culture is. You know our parents grew up during the colonial times so they more than anyone else understand the importance of preserving culture. These NGOs come in our communities and tell us that times have changed we need to adopt new ways, in short, they tell us to adopt mzungu culture. When growing up, a girl is taught on how to take care of family. Your husband is the most important person in your life as a woman. So whatever happens you need to ensure your husband is well served. Now, look at what these NGOs are telling us to do. They are telling us that we have the right to deny our husbands sex if we so wish. What kind of African woman does that? That is taboo. And these are the things that these people are telling us.”-Women’s FGD participant 3, mid-30’s, unemployed
“Look at all these women claiming to be champions of rights. Most of them are not even married. They have broken homes in short. So how do you expect them to really understand our issues as married women?”-Women’s FGD participant 1, early 30’s, employed
“Most of us have children that we need to take care of and by standing to fight against the man who provides for me and my kids just makes me look stupid. I think for me, what is important is to have peace in marriage, and I see this whole feminist talk as a threat to the peace in my marriage. I do not work, my husband has been taking care of me for 11 years, it is foolish for me to then walk up to him and start talking about my rights. It’s not even fair when you look at it you know. How does that even show any form of gratitude to someone who has seen you through all the difficulties.”-Women’s FGD participant 5, early 30’s, unemployed
“I sometimes feel there is a misunderstanding on the part of [the NGO] on what the real issues are. Because on gender based violence they have been constantly telling us how we need to report our husbands to the police from what they term as gender based violence so that our husbands can be arrested. I find this to be highly illogical. So we take the people taking care of us as well as our children to the police and then when they get imprisoned who will look after us? That’s how disorganized their message is. There is no regard for the women afterwards.” -Women’s FGD participant 7, mid-20’s, employed
“The society has so many problems and it is sometimes better to concentrate on poverty, unemployment among these women in the community [rather] than concentrating so much on rights which in my eyes are not the biggest problem. Look, we do not have proper running water in this place; electricity is a rare commodity for most of the people.” -Women’s FGD participant 2, late 20’s, employed
“I do realize the effects of HIV. But, if I stand up against my husband, he will chase me from his house, then I will become poor and what will I do to make ends meet? I will join those ladies who stand in the streets in the night to sell their bodies so that they can have food. This to me increases the chances of getting HIV more than having me tolerate a husband who once in a while slaps me. The real cause of high HIV rates in women is poverty. This is why we have so many young ladies selling their bodies as sex workers. This rights talk is very superficial. There are deep-rooted problems in this country which have subjected women to so much destitution and rights for me are last on the list. We need to be clear on that. But that is not to say that the message on rights is completely useless. I am just saying that it is being misapplied.” -Women’s FGD participant 1, early 30’s, employed
“It is time for us to fight HIV in a more logical way without adopting western cultural norms and in the process abandoning what is ours. We need indigenous solutions. Solutions that fit in our culture and religion. Without having such a strategy we will continue experimenting on mzungu strategies, in the process losing our identity as a people.”-Women’s FGD participant 3, mid-30’s, unemployed
MSM
“In this country we are still facing unnecessary rejection from society. People feel we are here to obliterate their culture, yet we are just living our lives in peace and harmony. It is them that look down on us, call us different names on the streets. They can’t even allow us in their churches yet they preach inclusiveness and love. There is just too much bigotry in this country.” -MSM FGD participant 4, late 20’s, employed
“There are still a lot of challenges that need to be addressed by especially the Government which has shown no support whatsoever because it is full of Christians and moralists who see us as being immoral in a way. I want to live in a country where I will receive equal treatment and will not be looked down upon as some kind of a deviant in society. I want my rights to be respected, even though some people do not agree with me. I am as human as they are, so why should my case be different?”-MSM FGD participant 7, late teens, employed
“I am sometimes skeptical about disclosing my sexuality at the clinic when I go because if I do, the nurse will look at me as a terrible sinner who needs no mercy. You know how religious these people are and anything that has to do with homosexuality is stench from hell.”-MSM FGD participant 2, early 20’s, employed
“I feel we have come a long way and these campaigns have been of great help. They have helped to expose some of our sufferings and though most people in this country do not yet agree with the message, slowly some hearts are being won. Rome was not built in one day, so slowly but surely, the message is sinking down. We should not be so naïve to expect 180 degrees turnaround in attitudes within 5 or 10 years. It will take a bit longer but it’s good that the discussion has started.”-MSM FGD participant 6, mid-20’s employed
“You can now see how intense campaigns for equal rights have taken center stage in our country. You couldn’t hear of such things back in the days.”-MSM FGD participant 7, late teens, employed
“Before [this NGO], we never used to have any form of support systems. But these days we come here if we feel lonely and mistreated and we can talk to people of like-mind. The offices here have provided comfort to most of us. That is why I spend a lot of time here. It is important in life to be with people who will understand you and treat you as a human being who deserves equal treatment and this is what this office does to me… There are avenues that you can benefit from if you feel you have been discriminated against. They have their own legal aid officers who can help you with some legal advice.”-MSM FGD participant 3, early 30’s, employed
“I feel Government does not offer much protection. Look at our systems, such as health and legal system. We do not have very strong legislation that protects people who identify themselves as gay or lesbian. The state has neglected us and I think they need to do more.”-MSM FGD participant 6, mid-20’s, employed
“[The NGO] is doing a lot of good work… but they face some challenges. There is lack of adequate financing, because I know that with more money, we could have wider coverage, even in rural areas where people are more conservative.”-MSM FGD participant 3, early 30’s, employed
“Sometimes I think the resistance is due to the approach we use. We seem to be pushing the idea on the faces of the people too hard. It’s like we are forcing them to accept our views you know, much like they are doing themselves, making us accept theirs. We need a different approach I think. You and me both know that people here are too religious and they love their culture; they think our acts are unZambian, and so, the more we force them to accept something they do not agree with in the first place just makes things worse. I feel this is not the time to force people to accept the rights of homosexuals. I feel we first need to construct a narrative that will make these people empathetic. Show them the other side of a story in a very humble way, so that they begin to see things not as an attempt to fight their culture and religion, but rather we need to appeal to their sense of compassion and empathy in order for them to really get on board. We cannot continue to use this approach in the manner that it is being used in kuBazungu (Western countries)”-MSM FGD participant 1, mid-30’s, employed